Director's Message

July 6, 2007

To: All DHS employees

From: Bruce Goldberg, M.D., Director

"One of the most obvious facts about grownups to a child is that they have forgotten what it is like to be a child."

~Randall Jarrell

Happy New Year!

Several of our employees greeted me like that last week. At first, I was puzzled, but then it quickly dawned on me that we are starting a new fiscal year and a new biennium (yes, sometimes, I'm a little slow). So, what better way to begin a “new year” than by recognizing the outstanding contributions of some of our colleagues.

Every few months, when I have the opportunity to review nominations for the quarterly Director's Excellence Awards, I discover new reasons to be proud of this agency. We have so many dedicated employees that it is always difficult to select just a few to receive the award, and this time was no different. The six award recipients were among a large group of nominees, all of whom made important and meaningful contributions to the DHS mission.

Please join me in congratulating Evonne Alderete, Liza Alvarez, Ron Glaus, Judy Mohr-Peterson, David Lyda and Kristin Sasseen, this quarter's award recipients. The following information from their nomination letters clearly shows why these individuals rose to the top of this quarter's group of nominees.

David Lyda and Kristin Sasseen were nominated as a team and received their awards for their cross-program coordination to support breastfeeding mothers within the TANF/JOBS program who are participating in job training or returning to work. David is the TANF Manager with the CAF Office of Self Sufficiency and Kristin is the Breastfeeding Mother Friendly Employer Program Coordinator with the Public Health Division's Nutrition and Health Screening Program.

The two worked together to create a client-focused collaboration between their divisions. They developed new policies and procedures for TANF that supported breastfeeding mothers when they entered job training or returned to work, developed a course curriculum and schedule to train TANF staff throughout the state on the importance of breastfeeding and methods of supporting breastfeeding mothers, and developed and distributed breastfeeding brochures and posters for TANF offices.

Their work not only serves as an excellent example of cross-program collaboration for the benefit of clients served by more than one DHS program, it also has received national attention. The National WIC Association conferred on TANF the “Friend of WIC” leadership award during its annual conference May 1.

Evonne Alderete is an Operations and Policy Analyst in the Administrative Services Division. Evonne received her award for the key role she played in compiling and preparing the DHS Agency Request Budget document, Governor's Recommended Budget documents, and Ways and Means presentation materials for the 2007 legislative session. She took on these responsibilities after the departure of the lead Finance and Policy Analysis analyst, and not only absorbed the new tasks, but did so while maintaining her normal ASD workload. Evonne worked collaboratively with the FPA staff to create a series of high-quality products that were accurate and followed a standard format. The result was a series of documents that achieved a consistency and quality not previously seen in DHS legislative materials. Her efforts speak to a strong work ethic and dedication to the agency.

Lisa Alvarez is a District 6 Child Welfare Program Social Service Specialist in the Children, Adults and Families Division. Lisa received her award for her many years of commitment to engaging teenage clients in acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to successfully live independently. She promotes the teens' ownership and commitment to their independent living plans, and allows teens to experience success by taking small, incremental steps toward independence. Lisa establishes significant and long-lasting relationships with her clients, and maintains her advocacy through each and every crisis. She also acts as the primary mentor for youth with mental health, developmental and attachment issues. During the past 10 years Lisa has mentored 85 CWP interns and volunteers, and also serves as the primary mentor for all new CWP workers. She helps new workers and volunteers learn how to apply DHS core values to accomplish critical work. Many of the volunteers she has mentored have gone on to work for DHS. Lisa collaborates with many partner organizations to support teens and is well-known in the community as a strong advocate for her clients.

Ron Glaus, Ph.D., is Chief of Psychology at the Oregon State Hospital within the Addictions and Mental Health Services Division. Ron received his award for his instrumental role in improving the delivery of psychological services to OSH residents and reinvigorating the mission of the OSH Psychology Department. He consistently challenges and collaborates with department members to improve programs and deliver services with the highest degree of professionalism. He created a Quality Improvement committee to increase accountability and professionalism, inviting the opinions of staff members and using their suggestions to implement changes. He has created an interagency relationship between OSH and the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training to provide opportunities for cross-training in areas of mutual interest, has overseen the development of the Co-Occurring Disorders Program and the Community Placement Team, and has reorganized the Sex Offender Treatment Program. His efforts have helped the programs expand their ability to provide necessary and timely services for OSH residents. He has achieved these improvements and changes using a collaborative approach, and has worked creatively to provide improved neurological and assessment services to the residents of OSH.

Judy Mohr-Peterson is the Finance and Policy Analysis Caseload Forecasting Unit Manager. She received her award for her outstanding work in improving DHS caseload forecasting, resulting in a more reliable budget planning process. Judy led her unit through a complete reassessment of how the forecast process was designed, and implemented methods to incorporate more timely data, better model policy options and impacts with multiple variables, and more accurately calculate expected upper and lower ranges for forecasts. She increased oversight and review of forecasting processes and caseload projections, improved the reporting process, developed monthly tracking reports to compare forecasts to actual counts, created the DHS Caseload Review Team, implemented several quality assurance steps, and improved the department's ability to more clearly identify risks. Because of these efforts, DHS forecasts have become more accurate and dependable, and variances to the forecasts have been well within the expected ranges. Because small variations to the caseload forecasts can result in large dollar impacts to the budget, these forecasting improvements have significantly increased the reliability of the DHS budget planning process.

I thank all of this quarter's award recipients and nominees for their dedication and commitment to the mission and goals of this agency. Your work makes a difference and sets an example for all of us. Congratulations.

To provide feedback email: DHS.Directorsoffice@state.or.us

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.