Longhurst-Pritt named DHS director
Sharon Longhurst-Pritt has been named the new Garfield County Human Services director.
PRESS RELEASE
Jan. 9, 2020
Longhurst-Pritt takes the reins at DHS
Longtime Garfield County social worker named new director of human services
GARFIELD COUNTY, CO – Garfield County has a new face at the helm of its award-winning
Department of Human Services (DHS), though its someone who is already well known in the
community. Sharon Longhurst-Pritt was recently named the county’s new DHS director,
following the retirement of former director Mary Baydarian.
Longhurst-Pritt was selected as the strongest candidate following an extensive national search
for a new director. She now oversees all divisions of the Garfield County Human Services
Department, including child support, child welfare, eligibility, child care quality and licensing,
senior programs, single entry point (SEP), finance and administrative support.
Longhurst-Pritt has worked at Garfield County DHS since 2006, and was most recently deputy
director of human services. She earned her Master of Social Work at Cleveland State
University, and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of South Florida.
Longhurst-Pritt worked as a therapist at Mind Springs Health prior to coming to work for Garfield
County. Her love of people made social work an obvious career choice.
“It really comes down to enjoying working with people and being part of something bigger than
yourself,” she said. “You work with a vulnerable part of our population and help them get to a
better place.”
Longhurst-Pritt is excited about overseeing a department with an already stellar reputation and
taking on new challenges on the horizon. Both the state and federal governments have new
programs coming online, and DHS needs to get the community ready for any changes.
“The Family First Prevention Services Act is coming down from the feds, and it’s going to be
part of our Child Welfare Division, so there will be a lot of work to get that up and running,” she
said. “There’s really a lot going on with all of our divisions.”
The Family First act aims to “ensure that children in foster care are placed in the least
restrictive, most family-like and appropriate settings,” among other purposes, according to the
bill. At the state level, the governor’s office has a greater focus on early childhood services, and
Colorado recently received a $34 million federal grant toward those programs. This boon will
lead to more opportunities for early childhood services for years to come.
“There’s a lot of things going on in all our divisions,” Longhurst-Pritt said. “It’s a moving field that
never gets stagnant, and I just love being a part of it. You take things from the federal level and
see how they can be implemented at the county level.”
She added that her initial goal is to springboard off the fantastic work the department is known
for, and to integrate some of the work between divisions for smoother connections.
“What really excites me is further developing our programs and bringing additional services into
the county,” she said. “We’ll look at whatever is going on legislatively, and determine how it
affects our rural area, and advocate for our families that need assistance. We want to make
sure that our small county voice isn’t lost in the process.”
– 30 –
Media contact
Renelle Lott
Chief Communications Officer
Garfield County
108 8th Street, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601
970.945.1377, ext. 1453
970.366.2275 cell
rlott@garfield-county.com
www.garfield-county.com