Overview

October 24

Government agencies are hindered by more than just a lack of resources: Legacy systems and agency silos impede information sharing and coordinating services between departments. When an individual needs government service, going to one program or service office usually doesn't address all their needs.

Leaders in Sonoma County, California, recognized they needed a better way to address the needs of their most vulnerable individuals and families. By integrating data across departmental systems to provide a real-time, holistic view of constituent needs, the county was able to improve their ability to address the health, well-being and economic stability of Sonoma.

Similarly, Texas has launched the Harris County ACCESS (Accessing Coordinated Care and Empowering Self-Sufficiency) Initiative that focuses on providing coordinated services to vulnerable residents in need of services across the County’s safety net system and programs. ACCESS Harris County leverages the award-winning care coordination model implemented in various jurisdictions, including the CA counties of San Diego, Orange, and Sonoma.

Join Government Technology, the Sonoma County Director of Innovation, and the Harris County Executive Director of Public Health for a webinar on October 24 at 11 a.m. Pacific /2 p.m. Eastern to learn how governments can bring human touch and technology together to move the needle for positive constituent impact. During this webinar, we'll discuss:

· The tools available to help agencies design better coordinated service delivery
· Creating appropriate metrics to determine baselines and evaluate progress
· How agencies can use data to forecast and mitigate future risk

Speakers

Barbie Robinson

Executive Director, Department of Public Health, Harris County, TX

Barbie Robinson is Executive Director for Harris County Public Health (HCPH) – the nationally accredited county public health agency for the nation’s third-largest county serving a population of approximately five million people. She comes to Harris County with a vision of HCPH as the Community Health Strategist for leading and enabling cross-sector partnerships that connect safety net services in an integrated way to ensure interventions, services, and programs address the social determinants of health holistically to reduce health disparities. Within her first year as the Executive Director, she has established new public health programs to reduce violence in our communities and is leading the County ACCESS Harris County Initiative designed to deliver holistic care to the County’s most vulnerable populations in need of services across the safety net continuum. She currently serves as the Sponsor of the Health Portfolio American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) with investments of more than $240 million. Prior to her appointment, she served as Director of Sonoma County Department of Health Services (DHS) for five years while concurrently serving as the Interim Executive Director of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission for the last 16 months of her tenure with the county. She successfully led several key initiatives for the County including the passage of a one-quarter cent sales tax measure on the November 2020 ballot to raise approximately $25 million annually for ten years for a total of $250 million revenue for behavioral health and homeless services. Spearheaded the development of one of only 27 16-bed Psychiatric Health Facilities in the State of California while obtaining sponsorship and financial investments from the County’s 3 largest hospital systems. Led a public-private stakeholder process to overall the County’s Emergency Medical Services ordinance and services. Successfully negotiated the acquisition of two hotels for permanent supportive housing for up to 100+ homeless individuals as part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Project Homekey Initiative. As a result of her strong administration skills, she has successfully led efforts to respond to some of the County’s largest emergency and public health crises. Robinson’s leadership was instrumental in forming Sonoma County’s ACCESS Initiative, a nationally and internationally-awarded integrated care coordination model that helps underserved and vulnerable individuals achieve self-sufficiency and well-being. This model is being replicated across the country. Robinson has been recognized for leading collaborative efforts to address health disparities, health improvement, and health equity throughout her career. She currently sits on several national and regional governance bodies including the Co-Chair Representative on the Steering Committee of The Way Home Continuum of Care, the lead agency to prevent and end homelessness in the Greater Houston Area.

Carolyn Staats

Director of Innovation, Information Systems Department, Sonoma County, CA

Carolyn M. Staats is the Director of Innovation for the County of Sonoma and IT Director for the ACCESS Initiative, a collaborative county program which has won multiple awards for innovation in both the private and public sector including the Financial Times award for Innovation in the Public Sector. During the COVID pandemic, Carolyn’s Innovation division worked with the Public Health Officer and IBM to create one of the first government COVID apps on Apple and Google in the U.S. to help businesses who needed to stay open during the pandemic provide a prescreen for employees before coming to work. The COVID-check app was awarded the California State Association of Counties Challenge award in 2021. Carolyn was named one of the Top 40 women in the world in Artificial Intelligence by IBM at the joint IBM and NY Times New Rules Summit in June 2019.

Ken Wolsey

Partner, Health and Human Services, IBM Consulting

Ken Wolsey is a Partner at IBM with over 25 years of executive program oversight and complex program delivery experience. He is the go-to-market leader for IBM’s Connect360 product to establish shared data hubs that enable the transformation of Health and Human Service organizations from program-centered to person-centered service delivery. He is the Project Delivery Executive for accounts with the County of San Diego, the County of Sonoma, Washoe County, and Orange County, CA. Ken has been awarded six patents in knowledge management and system integration architectures. He is a certified Agile Scrum Master, PMI Certified Project Management Professional and IBM Complex Program Manager. He has also been an instructor, author, and speaker for project management, operations management, knowledge management, lean operations, and emergency preparedness.

Teri Takai — Moderator

Senior Vice President, Center for Digital Government

Teri Takai is the Senior Vice President of the Center for Digital Government, a national research and advisory institute on information technology policies and best practices in state and local government. She worked for Ford Motor Company for 30 years in global application development and information technology strategic planning. From Ford, she moved to EDS in support of General Motors. A long-time interest in public service led her to the government sector, first as CIO of the State of Michigan, then as CIO of the State of California, and subsequently the CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense, the first woman appointed to this role. She then served as the CIO for Meridian Health Plan. She is a member of several industry advisory boards.

Webinar

Connected Compassion: How Counties are Using Data Integration to Weave a Stronger Social Safety Net