Bob Gittens

Bob Gittens has been appointed executive director of Cambridge Family and Children’s Service, a leading provider of services for foster care and group care.

Bob Gittens has been appointed executive director of Cambridge Family and Children’s Service, a leading provider of services for foster care and group care. Gittens comes to CFCS from Northeastern University where he had been vice president for Public Affairs since 2003. Gittens brings a passion for the welfare of children and families for which CFCS is well-known, in addition to his significant management experience. He served as cabinet secretary of the Commonwealth’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services from 2001-2003 and was commissioner of the Mass. Department of Youth Services from 1997-2001. He was first assistant district attorney in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office from 1992-1997 and Chairman of the Massachusetts Parole Board from 1990-92.

Gittens holds a J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law and a B.A. in Political Science from Northeastern. He has played a distinguished role in the community as chairman of the Massachusetts Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee and member of the Governor’s Youth Violence Task Force.Gittens has served as a board member of numerous organizations including Judge Baker Children’s Center, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and Goodwill Industries.

Cambridge Family and Children’s Service is one of the oldest human services agencies in Greater Boston. Founded in 1873 as the Avon Home, an orphanage for local children, CFCS has a long and distinguished history of serving children, adolescents and families in the Cambridge area and in Greater Boston and its suburbs. Today CFCS provides services for foster and group care, adoption, developmental disabilities and family support, all programs that support children and youth and to strengthen families in more than 100 cities and towns throughout Massachusetts.