Ben de Haan, PhD

For most of his career, Ben has been bringing together leaders and policymakers in academia, child welfare, criminal justice systems, and related fields to make change and improve lives of vulnerable children, adults, and families.

Ben directed child welfare services for the State of Oregon and served there in a variety of leadership positions for nearly 30 years. He led the Oregon Department of Corrections for 9 years, directed four university-based research centers, and was the Managing Director of Casey Family Programs’ State Strategy Division where he focused on improving social service delivery systems across America. Ben was the founding president of the Oregon Children’s Trust Fund Foundation, a private endowment focused on preventing child maltreatment.

More recently, Ben directed Partners for our Children, a privately funded child welfare policy and research center at the University of Washington, Seattle. He is currently the Associate Dean for Social Service Innovation at the University of Washington School of Social Work. In this role, Ben leads the school’s public policy work and serves as the Director of the Washington Workforce Development Initiative, a partnership funded by the Ballmer Group which supports more than 500 graduate students across 17 Washington universities.

Governor Jay Inslee appointed Ben to the Department of Children Youth and Families Oversight Board in 2018. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Lewis and Clark College and a Ph.D. in social work and social research from Portland State University.