New Directions names Julie Tomasi
director of Performance & Quality Improvement
Julie Tomasi, LCSW-R, ACSW, has been named Performance and Quality Improvement director at New Directions Youth and Family Services.
She started with the agency in 1998 as a social worker at Wyndham Lawn Home for Children, and since 2001 has served as clinical director for the agency’s group homes. She has also worked with New Directions’ Community-Based Treatment Program and the former Non-Secure Detention Program.
In her new position, Ms. Tomasi will oversee the quality of services throughout New Directions, compiling data and generating reports for use by New Directions as well as by outside organizations. Ms. Tomasi will continue to provide direct care in trauma treatment as the need arises.
“Because she has worked so closely with kids and families, her background has well prepared her for understanding not just the data, but what’s behind it—the real meaning of the numbers,” said James Coder, chief executive officer of New Directions.
“I’m passionate about the work that brought me into social work in the first place, but I also see the statistical component and how it adds extra value to the social work field,” Ms. Tomasi said. “I’ll be the bridge between both worlds.”
The preparation work for the agency’s reaccreditation by the Council on Accreditation will be led by Ms. Tomasi.
She has been involved with the Southern Tier Adolescent Coalition, an initiative of Allegany County that supports agencies working with youth who are in foster care within the rural community. She has also been an active member of Youth in Progress (YIP), New York State’s foster care youth leadership advisory team.
Since 2003, she has been chair of New Directions’ Best Practices Committee, and now assumes the chair of the Incident Review Committee as well, a group she has been a member of since it was formed in 2001. Ms. Tomasi will also serve on the agency’s Senior Advisory Committee.
A member of the Academy of Clinical Social Workers, she holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and social science from the University at Buffalo and a master’s in social work with a concentration in family mental health from Syracuse University.
Ms. Tomasi embraces the statistical side of her new position.
“Numbers are powerful,” she said. “Trying to put numbers on relationships and changes in human behavior is a very challenging area, but it’s important because data reveals information, and information provides us with knowledge that helps us to improve our programs.
“I know the work that occurs within our agency and the amazing changes that can happen in lives, but if you don’t have the numbers to show those changes, they can be discounted or overlooked.”
She described the excitement she felt not long ago after compiling information for a quarterly report in regards to life skills that showed improvement for all the youth in that program.
“I was running around telling everybody who would listen,” she said. “I felt really proud of the youth and the program when I saw the progress that they made within the past quarter.”
She looks forward to her new position where she will have more opportunities to take a look at the big picture.
“In this new job, I’ll be able to take a step back and see progress that is made across all programs,” she said.
The Performance and Quality Improvement office will remain based at Wyndham Lawn in Lockport, and Ms. Tomasi will also work out of her office in Black Creek.
She enjoys living in Cuba with her husband, Chris, associate professor at Alfred State College, and sons, Roman, 8 ½, and Renzo, almost 2.
“There’s a serenity that exists in Cuba,” she said. “It keeps me grounded.”
May 4, 2009