Big issues, bigger heart
For us, public service is a calling and way of life.
Public servants by experience and at heart, the C!A® team is comprised of former government employees who have dedicated much of their professional careers to public service. Each team member brings unique and diverse practical experience representing all different levels of government operations, and has a deep understanding of government processes working with state and county agencies, their local offices, and the associated federal agencies.
Our award-winning team of consultants and change agents have big ideas that we use to fundamentally change your culture by changing minds and fixing systems. Our people are accomplished consultants and gifted speakers with an intense focus on relationships and results.
Our team’s words from the heart:
“I’ve had a lifelong desire to make a difference for people in need as I grew up in similar circumstances. I was able to accomplish this through working in government for 20 years for each community in which I worked. When C!A helped improve our business process I felt so much joy in the customer service improvements that were made. Now working for C!A, the impact I have to help those in need has increased exponentially.”
“We’re a company that believes in the work of government. We were all public servants, and we all know the daily struggles. Our goal now is to build capacity to help you do more good.”
“As a human services assistant director, I saw first hand how C!A worked with teams of our staff, creating real change from the ground up. The improvements are sustainable and meaningful, and what really strikes a chord with me, is seeing relief and happiness from hard working people when the ideas they came up with are really happening. We’re all in this business to help people, and we actually get to do it through this work-that fuels my passion every day.”
“I used to be the captain of the technology train. I thought 80% of our problems could be corrected through the right software and confused innovation and automation. True innovation is in fundamentally changing how we work, and that’s where the potential is. C!A unleashes that potential by focusing on how we work first.”
Our Leadership Team
A nationally recognized author, thought leader, and one of the country’s top change agents according to Fast Company magazine, Ken is a pioneer in transforming human services service delivery and process redesign.
Immensely passionate about helping government be a force for good, Blake has dedicated his professional life to helping human services leaders and their teams challenge assumptions and the status quo and embrace new, innovative approaches and technology solutions to tackle some of the most pressing problems facing society and transform service delivery.
As a nationally recognized leader in human services, Sean has dedicated his career to helping agencies improve performance through process and innovative technology solutions to help families thrive
Growth & Development Team
Leo Ribas, Senior Vice President
Leo Ribas has a personal and professional passion for human services and an immense appreciation for the people of government and their commitment to ensure families gain access to basic needs and hope for a better tomorrow. As Director for Community Services, Leo managed Washington State’s $2 billion/year public assistance system (60 field offices, 3,000 staff, policy development) providing Medicaid, food, employment, and other safety net services to 1.5 million residents. Leo earned a reputation as a valued partner with the federal government, state legislature and community leaders setting innovative direction for anti-poverty/hunger programs. Leo spearheaded the business process redesign (BPR) efforts to transform the delivery of programs while improving performance, placing customer needs at the center of the reforms and removing unnecessary steps for staff. This effort accomplished new levels of productivity and a framework for change that has been utilized across the country.
In 2010, Leo left the public sector to join the Change & Innovation Agency(C!A®) with the vision of using his passion and skills to transform government service delivery across the nation. Working side-by-side with dedicated staff, agency leaders, and stakeholders, Leo has designed and implemented service delivery reforms that have allowed human services agencies in 22 states and the District of Columbia, and many large counties, to improve outcomes while facing crushing workload increases, growing policy complexity and budget cuts. The work in these states is transforming the delivery of human services by challenging industry assumptions, resulting in healthier families, safer children and stronger communities.
