Senior Leader Spotlight: Lori Schumacher
To celebrate Women’s History Month, we will be sharing interviews with each of our Center for Human Services (CHS) Senior Leaders. Today’s Spotlight is about Lori Schumacher, Director of Regional Services.
How long have you been involved with CHS?
I’ve been working at CHS for 19 years, 20 in October.
How did you first get involved with CHS?
Cindy Duenas and I have been friends for a very long time. We used to work together at E. Ross Clark, which managed group homes in the county. I then worked as a Probation Officer for ten years and Cindy began working at CHS. She told me that a manager position overseeing the Diversion program opened up. At that time I had been thinking about my long term career and decided I didn’t want to remain working in probation, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. In Probation I talked to parents and youth who wouldn’t be in their situation if they had had intervention early on. The Diversion program gave 1st time offenders a chance to participate in prevention and intervention before they were put on any kind of probation. I went in for an interview thinking it was going to be casual, but it ended up being a full panel interview and I was offered the position shortly after. I knew at CHS, I would be doing important work and have long term happiness.
What does your role as Director of Regional Services entail?
I oversee our regional services which include our Family Resource Centers (FRCs), the Workforce Development program and the Father Involvement project. About 8 years ago, the FRCs were booming and needed to have their own department, which is how Regional Services became what it is today. We have been involved with Workforce Development over five years and it has evolved since then. The FRCs and Workforce Development have become linked allowing us to help people in the community get better connected to resources they need. My job includes working with program coordinators, writing proposals and grants and I am also on the Child Abuse Prevention Council.
What is your favorite thing about working at CHS?
We are able to be innovative and creative in the work we do. We are intentional about not just doing things the way they have always been done just because they have always been done that way. We are encouraged to look at what else is out there in the community, at new ways of doing things, and people look to us for best practices as well. We are ok with not knowing if something new we try is going to work and that we will never know if we don’t try. There’s a lot of creative thinking in the work we do.
Which of our CHS core values is most important to you and why?
Innovation because it’s significant in how we look at things. We are always going to be looking at how we can evolve and change as we need to. We ask questions, work in groups and find new and creative ways to deal with challenges. We bring innovative strategies to the work we do.
Who is someone that inspires you to be a leader?
When I was working in probation, a management style called Total Quality Management was popular. It attempted to define personality types as fit or unfit for leadership roles. I never really fell into the leadership category, but a friend of mine who was a manager in Probation encouraged me to not limit myself to categories. She told me that I connect well with people and have the capacity to be a leader. We were both women in a male dominated business, so that was inspiring to me.
What does leadership mean to you?
Leadership is more about listening than being the first to speak. It’s about support, guidance and mentoring. It is not about galloping out in the front, it’s not about commanding. Leadership is about being in the background moving things along. It’s about connecting with others to understand what they need for growth. Leadership is a supporting cast kind of role and you need to know when to step in and when to step back.
To learn more about our FRCs visit: http://www.centerforhumanservices.org/what-we-do/family-resource-centers/
