This year, our organization has continued its journey through a directorship transition and revisioning of our internal structure, emerging with a culture and body of work of which I am immensely proud.

When I moved into the role of Interim Executive Director a year ago and now as I step formally into the position, my focus was and is on evolving our policies and processes to ensure our product remains best in class. With our new Quality Assurance team, we are able to dedicate resources to building upon our existing review and revision procedures, which engages multiple internal and external stakeholders more deeply in partnership. This strengthens not only the end result but also our relationships.

We also focused this year on supporting foundational learning objectives, including the new Workforce Core curriculum, the Indian Child Welfare Policy Training, and courses built in response to HB1227 such as the Shelter Care Simulation and Foundations of Practice. These projects have been a great chance to support cross-team collaboration and give staff ways to share their unique perspectives. We have such a breadth of expertise from across disciplines and it has been wonderful to see it engaged in this way.

Looking into the new year, I see so many opportunities to continue to support the ability of our partners to respond to the needs of our community. I am inspired by the work I see being done around me every day and excited to lead this organization forward.