Published Works
Articles:
- Emerging Stronger When the Public Health Emergency Ends: How Agencies Can Make Room for the Upcoming Wave of Renewals and New Customers
- Reducing the Self-Created Workload: Making Room for a Wave of New Customers
- Adaptive Leadership: Streamlining Processes Before Automation
- Never Get Behind Again: Old Thinking Through a New Lens
- One and Done: The Strategy and Measures You Need to Make Your Call Center Work
Reports and Studies:
- Contributor, “Food Insecurity and State-Nonprofit Collaboration on the West Coast,” published by the University of Washington West Coast Poverty Center
- Contributor, “State Comparative Performance Measurement Project,” published by the Urban Institute and Council of State Governments
Kelly Harder, Vice President of Business Development
Kelly Harder, MSW, is a nationally recognized and accomplished human services leader known in the industry for his work in practice innovation and system transformation. For over 25 years, he has dedicated his life’s work to human services, striving to better the lives of others with each position he has held. From social worker in the field, to child and family supervisor, to mid-level manager, to human services director at multiple county agencies throughout Minnesota, and most recently as Senior Program Officer for Human Services at The Kresge Foundation – his unwavering passion and commitment to this noble work has driven him to continually search for ways to make the biggest impact possible.
It is this heart-felt focus and dedication to continually improve that earned him the respect of his human services colleagues across the country. He was elected to the Executive Board of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and the APHSA National Council of Local Human Services Administrators. In 2018, he was honored with the esteemed national Jerry W. Friedman Health & Human Services Impact Award for innovative national leadership.
As Child Welfare Practice Lead, Kelly focuses his efforts to expand Change & Innovation Agency’s important work in child welfare, helping agencies across the country transform systems and regain the capacity they need to deliver vital services to help children and families and improve outcomes.
Published Works:
Our Practice Leadership
Bill Bott, Child Welfare Practice Lead/Performance Improvement Practice Lead
Bill Bott has a heart for the noble work of government. A survivor of TQM, Zero Defects, Six Sigma, and Lean, Bill has dedicated his professional life to helping government agencies apply these concepts to radically improve performance and improve their capacity to do more good.
His innovative approach to running public sector improvement teams has made him one of the nation’s most sought after change agents and earned him the title of 2022 Government Thought Leader of the Year by the American Business Awards.
A GOVERNING Public Official of the Year, and one of Government Technology’s Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers, Bill has a proven track record of being able to tackle the biggest issues facing government and maximize our technology investments.
Since joining the Change & Innovation Agency, Bill has worked with public servants across the country to do amazing things such as to reduce child welfare caseloads by 80%, and reduce backlogged cases by 90%. A regular speaker and writer on how change really happens in government, his message of true process improvement before automation is a frequent theme in his writings and in his workshops.
Published Works:
- All We Need is Love…and Time
- Modernization Is Desperately Needed … But It’s Not Enough
- Child Welfare’s Pipe Problem: How Relieving the Pressure Can Ignite the Workforce’s Ability to Do Its Job
- The Scariest Four Words in Government
- Fixing Government’s People Problem: A Modest Proposal
- ‘Bad Idea Jeans’: Why Do Governments Keep Making the Same Management Mistakes?
- Improving Government Management: Time to Get Radical
- Management Fads in Government Come and Go
- Don’t Put All Your Eggs in the Technology Basket
- Just How Important is Customer Service?
- Lean Improvement Initiative Without Technology
- Public CIOs Need a Lesson From Bruce Lee
- Family First… Second: Finding a solution to managing the workflow
Brian Donohoe, Unemployment Insurance Practice Lead
Brian Donohoe, C!A’s Unemployment Insurance Practice Lead, has dedicated much of his life’s work to helping improve delivery of vital safety net programs to those in need. While at C!A, Brian has facilitated business process redesign (BPR) initiatives to streamline service delivery in twelve states and the District of Columbia. Prior to joining the C!A team, Brian served as Division Administrator for Hawaii’s Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division, the division administering critical safety net programs for the state, including SNAP, TANF, Child Care, Homeless Programs, and LIHEAP. Brian got his start in government in Alaska, where he was raised. While there, he served as Program Manager for the Public Assistance Quality Assessment Group, and was the state’s Change Management Lead for its first integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System. Brian is truly passionate about organizational excellence, and excels in handling field management challenges with communication, data-driven decision-making, soft-skills training, and leadership development.
Michael Jones, Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Practice Lead - U.S.
