Idaho’s health agency director to step down by end of year 

The director of Idaho’s largest state agency will step down by the end of the year. 

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Juliet Charron told employees in a letter she’d be stepping back to provide more support to her family, Boise State Public Radio first reported. Gov. Brad Little’s communication director, Emily Callihan, told BSPR that Charron’s father faced “significant health challenges.” 

“This has not been an easy decision,” Charron wrote in the letter to employees. “The past year has brought significant challenges for my family, and I realize that they need more of my time, attention, and support. Family has always been important to me, and right now, being there for mine needs to be my priority.” 

Charron’s last day has not been finalized, and it’s unclear who will serve as interim director when she leaves. 

Little appointed Charron as director in July 2025, and she officially stepped into the post in September last year, after previously serving as the agency’s top Medicaid official since 2021, the Idaho Capital Sun reported. 

“I want to thank Juliet Charron for her outstanding service as Health and Welfare Director,” Little said in a written statement to the Sun. “Under her leadership, the department made meaningful progress in strengthening child welfare prevention, preparing to distribute nearly $200 million in Rural Health Transformation funding in the coming months as part of nearly $1 billion over five years, and improving compliance, accountability, and program outcomes. I appreciate her commitment to serving Idahoans and look forward to announcing new leadership for the state’s largest agency before the end of the year.” 

Health and Welfare spokesman AJ McWhorter told the Sun the agency had “a number of vacancies in some key positions for a variety of unrelated reasons, including external opportunities, retirements, and personal and family reasons.” 

“The Governor’s Office will announce a new director at a later date,” McWhorter said. “DHW is hiring for the other positions, and we encourage qualified people to apply. We will continue to focus on the work and provide quality, efficient, and effective services for the people of Idaho.” 

Before joining Idaho’s health agency, Charron held leadership positions in the Texas Medicaid program and with the Texas Office of Inspector General. She also worked in government programs and “compliance roles” for a community-based health plan in Arizona, according to her biography. 

Charron leaves Idaho’s largest agency with the biggest budget 

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare runs public assistance programs like Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Women and Infant Children program. The health department also provides public health services, regulates long-term care facilities, runs the state’s mental health hospitals, provides child welfare and provides services for people with developmental disabilities. The agency’s total budget is more than $5 billion of mostly federal funds. 

As head of the agency, Charron oversaw some of the beginning stages of the state’s shift to administering Idaho’s entire Medicaid program through private managed care companies, as directed by the Idaho Legislature’s House Bill 345. 

The full transition to managed care oversight of Medicaid is expected to happen by 2030. 

Charron has also overseen the influx of federal funds from the Rural Health Transformation Grant. Idaho received $186 million for the first year of a five-year grant, meant to go toward improving access and quality of rural healthcare. 

Her tenure followed the previous director, Alex Adams, who served a little over a year in the position before President Donald Trump appointed him to lead the federal Administration for Children and Families under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

Before Adams, Dave Jeppesen led the agency for five years before retiring in 2023.