After two lengthy stints as acting director, Lora Connolly was formally appointed to the director’s job in April 2012.

Connolly, a Democrat from Elk Grove, worked as a consultant on aging and long-term care issues at the state Assembly’s Office of Research before coming to the Department of Health Care Services in 1993. She held multiple positions there, including communications coordinator, until 1997. She was the department’s chief of the Office of Long Term Care from 1997-2000 before joining the department’s parent, the Health and Human Services Agency, as assistant secretary of aging and long term care from 2000-2002.

Connolly moved to the Department of Aging in 2002 and was chief deputy director from then until her appointment by Governor Jerry Brown as director, with extended stints as acting director from 2004-2007 and 2011-2012.

Governor Brown Announces Appointments (Press release)

Coming Home Program National Advisory Committee (NCB Capital Impact)