Michael Jones leads C!A’s Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Program Practice Lead – US. In this role, he oversees various service delivery redesign and ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts underway across the country for various state and county human services and safety net agencies.
Michael joined C!A after a 20-year career at the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. During his time with DHHS, Michael held various positions, each with advancing responsibility, serving most recently as Chief Operating Officer where he was responsible for overseeing all Medicaid managed care and fee for service operations, which processed over $7 billion in claims annually. While in this role, Michael initiated an extensive process improvement effort for the state’s Medicaid program to reclaim needed staff capacity. Prior to this role, he oversaw statewide operations for 46 counties and over 1,000 employees. While in this role, Michael led a complete overhaul of all eligibility processes for the agency, which involved implementing electronic case records, moving toward a statewide caseload, and adopting consistency and verification tools.
With a degree in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration, Michael began his DHHS career supporting the Medicaid eligibility determination system for the state before being promoted to oversee the eligibility system.
Published Works:
Bill McCracken, Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Practice Lead
Bill McCracken serves as C!A’s Medicaid, SNAP, and Safety Net Practice Lead. In this role, Bill leads C!A teams to provide service delivery redesign projects and ongoing monitoring and oversight efforts underway across the country.
Bill joined the Change & Innovation Agency in 2011, with 18 years of experience in human services. Bill’s career started with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), where he served in a variety of positions, including eligibility worker, social worker, tribal manager, supervisor, project manager, and office administrator. As a Community Service Office Administrator, Bill managed multiple offices that administered programs including SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, WorkFirst, Childcare, and General Assistance.
Bill led his offices through the transformative business process redesign (BPR) effort at a time when demand for services was at all-time high and staffing was low.
Since joining the Change and Innovation Agency, Bill has worked with the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Washington DC to help implement process improvement within social service organizations.
Nicole Norvell, MBA, LCSW - Child Care Practice Lead
Nicole Norvell, a licensed clinical social worker, brings a wealth of expertise within state government, nonprofit agencies, and educational institutions to C!A in her new role as Child Care Practice Lead. Prior to joining C!A, Nicole was the director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out of School Learning for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. In this role, she was responsible for administering the federal Child Care Development Block Grant to serve low income, working families by supporting their needs in early child care and education. She also was responsible for administration of all licensed and certified childcare in Indiana (including setting regulatory policy) and oversaw the state funded On My Way Pre-K program. During her time with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, Nicole also developed and implemented a statewide Learning Management System for early childhood education and procured and implemented a new suite of technology for early childhood education.
Prior to serving as director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out of School Learning, Nicole worked as director of the Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. She also has experience as the state director of special education and an education specialist for the Indiana Department of Education. Nicole has additional experience on the front lines of child care as a special education social worker, a therapist for family and youth services, and a juvenile probation officer/systems of care coordinator.
In addition to her licensure as a clinical social worker, Nicole holds a Masters of Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University and a Masters of Social Work from Indiana University. Nicole is also an adjunct faculty member at Grand Canyon University, where she teaches masters level social work courses with the hope of molding the next generation of social workers.
Nicole Shields, Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Practice Lead
Nicole Shields serves as C!A’s Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Practice Lead for Implementation. In this role, Nicole leads C!A’s team to provide service delivery redesign projects across the country for various state and county human services and safety net agencies.
Prior to joining C!A, Nicole dedicated her career to supporting and strengthening the well-being of children, adults, and families through social services administration at Fairfax County Virginia Department of Family Services. Throughout her career she has held positions including Human Service Worker, Supervisor, Quality Assurance Specialist, Staff Development and Training Coordinator, and Operations Manager. In her role as Operations Manager, she led teams to support business process redesign and implementation of a new service delivery model.
Since joining C!A, Nicole has worked with 15 state and county agencies for business process redesign, training, and implementation of Current™, C!A’s SaaS service delivery platform. She has also assisted in comprehensive training assessment, redesign, and curriculum development.
