Governor Mike Parson announced Wednesday that a veteran Republican lawmaker will lead the Missouri Department of Revenue and a senior state government administrator will take charge of mental health.
Parsons, State Representative Wayne Wallingford, R Kip Girardeau, said he brings corporate management experience that will help him lead the state’s tax collection agency.
Wallingford is spending his second term at the Missouri House. He won the House of Representatives elections for the first time in 2010, then won a term in the state Senate in 2012 and 2016 before returning to the House in 2020.
Wallingford replaces Ken Zellers, who Parsons Go to the administration office in October.
Wallingford is a US Air Force veteran and served from 1968 to 1993. He was a company regional officer in the Taco Bell division of Yum Brands, then PepsiCo, before becoming a director of human resources for McDonald’s in Southeast Missouri.
Wallingford said his first job would be to teach the department’s operations.
“I usually take the first 90 days for a structured study to get to know people,” he said. “You know it’s the people and the front lines who really have the best idea. So I want to meet the people. Listen to their ideas, look at the organization and step back and see what you’ve learned and then start making improvements at that point.”
It was Valerie Hoon, deputy director of the Mental Health Agency Selected on December 9 by the State Mental Health Committee To succeed retired director Mark Stringer. Parsons presented it to the press on Wednesday.
Hon has been with the department since 2014, first as director of the Department of Developmental Disabilities before taking up her current position in 2020. Hon began her career in state government in 2000 as a budget analyst.
Stringer retired in October after 24 years with the department and seven years as a manager.
Parson said that while “Huhn has some great boots to fill, we’re confident she’s up to the task and excited to welcome her to the team.”
The biggest challenge for management, Hon said, is maintaining staff levels.
“The men and women doing this work have continued to provide high-quality care during the pandemic and persistent workforce shortages across the system that began long before the pandemic,” she said.