Current Project:
Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse High-Performing Workforce (posted 11/27/2007)

Client/Funder:

Department of Veterans Affairs

Purpose and Scope:

The Academy will assist the VA in developing effective national and targeted strategies for attracting and retaining a diverse high-performing organization.  The Academy’s work will focus on selected mission critical positions throughout the VA’s healthcare, benefits, cemetery and administrative operations.  The work will include

• Reviewing VA’s workforce planning activities
• Analyzing VA recruiting and retention programs and results, including diversity outcomes
• Proposing ways to enhance recruiting and retention programs and activities
• Identifying key comparator organizations which compete for talent
• Examining best practices used elsewhere, both in the private and public sectors, and assessing their potential value for VA.
• Developing innovative strategies that will help achieve VA’s workforce goals.

The Academy’s work is designed to complement the findings and recommendations of recent task force and commission reports and ongoing reviews by VA and others.  Additionally, this project will be closely coordinated with a second VA study being undertaken by the Academy addressing the organization of care for returning war veterans. 

Project Director: 

Patricia Cornwell Johnson

The Academy plans to appoint the following individuals to a Panel to oversee and direct the study.  The public may comment by email on the composition and qualifications of the Panel for a period of seven days after the posted date.  Send comments to mditmeyer@napawash.org.

Panel Chair:

Myrta (Chris) Sale (99)* – Proposed Panel Chair

Deputy Advisor for External Relations, Inter-American Development Bank. Former Chief Financial Officer, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Director of Management Initiatives, U.S. Office of Management and Budget; Chief Operating Officer, Small Business Administration. Former positions with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Department of Justice: Deputy Commissioner; Acting Commissioner; Executive Associate Commissioner for Management. Former Director, Finance Service, and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Finance, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Vice President for Administration and Treasurer, National Public Radio.

Panel Members:

Gary A. Christopherson (06)*
Sculptor. Former Senior Advisor to the Chief Operating Officer, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Health, U.S. Department of Veterans Administration; Deputy Director, Quality Improvement Group, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, U.S. Department of Defense; Associate Director, Office of Presidential
Personnel, the White House.

Frank A. Fairbanks (95)*
City Manager, City of Phoenix, Arizona. Former positions with Phoenix City Manager's Office: Management Assistant; Executive Assistant to the City Manager; Assistant City Manager. Former Volunteer, Peace Corps; Teacher, Universidad de Costa Rica.  Member Panel for current project: Dept. of Veterans Affairs: Organizing Care for Returning War Veterans.

John Palguta (02)*
Vice President, Policy and Research, Partnership for Public Service. Former positions with U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board: Director, Policy and Evaluation; Deputy Director, Policy and Evaluation; Supervisory Research Analyst. Former positions with U.S. Office of Personnel Management: Branch Chief, Personnel Office; Personnel Management Advisor, Bureau of Personnel Management Evaluation.

Delores Parron (01)*
Former Scientific Advisor for Capacity Development, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health;  Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Associate Director for Special Populations, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health; Associate Director, Division of Mental Health and Behavioral Medicine, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences.

Alvin J. Schexnider (96)*
Executive Vice President, Norfolk State University. Former Interim President, Norfolk State University; Director, Office of Health Policy Development, School of Medicine, Wake Forest University; Chancellor and Professor of Political Science, Winston-Salem State University. Former positions with Virginia Commonwealth University: Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Urban Studies and Planning, School of Community and Public Affairs; Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs; Professor of Public Administration; Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies. Former Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Julius M. Williams, Jr.
Senior Consultant, The M&C Group, Inc. Former Consultant and Strategist, Isaac and Imani Inc; Previous Department of Veterans Affairs assignments: Director, Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service; Assistant Director, Washington Regional Office, (Home) Loan Guaranty Officer for the States of Colorado and Wyoming, Denver Regional Office. Former Adjunct Faculty Member, Department of Labor, National Veterans Training Institute.  Decorated Army Veteran and Lifetime Member of the Disabled Americans, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Organizations. 

*Academy Fellow

Meetings:

Meeting 1: Thursday, December 13, 2007 8:30 am – 4:00 pm (Meeting open)

Contact Information:

For further information, contact Mary Appah at (202) 347-3190, or at mappah@napawash.org. 

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