Kent Wilcox, Regional Administrator, Region V (Chicago)

Kent Wilcox serves as the Regional Administrator for Region, V, Chicago, IL. In his twenty-five years with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Kent Wilcox has served in senior regional management positions in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the Family Support Administration and the Office of Child Support Enforcement.

His management experience spans the breadth of ACF programs, both State and Community based, and all of its Initiatives. He represents the Department on the Federal Regional Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Federal Executive Board's Task Force on Veterans Issues.

After positions in the fields of law enforcement and housing and community development, Kent Wilcox began a career in child support enforcement as an attorney with the Indiana Child Support Division in 1978 and became the State Director in 1982.  He left Indiana in 1983 for the Chicago Regional Office where he first served as Deputy Regional Representative, then as Regional Representative of the Office of Child Support Enforcement.

When the Administration for Children and Families was created in 1991, Mr. Wilcox was appointed as Director of the Office of Community Programs. In that capacity, he was responsible for the Federal government’s regional efforts in the Head Start Program.  In 1997, he was given responsibility for the Office of Self-Sufficiency Programs where he oversaw the Region’s Child Welfare, Child Support, Family Independence (TANF) and Runaway and Homeless Youth Programs. Mr. Wilcox was appointed Deputy Regional Administrator in 2007, and Regional Administrator in 2008.

Kent, a native of Chicago, was raised in South Bend, Indiana which he calls his hometown; he holds a bachelors and a law degree from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. He is a member of the Indiana and Florida Bars.