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Juliana Wallace, director of Gov. Tina Kotek’s behavioral health initiative, has resigned less than a year after joining the governor’s team.
Wallace is returning to her previous employer, Central City Concern, the Portland social services provider. There, she will take the job of senior clinical director of behavioral health.
“It has been a journey to realize that my skills and impact lies with the people,” Wallace wrote in a July 16 resignation letter. “I am truly a sidewalk social worker and find my joy through creation, supporting, and dreaming a better system of care for everyone. While I can see how the government system has an opportunity to impact change and I believe that we had significant success in the past year, I found my purpose and strengths ultimately lie elsewhere.”
Wallace’s resignation is effective Sept. 13.
Emails Kotek’s office released earlier this year show that Wallace interviewed with first lady Aimee Kotek Wilson last year before getting hired and then had weekly check-ins with Kotek Wilson, in addition to joining the first lady in regular staff meetings. Based on interviews with staffers for previous governors, it is unusual for a policy adviser to an Oregon governor to communicate regularly on policy matters with the governor’s partner.
Kotek made reforming Oregon’s woeful system of providing mental health and addiction services a top priority after winning election in 2022. She included her wife in that work, hoping to draw on Kotek Wilson’s experience as a social worker and her lived experience with alcoholism and mental illness, both of which the first lady has discussed publicly.
But as WW and other media have reported, Kotek Wilson’s desire to be involved in policy and personnel matters created conflict with Kotek’s senior advisers, leading in March to the departures of chief of staff Andrea Cooper, special adviser Abby Tibbs, and deputy chief of staff Lindsey O’Brien. (Subsequently, Kotek’s communications director, An Do, and her deputy general counsel, Lindsey Burrows, also left the office. Although none of those who left has commented publicly, people familiar with the inner workings of governor’s office say all five left for reasons related to the first lady’s unusual role.)
Related: Co-Governor: Aimee Kotek Wilson Is Her Wife’s Top Adviser and Highest Priority.
Last month, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission dismissed complaints about Kotek Wilson’s work in the governor’s office after a contentious discussion among commissioners and staff. The agency took that step without interviewing any of the senior advisers who’d left.
Wallace came to Kotek’s office last August from Central City Concern in Portland, where she served as senior director of mental health. She’d previously worked at two other leading organizations in Portland: Outside In and the Unity Center for Behavioral Health. Professionals in the field applauded Wallace’s hiring, but Kotek’s staff warned the governor earlier this year that Wallace wasn’t getting clear direction and that the administration’s progress on behavioral health was suffering because of it.
So although the ethics commission’s dismissal of complaints took some heat off Kotek, the departure of a person in such a key role in her administration could renew questions about whether the governor has resolved the conflict over Kotek Wilson’s role.
In her resignation letter, Wallace expressed fondness for Kotek and her team and gave no indication Kotek Wilson was a problem. “It was great to meet you and the first lady,” Wallace wrote. “Please pass my gratitude on to her for her passion towards people struggling with behavioral health issues.”
Updated with comment from Wallace at 1:50 pm July 26: In a text message, Wallace tells WW her decision to depart stemmed from her desire to get back to direct service. “I’m not leaving because of the first lady’s engagement with the office,” she says. “I am looking forward to continuing my relationship with [Kotek’s team] in the behavioral work ahead of us.”
Elisabeth Shepard, Kotek’s spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about Wallace’s departure, saying it was a personnel matter.