Cindy Gillespie
Before joining the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Cindy Gillespie was a principal in the Washington office of the law firm Denton, serving in its public policy and regulation practice, and was a leader of the firm’s health policy and health insurance exchange teams.
She also was a health care adviser to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and played a key role in the development of Massachusetts’ health reforms. She is a graduate of what is now Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville and has a master’s from Auburn University in Alabama.
Cindy Gillespie became the director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services on March 1.
Recently you announced a reorganization of the agency and said there was a “lack of a strategic or effective focus on engaging external stakeholders.” What did you mean by that?
Our impact on Arkansans is quite personal: We provide health insurance and health care coverage, and we provide direct patient care in our state hospital, nursing homes and human development centers.
To effectively deliver these programs and services, we must have strong relationships not only with the health and child welfare communities, but also with the myriad organizations, usually nonprofits or faith-based organizations, that share our missions. We also must have strong relationships and communications with other governmental entities that share our mission, such as the Arkansas Legislature and the Arkansas judicial system.
We plan to strengthen our engagement and coordination with these organizations. We found that engagement with outside organizations was not uniformly effective throughout the organization. While some divisions might work closely with outside groups, others aren’t really structured to reach out and work with like-minded organizations to effectively deliver services. I heard many times that faith-based organizations and nonprofits would like to do more to help us and help those we serve, but they can’t figure out who to talk to or how to work with DHS.
So one goal in this reorganization is to recognize the importance of these outside stakeholders and establish offices that will focus on ensuring that effective engagement happens.
What health reforms would you like to see in Arkansas?
My first focus is reforming DHS, so we can more effectively deliver our health programs to Arkansans. We are putting in place a reorganization of our core business activities in the organization and focusing on how to strengthen our employees so we can more effectively provide services. Over the next months, we will look deeply into the way we deliver services, with a particular eye on how we better integrate client services so Arkansans don’t find it difficult or frustrating to deal with DHS.
How do you deal with translating policy into concrete effects on people’s lives?
I love this question because too often “policy” is viewed as an academic or financial exercise, and the personal impact isn’t considered as it should be.
There are several ways we make sure we consider the personal impact of a policy change. First, we do talk with stakeholders — often these are organizations that represent the people who will be affected by the policy change — and get their input. We get input from legislators as part of the process of promulgating a new rule. We discuss policy changes across the organization, so divisions that work with different populations can weigh in on the impact on the people they serve.
I’ve found over the years that the best way to understand the concrete effect a policy will have on people’s lives is to communicate about the policy with as many people as possible, both internally and externally, so everyone has a chance to weigh in and make sure we are considering all aspects.
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