OLYMPIA -- Susan Dreyfus, the director of the Department of Social and Health Services, is leaving after the end of the year.

Dreyfus will stay through the upcoming special legislative session, which begins Nov. 28 and is expected to take a big chunk of the $2 billion hole the state needs to fill out of DSHS. She's taking a  job with Families International, Inc., a nonprofit organization that has three other nonprofits under its umbrella. Its previous director died in August.

Gov. Chris Gregoire appointed Dreyfus to run the state's mega-agency in May 2009; at the time she was the chief operating officer for the Alliance for Children and Families and Families International in Wisconsin.

The governor will likely make an interim appointment before the end of the special session, her office said.

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