Raising Texas - Infrastructure

Roles and Responsibilities

Raising Texas Implementation Teams- Implementation Teams consist of content expert staff, external stakeholders, and family members. Implementation Teams are the first level of decision making towards the implementation of the goals, objectives and activities outlined within the Texas Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems plan. Actions that require policy, commitment of agency resources or high level cross agency coordination will be forwarded to the Raising Texas Steering Committee.

Implementation Team Chairs

The role of the chairperson will be to bring forward proposed recommendations for consideration by the Steering Committee.

Raising Texas Steering Committee

Consist of agency members with sufficient policy and operational authority to approve policy recommendations and to explore or approve the availability of agency resources as proposed by the implementation teams, and to provide guidance in prioritizing and addressing areas requiring cross agency coordination. The Raising Texas Steering Committee consist of one member from each HHS agency (Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, Department on Aging and Disability Services, Department of Family Protective Services, Department of State Health Services) and a member from the Texas Education Agency, Texas Workforce Commission, Office of the Attorney General, and the State Center for Early Childhood Development. A chairperson identified for each of the four implementation teams will be a member of the Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is not conceptualized as voting body, but a forum for which innovative ideas for increasing the coordination of services and the promotion of evidence based practices for children under the age of six is considered.

Steering Committee:

HHSC - Chair, Dr. Charles E. Bell, Deputy Executive Commissioner, Office of Health Services
Department of State Health Services - Evelyn Delgado - Assistant Commissioner for Department of State Health Services
Department of Family Protective Services - Sasha Rasco - Director of Policy and Program Operations in Child Care Licensing
Department on Ageing and Disability Services - Don Henderson - Director of the Center for Policy and Innovation
Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services - Kim Wedel - Assistant Commissioner for Early Childhood Intervention
Texas Education Agency - Gina Day, Senior Support Services
Texas Workforce Commission – Nicole Verver, Director of Workforce Policy
State Center for Early Childhood Development – Dr. Susan Landry, Michael Knight Professor of Pediatrics
Office of the Attorney General - TBD

Implementation Team Chairs:

Access to Insurance and Medical Home - Interim-chair, Lesa Walker, Children with Special Health Care Needs
Social Emotional Development and Mental Health - Dr. Connie Almeida, Zero to Three
Early Care and Education - LaShonda Brown, Executive Director, Texas Association for the Education of Young Children
Parent Education and Family Support - Marianne Ehrlich, President and CEO Healthy Family Initiatives

Implementation Team Co-Chairs:

Access to Insurance and Medical Home - Carrie Kroll, Director of Advocacy and Health Policy Texas Pediatric Society
Social Emotional Development and Mental Health - Marnie Stone, Texas Association for Infant Mental Health, Sherrie Routin, Director, Positive Behavior Support project
Early Care and Education - Sul Ross, Vice President of Programs and Collaboration Development Collaborative for Children
Parent Education and Family Support - Elaine Shiver, Director, Texas Parents as Teachers