The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) has recently been making major strides toward becoming a more unified, integrated and coordinated healthcare system. As part of that work, the department seeks to better engage and develop supervisors and managers.

FUSE Fellow Kamina Smith helped the department develop a comprehensive supervisor management training program and a strategic plan for rolling out those services. Kamina’s work helped develop processes by which the department’s 2,000 managers were evaluated for certain core competencies and helped define the training, development, and support elements that would be utilized to ensure sustainable managerial behavior change and growth within the organization. Her work also helped establish a strong pipeline of leadership and a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and empowerment. By instilling proven leadership and managerial practices into DHS operations, and by working to get employees at every level to embrace these changes, Kamina helped the organization create a health system that can better serve the needs of staff, patients and the community.