Jeremy Toulouse, Child Support Practice Lead
For Jeremy Toulouse, C!A’s Child Support Practice Lead, serving as the voice of children has been his life’s calling. For nearly three decades, Jeremy has embraced the role of disruptor, introducing innovative approaches to reshape child support. He first began his career as a clerical professional within the New Mexico Child Support Enforcement System, but his hard work, energy, and innovative ideas served him well and he steadily progressed through his child support career holding various roles including case manager, customer service supervisor, legal supervisor, front-line manager, county director, policy manager, regional operations manager, and IT manager. In 2019, Jeremy became the Child Support Enforcement Division Director for New Mexico. During his time as director, Jeremy introduced business practices and data-driven decision making to support program modernization, resulting in increased child support collections for the children of New Mexico.
As C!A’s Child Support Practice Lead, Jeremy is dedicated to helping states modernize their child support practices to increase the amount of child support that is collected for the children they serve. To this end, he helps agencies rethink their practices in an effort to foster parental engagement, right-size orders, and introduce interventions to improve a parents’ ability to support their children instead of more punitive actions.
Jeremy is a familiar face in child support circles across the country, often being asked to take the stage at various conferences and share his ideas regarding modernization. He has been an active member of the National Council of Child Support Directors, Federal workgroups, and the Western Intergovernmental Child Support Engagement Conference.
Our Product Leadership
Rochelle Brazier, Sr. Product Manager
“I’ve had a lifelong desire to make a difference for people in need as I grew up in similar circumstances. I was able to accomplish this through working in government for 20 years for each community in which I worked. When C!A helped improve our business process I felt so much joy in the customer service improvements that were made. Now working for C!A, the impact I have to help those in need has increased exponentially.”
Rochelle Brazier possesses extensive expertise in human services, particularly in the areas of public assistance, child welfare, and juvenile justice. During her time in state government, Rochelle was considered one of the most effective managers and change agents at the New Mexico Department of Human Services. During the early design and implementation phase of New Mexico’s business process redesign (BPR) effort, Rochelle piloted groundbreaking strategies that have served as the model for many other states in their efforts to radically improve the delivery of public assistance services. Despite a long-term hiring freeze, a 20% vacancy rate, lack of technology, and crushing caseload increases, Rochelle’s team implemented same-day service, increased the percentage of families receiving benefits at initial interaction with the department (from 50 to 70%), and improved the SNAP payment accuracy rate.
In her work with C!A, Rochelle has helped the Development team redesign user interactions with Current, C!A’s service delivery platform. She has worked with leadership to collect information to prioritize enhancements to Current and thereby make the platform more marketable. Rochelle also has collaborated with consulting leads to prioritize enhancements for existing customers, supports new client onboarding and all existing client interactions with Current, and has worked with the Training team to develop training and user guides. In addition, Rochelle assists with requirements for 80% of user stories for the company’s MVP product.
The benefit of Rochelle’s experience is far reaching; she serves as a resource to managers in many states in the area of process improvement and change management. She is a member or leader of the teams that helped Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas, Vermont, Rhode Island, Fairfax County, Connecticut, Nevada, Alaska, Colorado, New Mexico, South Carolina, Texas, and the District of Columbia redesign their public assistance systems.
Alisa Henson, Development Manager
Alisa Henson is a problem solver who is passionate about applications development. In her 20-plus years of IT experience, she has worked as a developer, manager, and director. She enjoys creating IT strategy and building high functioning Agile teams. Alisa has worked in development her entire career, which has given her the opportunity to work with application development, system administration, business intelligence, integration, ETL, data warehousing, EDI, strategic planning, change management, vendor selection, and contract negotiations. In her role as Director of Systems Development at Sonic Drive In, she was instrumental in converting their waterfall development process to Agile. Further, she helped implement business intelligence analytics to help operating partners and corporate franchise managers improve drive in operations, and converted several low functioning teams to be highly productive
Client Success Team
Kim Bazan, Director of Client Success
Kim Bazan serves as C!A’s Medicaid, SNAP and Safety Net Practice Lead for California. In this role, Kim leads C!A’s team to provide service delivery redesign projects in ten counties that are sponsored by both the state as well as individual counties.
