Elizabeth “Liz” Darling, former president and CEO of the OneStar Foundation in Austin, Texas, died Nov. 12. Darling, 68, succumbed to ovarian cancer after a more than two-year battle with the disease.

OneStar Foundation was created to support the state of Texas by strengthening the nonprofit sector. She was appointed president and CEO in 2009. Darling served as the vice chairman of the Texas Department of Human Services, overseeing welfare-to-work programs under the 1996 welfare reform act.

Darling often shuttled between Texas and Washington, D.C. She was the founding director of the Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2001 during the administration of George W. Bush, who had been governor of Texas.

She later was appointed commissioner at the federal Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). ACYF had two bureaus under Darling’s leadership – the Children’s Bureau and the Family and Youth Services Bureau. In addition to her Senate-confirmed position in the administration of President Donald J. Trump, she was the acting associate commissioner at the Family and Youth Services Bureau within ACYF.

Prior to those responsibilities, she was deputy secretary at the Maryland Department of Human Resources. In that capacity she had oversight of childcare, child support, child welfare, domestic violence and family assistance programs, in addition to overseeing the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, food stamp and Medicaid programs.

Darling was selected by The NonProfit Times as one of the charitable sector’s NPT Power & Influence Top 50 in 2014, 2015 and 2016. “Politics meant nothing to her when it came to kids,” said Paul Clolery, vice president and editorial director of The NonProfit Times. “Children in need or in danger had no greater advocate than Liz. She was an effective administrator and simply a very kind and human being.”

She held a bachelor of science in education from Baylor University and was an adoptive mother, with three children and two grandchildren. A Celebration of Life will be held in Waco, Texas, the date not yet announced.

The post Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Darling, Kids’ Champion, Dies appeared first on The NonProfit Times.

Source From Non Profit Times