Apr 22, 2021
BISMARCK – Laurie Gotvaslee, regional director of North Central Human Service Center since 2012, will be retiring April 30, the North Dakota Department of Human Services announced Tuesday.
Gotvaslee began her career as a social worker at McHenry County Social Services. In 1999, she joined NCHSC and held various positions in child welfare, children’s mental health and aging services. She served as the assistant director of the Minot center for three years before being named director in 2012. At that same time, she also served as the director for Northwest Human Service Center in Williston, a position she held until 2018.
Gotvaslee and her team worked to support community-based behavioral health services and other human services during the recent oil boom when unprecedented population growth stressed all forms of community infrastructure.
Until now.
Until the other day when we learned what happened to poor James Hutchinson in Middletown, my own hometown. That he ran behind his mother’s car in a park where she tried to abandon him. That he was likely dragged to death. That he was tossed into a body bag the day after he died and then dumped in a cold, muddy river. It s pure evil, said Brandy Slavens, senior executive director of operations for Access Counseling in Middletown. An innocent child had his life taken by the person who is supposed to love him the most.
People said some of the same things about Marcus Fiesel s case nearly 15 years ago. How could adults do these things to a child? Marcus, who was born in Middletown, was killed by foster parents. He died in a closet after being left there for two days in August 2006, bound with a blanket and packing tape. Eventually, his incinerated body was found on a Clermont County farm.