Crystal Collier Appointed Deputy Commissioner of DYS in Massachusetts

Crys­tal Col­lier, an alum­nus of the JDAI Applied Lead­er­ship Net­work (ALN), was recent­ly appoint­ed Deputy Com­mis­sion­er for Admin­is­tra­tion and Finance of the Mass­a­chu­setts Depart­ment of Youth Ser­vices. This is a pro­mo­tion from her for­mer posi­tion of Chief of Staff.

Col­lier joined DYS in 2008 with a back­ground in crim­i­nal jus­tice and child/​youth advo­ca­cy. She began her tenure with the Depart­ment as Direc­tor of Oper­a­tions in the Cen­tral Region, and has worked in a vari­ety of roles at chil­dren- and youth-ori­ent­ed agen­cies through­out her career, includ­ing Court Appoint­ed Spe­cial Advo­cates (CASA); the Ver­mont Children’s Forum; and, the Fam­i­ly Con­nec­tion Cen­ter for Vis­i­ta­tion. She began her career as an Assis­tant Dis­trict Attor­ney in Queens Coun­ty, New York.

An alum of the 2^nd ALN class (2010−2011), she cur­rent­ly serves as the chair of the nation­al Net­work Steer­ing Com­mit­tee. Col­lier states, ​“ALN was trans­for­ma­tive for me and my career. I learned new skills, increased my con­fi­dence and was inspired to be a result-dri­ven leader. I believe that the impact of ALN is vis­i­ble in the work being done by DYS, which I hope will result in bet­ter out­comes for youth and their families.”