Her Story
About Dagne
My career in child welfare and healthcare has truly come full circle. Early in my life, I relied on programs like Medicaid, SNAP benefits, and other safety net services during challenging times. I had a wonderful caseworker who advocated for me and helped me become free of those supports, which is what really prompted me to go into this area. I've been a lifelong service person - I live to serve. I work for Oklahoma Complete Health, a Centene Corporation, which is a new managed care company for Oklahoma. I specifically work on the child specialty program that serves youth in custody - in DHS custody, child welfare custody, and Oklahoma juvenile association custody. I'm essentially working with the same kids that I've worked with for 20 years. I was excited for this program to come to Oklahoma because historically, our kids in custody just don't get the wrap-around services that they need that address their emotional, behavioral, and physical needs. My typical day looks like assessing members' needs and assigning to my team of very empathetic, passionate people who have the same outlook on this program as I do. I'm very adept at identifying people's individual skills and encouraging them to have those courageous conversations where they're changing processes and outcomes for the better. I serve my team so they can do the best job that they can.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Dagne
01What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge I face is that sometimes senior leadership is not really well-versed in a certain area or population, which is why they brought in so many people who have worked in child welfare, state government, and contracts. The biggest challenge has been translating my experience into efficient processes and a shared understanding of the population. I've always wanted to be near the population so I understand what's happening in real time, not too far removed from the actual work. I do see and feel like there is a need for people who have done the work to help with making the policies and procedures. It's been a challenge, but it has also been refreshing that I work for the kind of company that wants that type of input. One major opportunity I identified was a gap in care for our behavioral health population - being that this is a super new plan, two and a half years in, I don't think the scope of the population we were serving was really thought about in detail. I started a behavioral health pilot program with 3 specialized care navigators who are behavioral health leaning and understand the needs behind these youth. That has already yielded great communication with our stakeholders and partners, and has already yielded some great outcomes. It's set to be scaled in July to add additional behavioral health support, and we've already closed one of the corrective action plans that was directly related to the enhanced foster care program.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
At this stage in my life, I'm very driven by purpose and wanting to really take a deeper dive into my passion and what drives me. When I left the Department of Human Services after almost 20 years, I decided at that point that I was going to only look for opportunities that align with my personal mission and vision of what I want to be for the world. I'm very focused on that. When I was younger, it was all about the paychecks - I don't get paid very much in this field - but now I'm very much driven by purpose rather than money. Service is at the core of who I am - I have to serve, I live to serve. It all comes from just who I am and what I need to do as a person. I can't get away from service - I am the family go-to and friend go-to for resources. I have a couple of homeless friends right now because it's really hard out there, so I'm just trying to make sure that the people that I love are living okay.
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