Mayor Wu has named Tania Del Rio, the leader of the city’s efforts on addressing the situation at Mass. and Cass and a one-time city council candidate, the next commissioner of the Inspectional Services Department (ISD), the agency that regulates and enforces building, housing, health, sanitation, and safety policies.

Del Rio, of East Boston, will begin her new role on Feb. 26. She will be the first female leader of the department, which oversees construction and inspections of all kinds and has mostly been a male-dominated environment. That will change, said Chief of Operations Dion Irish, who initially hired Del Rio and oversees ISD as a member of Wu’s cabinet.

Mayor Wu also announced that Brian Foran and Michaela Nee of the Coordinated Response Team will be named Acting Co-Directors. Both have extensive experience managing the City’s work on unsheltered homelessness and working with City Departments and external partners.

Foran and Nee helped lead the recent phase change that ended the permanent encampment on Atkinson Street under Del Rio’s leadership.

“I’m excited about Tania Del Rio being the first female commissioner of ISD,” said Irish, who ran ISD in the Walsh administration. “She has shown leadership and the ability to bring people together – being strategic but also getting her hands dirty…She’s literally been one of the people on the street level at Mass. and Cass that people have dealt with, while also working with the Police Department, Public Works, and the Mayor’s Office. She is the right person for this time at ISD. She’s smart, tough, and a quick learner,” Irish added.

Del Rio said she was focused primarily on the task at hand. “I’m honored that I was considered for the role and the mayor has that trust in me,” she said. “It’s obviously something that matters. I’ve seen plenty of little girls come up to the mayor and say how exciting it is to see someone like them – a woman – running the city. As someone that worked for the city on women’s issues, I feel it’s important that all departments have different leadership. I do feel proud and excited about it, but there are a lot of great leaders at ISD already and everyone’s contributions will be heard and considered.”

Del Rio entered city government under the Walsh Administration as part of its diversity team. Later, in 2018, she was appointed the director of the Office of Women’s Advancement, working closely on the childcare crisis. She left city government to lead a family shelter and 100-plus-unit single room occupancy building for a non-profit organization in Cambridge.

In 2022, she ran for the District 1 city council seat in a special election that was won by current Councillor Gabriela Coletta. But Del Rio built a strong relationship with Wu in the process. About 18 months ago, the mayor appointed the 38-year-old Del Rio to lead the Coordinated Response Team (CRT) for dealing with issues at Mass. and Cass.

Irish said she has distinguished herself in that role by bringing all skill sets and mindsets to the table to make progress on the situation, an experience that he feels will help her as she moves to streamline permitting and processes at ISD. He said some experiences might be critical because she doesn’t have a construction background, though he pointed out that he didn’t have a construction background, and neither did other former ISD commissioners like the attorney Kevin Joyce and the late Bill Good.

Joyce, who is now senior counsel for a private practice in Boston, said Del Rio was a good choice because the CRT work is a “microcosm” of ISD type leadership.

“ISD is way more than the Building Department,” he said. “You have health, sanitation, food safety, and so many other things that come together to serve the city equally. There’s one thing you need in that job as commissioner of ISD and that is integrity. You have to be someone above reproach.”

Joyce cautioned that while the Building Department drives revenues, it shouldn’t take over and “distract” from the other divisions. He also noted that in the 1980s a significant amount of time and money was spent at ISD to eliminate the “secret knock” environment where some got favored treatment. He said any new commissioner needs to restore that equal treatment that so many worked so hard to put in place.

Irish said there is a construction expert in office, Building Commissioner Mark Joseph, and that frees up Del Rio to focus on weights and measures, environmental services, food inspections, and other aspects of ISD that aren’t construction related.

Being the first woman “will bring concerns from some about not having a construction background or never having ‘lifted a hammer.’…It’s actually good to not have the burden of being the construction expert and the commissioner.”

Added Del Rio, “I get it. … When I took over at CRT, I found a similar challenge because we had a public health expert as the leader before me and people were worried because I wasn’t a doctor and they wondered how I could help.”

All that aside, Del Rio said she is most focused on preparing to listen to those working inside ISD and to stakeholders and constituents outside the organization. The goal is to streamline permitting and processes and focus on initiatives like Additional Dwelling Units (ADUs). She’s also excited that she’ll be working directly with the public on “core services.”

“The mayor is big on ‘delivering with excellence’ on core services and I am in total agreement with that,” she said. “She always says constituents can see the positive impacts when we do the little things right because these aren’t little things to them.”

Irish said he’s looking forward to Del Rip taking the helm “because I know…every time there’s been a new leader at ISD, it has invigorated the organization and caused everyone to step up their game.”

In other moves, the current ISD commissioner, Sean Lydon, of Jamaica Plain, will be moving on to work directly with the mayor’s office as the senior advisor to the mayor on construction and permitting. In that role, he will focus on high-priority city projects, including White Stadium renovations and work on buildings on Long Island in preparation for its re-use as a recovery campus.