40th Anniversary Symposium
Gregory Coler (January 1979 to December 1983)

Greg Coler is best known as the Director who made DCFS a national leader in child protection services. Before he even arrived at DCFS in 1979, Greg Coler asked the legislature for $5.4 million in supplemental appropriations to add investigators and computerize the Department’s manual child response system. Before this, the old system was composed of paper files that were accessible only to field staff and only during business hours. He also replaced 70 field office hotlines with a single statewide toll-free hotline that was available 24-hours. That same hotline is still in operation today.

His administration also implemented the Department’s first computerized financial management system. Established the Adoption Information Center of Illinois and rewrote nearly 60 rules that gave workers clear services timelines and expectations. He also introduced a Child Welfare Initiative that reformed the Department’s core services.

Director Coler also received the 1985 Commissioner’s Award from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect for reforming the state’s antiquated manual child abuse tracking system into a state-of-the-art model emulated by other states.