Resume

Napa County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA)

2751 Napa Valley Corporate Dr., Napa, CA | February 2024 – Present

Responsibilities:

• Lead the Operations Division at Napa HHSA, which includes the Application Support Team (internal IT functions), Employee Services and Organizational Development, and the Facilities team.
• Serve as the Napa County Civil Rights Coordinator, responsible for implementation and oversight of the agency's obligations under the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) Division 21 requirements.
• Serve as the chair of HHSA's Conflict of Interest Committee.

Iowa Department of Health and Human Services (Iowa HHS)

1305 East Walnut, Des Moines, IA 50319 | January 2020 – February 2024

Responsibilities:

• Led the Division of Strategic Operations (DSO), which includes Government Relations, Media Relations, Operational Communications, Project Management, Performance and Transformation, Refugee Services and Human Rights and Health Equity.
• Built DSO as an entirely new division to provide a broad range of support to the other nine divisions of the department, including the agency's strategic planning.
• Served in a chief of staff role supervising the director's administrative team.

Agency Transformation

• Led, alongside the agency Director and the two Deputy Directors, the alignment of the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) into one single state agency, Iowa HHS.
• Supported the Director to rebuild and shape the new agency's executive team.
• Was instrumental in leading the agency's comprehensive response to an alarming U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into two of our state-operated facilities, which included a monumental effort in rebuilding trust and an operational overhaul.
• Restructured the Bureau of Refugee Services, expanded programs and built out a comprehensive statewide refugee services system in response to the U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan.
• Expanded my leadership experience as the Department of Human Rights, Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning and Volunteer Iowa moved into DSO at Iowa HHS as part of the Governor's broader state alignment effort.
• Strategically supported multiple transformative initiatives including federal Family First implementation, system improvements for community-based services and long-term services and supports (LTSS), an overhaul of child protective services, and mental health system redesign.
• Continuous engagement with the Governor's Office, legislators, stakeholders, other state departments and the other Iowa HHS division administrators to coordinate and implement key initiatives.

Pandemic Response

• Served in a Chief of Staff role for the director of the state's health department and was embedded with the Governor's office at the state emergency operations center during the state's pandemic response.
• Worked closely with the Governor's team to coordinate daily press conferences, drafted talking points and remarks for the HHS Director and Governor.
• Drafted operations guidance, remote work policy, gathered information, set up testing sites, assisted with logistics, routed media and legislative inquiries, briefed the Governor and team, worked with counties and local public health.

Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS)

1305 East Walnut, Des Moines, IA 50319 | November 2017 – January 2020

Responsibilities:

• Served as the spokesperson for the state's largest and most controversial agency, continuously responding to media requests on a broad range of sensitive or hot-button issues, high-profile cases and litigation.
• Publicly represented the agency at boards, commissions, councils, legislative committees and hearings, routinely providing updates and presentations.
• Fulfilled open records requests as the custodian of record, and represented the agency at the Iowa Public Information Board.
• Overhauled the agency's approach to communications and transparency.
• Directed and supervised the Bureau of Communications, responsible for managing the agency's website, marketing, social media, forms, applications and public outreach.
• Rebranded the agency and redesigned the website, including a significant improvement in its navigation and accessibility.

Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS)

100 Army Post Road, Des Moines, IA 50315 | December 2015 – November 2017

Responsibilities:

• Deployed a comprehensive communications campaign to respond to the challenging roll out of the twice delayed implementation of Iowa's Medicaid managed care program, including direct management of all member mailings.
• Conducted extensive engagement with providers, members and stakeholders.
• Launched and maintained the Iowa Medicaid email newsletter and overhauled the Iowa Medicaid website.
• Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Sec. 1557 nondiscrimination and accessibility requirements.

Random Lengths Newspaper

1300 S. Pacific Avenue, San Pedro, CA 90731 | January 2006 – July 2015

Responsibilities:

• Developed concepts and designed editorial graphics and illustrations for the newspaper cover.
• Print production of the newspaper, which included editorial layout, editorial design, advertising design and file preparation.
• Website administration, social media and email marketing.
• Oversaw the advertising sales team, digitized advertising sales tracking and directly managed client sales.
• Engaged with local business and community organizations, including production and promotion of local events.