Mission-driven and passionate about human services, Kim has dedicated her career to helping improve programs designed to help children and families during their times of need. Kim brings to C!A 29 years of nonprofit and state government experience spanning health care, education, child welfare, and human services programs. Prior to joining C!A, Kim worked for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) for 14 years, where she served as a trusted advisor and leader in multiple strategic roles including Government Relations and the agency’s Access & Eligibility Services and Medicaid & CHIP Services departments. As a director in two of the agency’s largest and most complex departments, Kim led teams responsible for strategic initiatives and governance, project delivery, IT coordination, policy development, communication and change management, administrative budget management, and audit coordination. During her time in HHSC’s Access & Eligibility Services, Kim impacted significant change throughout the organization by guiding improvement initiatives that included a statewide eligibility business process redesign effort and the related organizational transformation required to sustain the new processes, as well as the agency’s transition from waterfall to agile software development in partnership with the agency’s IT department and impacted contractors.
Kim’s commitment to human services was also honed during her 9 years with the Texas Network of Youth Services, where she worked with a statewide network of community-based organizations to advocate for effective policies and funding for foster care and other residential services for youth, prevention and intervention services, and youth leadership development opportunities.
Kim holds a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Texas Christian University, which provided an excellent foundation of advocacy and systems thinking she brings to each of her professional roles.
Carl Medley, Director of Technology and Innovation
A child of public servants, Carl Medley grew up in government (literally and figuratively) spending countless hours roaming the halls of the state Capitol. Upon graduating from college, his appreciation for government drew him to become a public servant and embark upon a well-rounded career in government accounting and technology, which encompassed design, development, integration, operations, maintenance, security, procurement, and most importantly…data analysis.
Progressing steadily up through the leadership ranks, Carl served in several positions, most notably as Director of Information Technology for the Missouri Office of the Secretary of State. In this role, Carl oversaw the reorganization of the technology services team and supporting contractor resources, and the implementation of technology solutions to achieve the state’s compliance with the Help America Vote Act, which introduced sweeping reforms to the nation’s voter registration process.
A true believer that radical process improvement is possible in government, Carl embraced the role of change agent early in his career. He was often tasked with turning around IT projects gone astray and successfully implementing new systems and managing the processes surrounding change management and new system adoption. He was a pioneer in state government for administering and expanding one of the country’s most radical technology procurement contracts that consolidated and reorganized technology operations to realize hard dollar savings and improved service delivery. Additionally, he fought to incorporate technology as a critical component of agency strategic plans, which included measures and performance data that told the story of successful turn-around projects and record achievements by the dedicated women and men he worked beside and had the honor to lead.
Carl has a passion for data, working with people, and creating customer-focused processes and technology solutions that make a difference in the lives of those that serve, and certainly those that are served. Although he no longer works in government, as C!A’s Director of Technology Services, he now gets to work with government agencies across the country helping their people better utilize data in their efforts to do more good for those they serve.
Our Team
Karl Allison, Senior Consultant
Karl Allison’s 22-year tenure at the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) encompassed beginning as clerical staff at a call center, to eligibility worker, to supervisor, to Community Service Office (CSO) Deputy Administrator and CSO Administrator. As a CSO Administrator, Karl managed three offices and 60 staff members in two counties. During his tenure as a CSO Administrator, Karl served as Interim Regional Administrator in Western Washington and later in Eastern Washington, each having over 500 staff members in 8 -10 counties. He was also responsible for facilitating implementation of the Business Process Redesign (BPR) project throughout both rural and urban offices in the regions.
Karl is experienced in providing eligibility determinations and direct client services for programs including TANF, General Assistance, SNAP, Medicaid, childcare, and WorkFirst (Washington State’s welfare-to-work program).
During his time with the Change & Innovation Agency, Karl has worked with Washington, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Colorado, South Carolina, Texas, and Mecklenburg, North Carolina to help implement process improvements within their social service organizations.
