Lake Burien youth facility replaces director after scathing report

A state-run Washington youth mental health facility replaced its executive director this week, months after a disability rights organization published a scathing report alleging abuse and neglect there.

Amanda Woodruff took over as the executive officer of Lake Burien Transitional Care facility Wednesday. She replaced Candice Pineda, who had led the facility - touted as a one-of-a-kind option for youth with significant developmental disabilities and intensive mental health needs - since it opened in July 2024.

In an email, the Department of Social and Health Services, which oversees Lake Burien, said Woodruff was hired to "better support the youth, their families and our staff members." Woodruff previously served as the assistant superintendent at the Rainier School residential habilitation center. Pineda's employment with DSHS ended Monday, the agency said.

"These updates reflect DSHS' ongoing commitment to continuous improvement," Cynthia Shipley, a DSHS spokesperson, wrote in an email. "This includes a commitment to reviewing observations in a constructive and solution-oriented manner, upholding best practices, and ensuring that the voices of youth, their families and staff inform ongoing improvements."

Attempts to reach Pineda by phone and email were unsuccessful.

Lake Burien, which cares for up to a dozen youth, has been under scrutiny since the Developmental Disability Ombuds published a report in January after months of regular visits. The ombuds office, a program of Disability Rights Washington, the state's largest advocacy organization, found children's basic needs neglected, a lack of supervision leading to inappropriate behavior among youth, excessive physical restraints and a lack of therapeutic treatment.

Shipley declined to provide details about the leadership change and whether it was spurred by specific complaints.

In the weeks after The Seattle Times reported on the ombuds' report, four Lake Burien staff members detailed their workplace frustrations. They described a toxic work environment, which they said was spurred by Pineda and other executives. They said they were undertrained and overworked, leaving them unprepared to work with challenging, and at times physically violent, youth.

The four staffers, who work as caregivers at the center, spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared workplace retaliation; some said management had already retaliated when they complained about their working conditions.

Staff concerns

Lake Burien opened in July 2024, touted as a unique program for Washington, where youth with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses could get short-term treatment and stabilize to return to their communities and live at home with their families.

The facility is meant to keep kids in crisis from waiting for months in hospitals without appropriate therapeutic treatment, as had been happening for years.

The youth at the center need intensive supervision, and the facility has 95 staff positions to serve a dozen residents. As of early April, 90 staff positions were filled, according to Shipley.

But Lake Burien has seen significant turnover. Since July 2024, when the facility opened, 55 people resigned, and the state hired 71 new staff. In October 2024, nine people resigned, according to state data. Another eight left in January 2025, and seven left in May 2025. The state has hired people in big bouts, too, including bringing on eight new staff in January 2025 and 11 in September of that year.

Staff members said the past few months working at Lake Burien have strained them, and they've faced pushback from management, including Pineda.

Staff members who reported their concerns to their union said Lake Burien managers reassigned them to different facilities multiple times, or placed them under investigations.

Staff said they were overwhelmed while working, with several people now out on Washington Labor & Industries leave because of injuries.

The ombuds report said staff were over-relying on physical restraints to subdue children, in part because of a lack of training. Investigators said they saw youth with unexplained bruises on their bodies, and said they suspected staff were intentionally agitating youth to justify restraining them.

The ombuds office, which penned the initial report, said it was aware of the leadership change but did not have further comment.

"We will continue to work with Lake Burien staff and DSHS/BHHA to address our concerns," wrote Noah Seidel, an ombuds, in an email.

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