CHFS Community Podcast

Jean Hall is the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (KASPER) integration project manager and has worked tirelessly with our state and many others on data sharing initiatives. Today, she describes her Pennsylvania upbringing and passion for health care technology. We also discuss how KASPER helps practitioners and pharmacists provide optimal medical and pharmaceutical patient care using controlled substance medication. September is National Recovery Month, and CHFS supports people in all forms of recovery and the individuals who serve them.

If you or someone you know is struggling with a substance use disorder call 833-859-4357, or visit the FindHelpNow website to find an addiction treatment facility that is taking new clients right now.

Every significant brand has a logo, and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services is no exception. After months of contemplation and collaboration, we are proud to unveil the new CHFS logo at the Kentucky State Fair. Today I am discussing the new logo with Zach Stewart, Vice President and Director of Design at Doe-Anderson. He explains why fonts matter, the psychology of color, and why the shape of our state is perfect for branding. Stewart is an award-winning art director and designer who has designed for a variety of clients, including Carrier Corporation, Jim Beam, Kentucky Science Center, Maker’s Mark and Norton Healthcare.

Kathy McNaughton is branch manager in the service acquisition branch at CHFS. In this insightful podcast, she describes how her time as a military spouse broadened her outlook and gave her confidence to reach out to people as a leader and a mentor. Learning to navigate eMARS, acquisition, and mastering internal policy was McNaughton’s path to management, and her secret to success is caring about one’s job and helping others. Through procurement, McNaughton is proud to support the great work being done in the cabinet because, as she observed, "CHFS touches every Kentuckian in some way.”

Dr. Lisa Lee Williams, D.Min., MaOM is the executive director for the Office of the Ombudsman and Administrative Review (OOAR) at CHFS, and the author of, The Power of Unity: Confronting Conflict in Church Leadership Teams. With 20 years of leadership and program management experience, Dr. Williams is also a teacher and consultant to religious and non-profit organizations. Today, we discuss the importance of cultural humility and why it’s important to “empathize with understanding” in order to make lasting change in our community.

Today’s podcast guest is Marjorie Payne, Branch Manager of EEO/Civil Rights Compliance with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. She was raised in Danville, KY with three older brothers, an older sister, and four younger brothers. Payne is passionate about education and describes her earlier years of work, commuting, and night school while raising a family and building a church with her husband. I am grateful for employees like Marjorie whose job is to ensure that our workplace is safe and free from discrimination and harassment. Her self-discipline and positive outlook inspires everyone she meets, including me.

Some of you may not know I was the Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Louisville for a time, and population was one of the metrics we studied. In that capacity, I learned much of the population growth in Louisville is due to immigrants and refugees, who are known to counteract population decline and strengthen economies. However, access to health and human services can be difficult for individuals and families who have not yet mastered the English language.

Today’s guest, Alexandria Ramos, works to minimize language barriers for Kentucky’s migrants, immigrants and refugees in order to provide full access to CHFS programs and services. Ramos is supervisor of the Language Access Section, fluent in three languages, and a former tactile and sign language interpreter. We discuss how her life in Vietnam, Puerto Rico and the United States prepared her for a fulfilling and sometimes challenging role at CHFS.

This week, I interview Dr. Allen Brenzel, medical director of the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental, and Intellectual Disabilities (BHDID). Dr. Brenzel is a lifelong Kentuckian who graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. His five-year residency at the University of Kentucky (UK) allowed him to study general pediatrics plus adult and child psychiatry, making Dr. Brenzel a triple board graduate. In this podcast, we have a valuable conversation about attachment, trauma and the importance of investing in young children and their families. We also discuss the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) during COVID-19, and how much we value CHFS employees who have served wholeheartedly throughout the pandemic.

Marnie Mountjoy is the Director of the Division of Aging and Physical Disability at the Department for Aging and Independent Living (DAIL). Her career in state government began at the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS), which she says was a time of personal and professional growth.

From there, she accepted a job at DAIL where she continuously draws on the insight gained at DCBS.

“We do a lot of programs in the Department for Aging around grandparents and caregivers,” she said, “So, I take the knowledge that I learned and use it to this day.”

Since then, Mountjoy has become a fierce advocate for Kentucky’s aging community and network. Her focus is on programs that serve the elderly, caregivers, and those who are physically disabled. Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic, Mountjoy says her goal is to incorporate the lessons from 2020 and build on the successes.

This week we introduce you to Shannon Ramsey, Operations Officer at Serve Kentucky, where she wears many hats. Shannon was raised in Nicholasville, KY, where she currently resides with her husband and teenage son. Shannon’s parents worked in the local school system when she was growing up, and they remain close to this day. Shannon studied business administration and marketing at Georgetown College with a minor in philosophy. She oversees Serve Kentucky's federal AmeriCorps and administrative grants, manages agency communications and social media channels, and provides support for meetings, events and trainings. Shannon shares how her team thrived during the pandemic with virtual meetings, collaborative tools, and elective after-hours social events.

Wes Duke is the General Counsel for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), where he has been since Dec. 2019. Before then, he was Assistant Attorney General with the Office of the Attorney General for six years. He was born in Pikeville, raised in Paintsville, and graduated from Indiana’s Valparaiso School of Law after getting a Master’s in Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) from the University of Kentucky. Duke's time in VR ignited an appreciation for human and disability rights that has served us well at CHFS, where he manages over 15 attorneys. The theme of today’s discussion is the importance of public service during challenging times. We talk about ways CHFS employees have risen to the occasion during this unprecedented pandemic and how much everyone has grown along the way. Together, we agree that COVID-19 and its aftermath present endless possibilities for CHFS employees to help Kentuckians reach their full human potential.