Karl Allison
Joe Berra, Consultant
“I used to be the captain of the technology train. I thought 80% of our problems could be corrected through the right software and confused innovation and automation. True innovation is in fundamentally changing how we work, and that’s where the potential is. C!A unleashes that potential by focusing on how we work first.”
Joe Berra has a long history of partnering with multiple levels of government to enhance service delivery and improve overall performance. As an information technology specialist, Joe was instrumental in introducing new software and hardware solutions across government agencies. With a heart for public safety, he has worked with all levels of law enforcement and correctional officers to increase interoperability, reduce costs, and enhance officer safety. In 2015, Joe changed his focus from technology to fixing the problems of government before automation. His goal is to help agencies maximize their technology investment by first streamlining their processes and fully understanding if and how a new IT solution may benefit them.
Joe Berra
Veronica Bossack, Senior Consultant
“As a human services assistant director, I saw first hand how C!A worked with teams of our staff, creating real change from the ground up. The improvements are sustainable and meaningful, and what really strikes a chord with me, is seeing relief and happiness from hard working people when the ideas they came up with are really happening. We’re all in this business to help people, and we actually get to do it through this work-that fuels my passion every day.”
Veronica Bossack has had the unique experience and perspective of holding every position in the human services field – from clerk typist to director. She spent more than 34 years with the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Division of Benefits and Medical Eligibility, where she oversaw the state’s public benefits and medical eligibility systems. Veronica then took on the challenge of directing the state’s beleaguered child welfare program. Veronica was recognized in 2010 by Arizona Children’s Action Alliance as a “Champion for Children in Arizona.”
In 2013, she was recognized by the United States Department of Agriculture for her leadership, expertise, and innovative ideas that helped improve the Food and Nutrition Service outside of Arizona.
Since joining the Change & Innovation Agency, Veronica has led process improvement projects from Alaska to Texas to Washington, D.C., and everywhere in between.
Veronica Bossack
Gregg Broyles, Change Agent
Gregg Broyles spent 30 years of his career dedicated to improving operations in the State of Washington. This included 15 years with the Division of Child Support where he held the positions of Support Enforcement Officer, Program Administrator, and Regional Administrator. Gregg then transitioned to the state’s SNAP/TANF agency where he was the Interim Chief of Field Operations and oversaw the statewide business process redesign initiative and change management operations.
Gregg resides east of the Cascade Mountains in Yakima, Washington, where he enjoys hiking,
running, and directing running events.
Gregg Broyles
John Camp, Consultant
John Camp began his 27-year career in human services as an eligibility worker for the State of Oregon, before moving and joining the Washington State Department of Social & Health Services (DSHS). John held multiple roles at DSHS, including project manager, Administrator for food assistance programs, and Administrator for business and infrastructure which included managing contracting and procurement for the Community Services Division within the Economic Services Administration.
With his extensive expertise in SNAP policy and operations, John played a key role in Washington’s Business Process Redesign (BPR) efforts from the policy side in supporting choices that improved application processing. John also worked on the operations side to help lead the transition of the largest office of the state from case management to process management as the Deputy Community Services Office Administrator.
John Camp
Trenton Hodges, Support Agent
With a background in first contact help desk support, network administration, data reporting, and account management, Trenton is a great addition to Change & Innovation Agency’s technology team. In his role as Support Agent, he provides front-line technology and data reporting support to C!A clients and staff.
Trenton Hodges
Lisa Kim, Change Agent
Lisa Kim began her career in social services as an eligibility worker in Santa Barbara County, California – working Medicaid, SNAP, and AFDC (the TANF precursor) – and later as a social worker. From Santa Barbara County, she relocated to San Francisco to accept a federal position with the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Food and Nutrition Service, overseeing SNAP operations in twelve western states and Pacific territories. Lisa retired from FNS in March 2015 after 26 years of service to join the Change & Innovation Agency.
Lisa Kim
Larry Lee
Larry Lee has dedicated his life’s work to public service. After serving a distinguished career in the United States Air Force, he began his 20+ year career in human services working for the State of Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS). During his tenure with the state, he held various positions, each with increasing responsibility in both child support enforcement and Medicaid and other social safety net programs.
