Uma S. Ahluwalia is currently the Director of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Health and Human Services. With over 1600 employees, the department is one of the largest agencies in Montgomery County and includes Aging and Disability Services; Behavioral Health and Crisis Services; Children, Youth and Family Services; Public Health Services and Special Needs Housing. The Fiscal Year 2013 budget for the department is more than $290 million. The Department has been responding to many interesting challenges related to the impact of the recession on suburban poverty, increase in demand for services, decreasing budgets, moving towards a more integrated and interoperable health and human services enterprise and the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Ahluwalia holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of Delhi in India and a Specialist Post-Masters in Health Services Administration from George Washington University. Over 27-year career in human services, she has progressively moved from case-carrying social work to executive leadership at the state and local levels.