Incoming Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker named a Washington-based child advocate to head the state’s embattled child welfare agency. Its last commissioner, Olga Roche, resigned after the deaths of children under its watch.

Linda Spears used to work for the state’s Department of Children and Families. And her organization was hired last year by the Patrick administration to lead a probe into the agency, after the disappearance of 5-year-old Jeremiah Oliver. The review found that DCF was understaffed and its policies were out of date.

But Spears, at a press conference last May, said DCF could not have prevented the boy’s death.

“There is, however, significant evidence that DCF staff did not do it’s job in the Oliver case,” she said. “There is not evidence that DCF’s actions caused Jeremiah’s death.”

DCF got an infusion of cash, and new social workers, but Spears inherits a department still struggling with high caseloads and a poor reputation.