Beginning in 2011, Larry managed the Business Process Redesign (BPR) effort for DWSS and served as team lead. As a result of the BPR effort and with Larry’s guidance, DWSS made significant improvements. Despite a doubling caseload in a two-year period, SNAP timeliness improved from 73% to 98% with no negative impact to quality.
Larry is committed to innovation and process improvement. In 2018, he joined the Change & Innovation Agency team to help clients across the country adopt and fully implement BPR efforts, so that they, too, can increase their capacity to do more good.
Larry Lee
Naomi Lewis, Senior Consultant
Naomi Lewis has 28 years of experience in state Health and Human Services Operations with the state of Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services. Most recently Naomi served as the Deputy Administrator for Program and Field Operations. In this role she planned, organized, directed, controlled and evaluated the statewide operations for the division’s public assistance benefit and support programs including SNAP, TANF, Medicaid (MAGI and Non-MAGI), CHIP, Child Care, LIHEAP and the SNAP and TANF Employment and Training programs. Additionally, she directly supervised the district office managers and program chiefs in support of 26 local offices and 1700 staff.
Prior to serving as the Deputy Administrator Naomi served as the Social Services Program Chief of Eligibility and Policy, was a Social Services District Office Manager, a Social Services Program Specialist, a Social Services Eligibility Supervisor, an Eligibility Worker and a Clerical Trainee. Each role provided for progressively more responsibility along with more skills, knowledge and abilities in successfully delivering programs and services to needy Nevadans.
As a result of sponsoring and supporting business process redesign efforts in Nevada, along with multiple other initiatives, Nevada’s ability to “do more good” improved dramatically. The agency recipient count increased from 150,000 total recipients to over 616,000. Application processing increased from 17,000 applications processed per month to processing over 51,000 apps per month. The call center wait time reduced from over 60 minutes to less than 3 minutes. The average processing days (APD) decreased from 44 days to 7 days. Finally, Nevada was among the most improved in the nation in SNAP access, SNAP timeliness, and SNAP error rate.
Since joining the C!A team in May of 2019, she has worked with Alaska, Los Angeles County, and Washington DC to facilitate change and improve access and delivery of services to needy individuals and families.
Naomi Lewis
Stephanie Montoya, Consultant
Stephanie Montoya started her career in Social Services as an eligibility worker in New Mexico. She later transitioned to a Training and Development Specialist with a focus in SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, GA, and LIHEAP curriculum development and delivery for new hire employees in Policy and Procedure. In addition to her time in human services, Stephanie has experience in education with curriculum development, delivery methods and strategies, and implementation.
Since joining the Change & Innovation Agency, Stephanie has assisted in developing and implementing training efforts in the state of New Mexico.
Stephanie MontoyaBobby Stanton, Consultant
Bobby Stanton has dedicated much of his career to human services, holding various positions, each with increasing responsibility. He started with the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Family Assistance Administration in 1990 as an eligibility worker where he determined eligibility for Medicaid, SNAP, TANF and State Assistance programs. He transitioned to policy where he clarified, edited and drafted policy for the programs administered by the Administration. He then served as the Family Assistance Administration Policy Manager through 2015. Most recently he served as Quality Assurance Manager for the Division of Benefits and Medical Eligibility Case Auditing Team, which was responsible for auditing Medicaid, SNAP and TANF cases for accuracy in eligibility determinations as required by State and Federal regulations.
Since joining the Change & Innovation Agency, Bobby has mentored New Mexico training staff to ensure a consistent training approach for the Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, General Assistance and LIHEAP programs. Bobby has also assisted in business process redesign (BPR) assessments, reviews, implementation and maintenance in Texas, South Carolina, District of Columbia and Los Angeles.
