Yvette Donosso Diaz, the first Latina to serve in a Utah governor's Cabinet, is stepping down as the head of the year-old Department of Community and Culture, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. announced Wednesday.
"I initially came on board to help Gov. Huntsman set a course for DCC," Diaz said. "Now that I have met that charge, I am returning to my legal career. I have appreciated the governor's support of this new department and his goal to elevate Utah's cultural heritage."
Huntsman's choice of Diaz was not without controversy. Before her appointment was confirmed by the state Senate in April 2005, the Department of Public Safety investigated allegations she had knowingly hired an undocumented immigrant as a nanny.
Officials said that investigation cleared Diaz of any wrongdoing.
The governor had originally named another Hispanic woman to the post, Sylvia Haro, but Haro resigned before she was scheduled to start work citing family concerns. Diaz, then a Utah State Bar commissioner, was quickly named to replace her.
She served as the first executive director of a new department that was created when Huntsman broke up the state's Department of Community and Economic Development shortly after taking office last year.
Huntsman, who put himself in charge of the effort to sell the state, tapped the retiring director of his new Governor's Office of Economic Development, Richard Bradford to temporarily take Diaz' place while a search is underway.
Bradford's job as director of the economic development office has been taken by Jason Perry, who had been a deputy director of the Department of Commerce. Diaz' resignation is effective Friday.