Commentary: Reflecting on CHHS Team, Accomplishments

Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to work with a number of exceptional individuals and teams. With the recent announcements of the appointments of Sam Lui as deputy secretary for Legislation and Adam Dondro as director of the Office of Systems Integration, I’ve found myself thinking about one particular team I had at the California Health and Human Services Agency, which included Scott Christman, Adam Dondro, Chaeny Emanavin, Niles Friedman, Sam Lui, Marko Mijic, Greg Norrish, Tamara Srzentić MS MBA, Michael D. Valle and Angelica “Angie” Quirarte (honorary member) who joined us for many of the after-hours discussions and influenced many of our initiatives.

This team was an amazing group of individuals who introduced me to human-centered design and journey mapping, who collaborated with me to envision new ways of providing services, who partnered in changing the culture at CalHHS, and even convinced me to get a Twitter account. We met most weeks as a team and quite often individually. I always looked forward to energizing, lively discussions about how to improve the lives of Californians. This was a time where we could think broadly about the needs of Californians, how to shift our focus from departments and programs to people — those needing benefits, case workers and those providing benefits.

The members of this team led or were integral members of teams that brought up the California Department of Public Health and CHHS Open Data Portals, established the CHHS Innovation Office, helped establish the Office of Digital Innovation, were integral in creating the governance structure for CHHS innovation and data efforts, and established and ran covid19.ca.gov.

They have continued to focus on improving people’s lives and improving government and have continued to grow as leaders and contributors, including roles as minister of Public Administration, Digital Society and Media for Montenegro; undersecretary of CalHHS; directors, chief deputy and deputy directors; strategic advisers; board members for civic tech startups; chief information officers; senior advisers; and even a chef/culinary director.

I am thankful for the impact these people had on me and my thinking about government service. I am extremely proud of their individual and collective accomplishments. It is inspiring to see them assume senior leadership positions, continuing to drive change and focusing on improving people’s lives. I look forward to seeing what comes next for each of them and to see how they continue to drive change and invest in the next generation of leaders.

Michael Wilkening first published this commentary on LinkedIn. It has been edited lightly for style.