Director's Message

Oct. 19, 2007

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, M.D., director

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"Do not fear moving forward. Fear only to stand still."
~Chinese proverb

I'm proud to once again have the opportunity to showcase the great work of DHS employees by announcing the recipients of this quarter's Director's Excellence Awards. I always enjoy celebrating the excellent work of our staff, and having the opportunity to brag about the good work we do.

This round of awards went to two individuals and two teams, a total of 15 people. As you'll see from the summaries of their accomplishments, their efforts have made significant and meaningful contributions to the quality of the services we provide our customers.

Please join me in congratulating these 15 individuals for their dedication to our core values and their commitment to collaboration and partnerships.

Rebecca Humphreys, a training specialist with the Children, Adults and Families Division, initiated and volunteers her personal time to maintain a Client Donation Fund in her office to raise money to help clients acquire necessities such as bedding and clothing. In addition, in her role as co-chair of the Commission on Children and Families Early Childhood Committee, Rebecca helped lead the successful effort to coordinate services to children under the age of 5 in Clackamas County. Rebecca also is active in her community as a volunteer for a variety of children-focused activities.

Kelly Wickham, a case manager with the Children, Adults and Families Division, volunteered her time to create -- and continues to support -- the Clackamas Country Drug Court team. Kelly's efforts have helped provide wraparound services to families to enable parents to become free of drugs and alcohol, and to reunite those parents with their children. Kelly also attends drug and alcohol seminars on her own time to gather information to help the Drug Court team improve the effectiveness of its services. Her volunteer work continues to be instrumental in helping reunite families.

The Reproductive Health Section in the Public Health Division's Office of Family Health received a team award for their implementation of the citizenship verification requirement for Oregon's Family Planning Expansion Project. Team members Karol Almroth, Lisa Angus, Katherine Bradley, Cheryl Connell, Rian Frachele and Lesli Uebel were able to develop a model that minimizes the negative impacts of the Deficit Reduction Act citizenship requirements on family planning clients and local providers, and maximizes the equitable distribution of shared resources between DHS and family planning providers.

The other group to receive a team award this quarter is the Cultural Competency Training Design Team, whose members are Rick Acevedo, Marita Baragli, Caroline Cruz, Judy Gerrard, William Hoar, Bill Lynch and James Mason. These individuals have been a driving force in advancing our staff's ability to deliver services in a manner that understands and reflects awareness of the many cultural backgrounds of our customers. The training program created by this team has received very positive evaluations from employees throughout the state.

These brief descriptions understate the amount of hard work and dedication that went into these individuals' accomplishments. Not only do these award winners show dedication to the values of DHS through their daily work, in many cases that dedication extends to giving their personal time in support of these values. These 15 people stand as role models to all of us and as examples of the positive outcomes we can achieve on behalf of our customers.

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This message is intended for all department employees. Please read it electronically, if possible. Managers and supervisors are asked to share the message each week with employees who do not have email access.