Bobby Stanton
Suzi Stott, Senior Consultant
Suzi Stott began her career in human services in remote Western Alaska as an eligibility worker more than 25 years ago. During her career, she worked her way up through the Department of Health and Social Services serving as an agent for change in a variety of positions through every level of management. Suzi has a passion for helping families in need of services, and for the hard-working staff who serve them. As a Regional Manager and later as the Chief of Field Services for Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance, Suzi was part of the Division’s leadership team that led the charge to improve Alaska’s service delivery model that resulted in both timeliness and accuracy performance bonuses for the state.
As a full-time Senior Consultant with the Change & Innovation Agency, she has expanded her impact through business process redesign (BPR) assessment, planning, and implementation activities in six additional states, and has conducted management academies across the country to share her passion with hundreds of government leaders.
Suzi Stott
Lorrie Walker, Senior Consultant
Lorrie Walker joined the Change & Innovation Agency with 30 years of experience in human services. She began her career with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and served as an eligibility worker, as well as in leadership, project management, and consultant positions. During her time with Washington State, Lorrie was the team lead for the business process redesign (BPR) project that drastically changed how business was conducted. Since joining C!A, Lorrie has worked with 14 state social service agencies to help implement process improvements strategies. Her focus is on providing service and benefits to customers in a more efficient and effective way while ensuring greater accuracy and timeliness.
Lorrie Walker
Brian Wann, Senior Consultant
Brian Wann has dedicated his entire career to Human Services, starting as an eligibility worker in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1998. He worked as a front-line worker for ten years processing TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, and Child Care Assistance for low-income Kansas families. In 2007, Brian became a supervisor in Overland Park, Kansas, and helped implement process management changes in numerous offices around the state. Brian worked as a Program Administrator and managed eligibility processing for the Kansas City Metro Region for five years, ensuring Kansans received timely and accurate benefits for SNAP, TANF and Child Care Assistance.
Since joining Change and Innovation Agency in 2015, he has worked in ten different states across the country to redesign service delivery and implement process management changes. Brian is currently working as the consulting lead for the Missouri Division of Family Service and was instrumental in helping write the Process Management Standard Operating Procedures for the state of Missouri.
Brian Wann
Sarah Winter, Senior Consultant
Sarah Winter began her career as an eligibility worker in the State of New Mexico in 2011. She quickly moved into a leadership position to train and mentor staff during the implementation of a new eligibility system in New Mexico, as well as policy, and process. Two years later she found her passion for training and curriculum development. She was responsible for overseeing the training units within the New Mexico Human Services Department, Income Support Division as well as the New Mexico Department of Health Developmental Disabilities Division. This included development and implementation of change management concepts, including manager system training, time coaching and developing training techniques, as well as create materials, review material for accuracy, and edit materials developed by training staff for in-person and online trainings. Sarah also sent out training updates and ensured training compliance for both state employees and external clients.
A firm believer that a well-trained staff will help increase an agency’s capacity to serve more families, Sarah now helps Change & Innovation Agency clients by developing and conducting eligibility training academies utilizing adult learning theory. She developed and conducts supervisor academies for Current™, C!A’s SaaS service delivery platform. She helps with implementation and postimplementation efforts including fine-tuning business processes, data analysis, and communicating IT changes between the business and development team. Additionally, she also assists the C!A team
with Business Process Redesign (BPR) and monitoring and oversight for multiple states.
Sarah Winter
Reginald Wright, Senior Consultant
Reginald Wright began working for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in 2001. For 14 years, he served in a variety of positions including financial service specialist, program manager, lead worker, and administrator.
As the EBT/EFT and Contracts Administrator for the DSHS Community Service Division (CSD), his responsibilities were to apply the principles of state budgeting and accounting practices to managing, monitoring, and providing oversight for the annual $75 million contract for the EBT program and the more than $204 million CSD personal and client service contracts. He also had direct oversight of cash benefits totaling more than $5.5 million per month for direct deposit clients.
In 2013, Reginald joined the Change & Innovation Agency to apply his expertise across the country.
Reggie Wright
Are you interested in joining the C!A team? Check out our Career page for more information and current openings.