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Family history – and watching mom ‘do what needed to be done' – help mold a helping professional and social service leader
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Making do with what life brings. Being open. Working hard. Those are the traits others use to describe Janet Schalansky, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services since 1999. They are also some of the traits Ms. Schalansky uses to describe the person she called a role model: her mother, Florence Painter. When Janet was young, her father, Melvin Painter, suffered the first of a series of heart attacks and was forced to quit work as a construction worker. The forced retirement came when he was too young to qualify for disability payments, |
"Mom is a person who went about doing what she had to do," Ms. Schalansky said. "She didn't complain. She just did what needed to be done."
Rochelle Chronister, a former state representative and SRS Secretary prior to Ms. Schalansky, said the work ethic must have passed from mother to daughter.
"If Janet learned that from her mom, she learned it well," Ms. Chronister said. "And not just working hard and not complaining, but figuring out how to make things work. Janet is very, very intelligent."
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In leading an agency that provides public assistance to low-income people and people with disabilities, it may help to come from a family that faced its own difficulties. Besides her dad's heart problems, Ms. Schalansky's sister was seriously ill with lupus while Janet was young. The family, she said, spent a lot of time at the Kansas University Medical Center. The family medical hardships and hospital experience pushed her toward her career. She earned a |
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"It's not as much a shift as you might think," she said of the decision to give up on being a doctor and go into counseling. "I wanted to be in a helping profession. I worked in physical therapy, helping patients. It allowed me to work with people in the medical profession. But at that time, physicians were on call for 24 hours and it would have meant 10 more years in school. I wanted to have kids and a family."
The work as a counselor gave her training that today helps her connect with people who have disabilities. At Emporia State University (ESU) she knew and worked with many people with disabilities, many of the disabilities caused by accidents. ESU was the only American college at that time that was totally accessible to persons with disabilities.
"You learn the pressure and challenges a disability puts on families, both the individual and their families," she said.
Gina McDonald, president and CEO of the Kansas Association of Centers for Independent Living, said that having Ms. Schalansky as secretary has been good for people with disabilities.
"Janet has always gotten it," Ms. McDonald said. "What I like most about her is her understanding of what we do and who we are. There have been more ongoing meetings and access to Janet's office has been much more open."
Ms. McDonald said the job of leading the state's social service agency during times of a budget crisis has to be difficult.
"When there was plenty of money, cutting services wasn't a huge issue," she said. "She has done a very good job working with the Legislature, negotiating with them and working through the issues without giving up essential services."
In almost 30 years with SRS, Ms. Schalansky has been an examiner and staff trainer with Disability Determination Services, grants manager and later, director of the Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities in the Mental Health and Retardation Services Commission, director of Adult Services, director the Topeka SRS office, and director of the agency's Workforce Development Division. She served as deputy secretary under Ms. Chronister before being named Secretary by Governor Bill Graves in 1999.
Senator Stephen Morris, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said Secretary Schalansky has been very good to work with in developing agency budgets and policy. This has been especially important during the recent state budget crisis, which he said has been difficult both for the Legislature and state agencies.
"She's been very responsive," he said.
The leadership message Ms. Schalansky wants to portray is to have people understand the reasoning behind decisions that are made. Whether with state lawmakers, SRS employees, or consumers of SRS services, she works to let people know why decisions are made.
"It always helps to know the ‘why,'" she said. "If you can explain the why, you can get to the ‘how.' For me, it makes sense if you explain why you need to do things differently. Try to explain the why. Then look at the alternatives and consequences of that kind of choice."
Senator Morris said explaining the reasoning behind tough budget decisions also sometimes softens disappointment.
"Sometimes, if people know why, its more palatable," he said.
Representative Melvin Neufeld, who chaired the subcommittee that deals with SRS in the House Appropriations Committee, said he has been pleased with the work of Secretary Schalansky and her staff.
"I know my committee was pleased with her openness," he said. "And she also is effective using other staff people to help relay her message. By broadening the number of people giving the message, it adds credibility."
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In choosing the people to represent her and SRS in top positions, Ms. Schalansky said she values honesty. "It's also important for people to work hard," she said. "And also, people who are big picture thinkers, not their personal program. And I guess unselfish ... people who don't need credit. I often run across people who work hard only if they get credit. It's more important what gets done rather than who gets the credit." Connie Hubbell, who is now secretary |
"She is one of the best leaders in social services ever in the state of Kansas," Ms. Hubbell said. "And she knows SRS better than anyone in the state of Kansas now. Maybe it's the number of years of experience, and her knowledge and in-depth understanding and her memory...I don't know of anyone else who could hold a candle to it."
Ms. Hubbell also commented on Ms. Schalansky's willingness to take risks to improve the agency.
"She is willing to do things differently than they have always been done in the past," Ms. Hubbell said. "And consequently, she has improved SRS, in my opinion."
Another trait that transcends Ms. Schalansky's SRS leadership is the work done to get ahead of issues. She said besides the importance of being proactive, rather than reactive, she also doesn't want to be blind-sided by an issue that the agency was unprepared for.
"I try to get people out ahead of issues rather than react after the fact," she said. "Kansas has a history of doing this. Look at the welfare reform work we did before Congress changed the law. We could have waited, but then we would have had less time."
Ms. Schalansky joked that another reason she works to stay ahead of issues is due to laziness.
"I don't want to have to do something over again," she said.
One trait of Ms. Schalansky that often amazes people is her memory. She can enter a room and remember the names of everyone there. And not just names, but people's interests and concerns.
"To me, that's just common courtesy, to know names and respond as individuals," she said. "But I do think I was blessed. My dad had almost a photographic memory. I didn't realize that until late in (his) life."
But Ms. Schalansky said there are other reasons besides courtesy for good memory.
"To remember them and know how they'll look at different situations helps you predict the future," she said.
In some ways, Ms. Schalansky said the current budget crisis has helped the agency become more efficient. But she said she would have liked to be able to help people leaving public assistance move up the career ladder, something lack of funding has prevented. Also, she said the funding shortfall has negatively affected some children's prevention programs and she regretted the state's inability to provide a dental program for low-income adults.
"I talk to consumers who go 14, 16 years without any dental work," she said. "Particularly clients with severe and persistent mental illness, who often take medications that make them vulnerable to gum disease."
Ms. Schalansky believes the role of social service will only increase in time. She pointed to demographic studies.
"But growth will be tempered by public policy decided upon," she said. "That's the challenge to Kansas, to get to the decisions. What services and to whom? Who might be financially eligible? Yes, poor people get help. Or poor people with a head injury or a disability. If we believe it, then we have to fund it. If we don't, then we have to get our policy in line with the budget."
Asked whether or not we should provide assistance, she said yes.
"I believe that the history of this country shows most Americans believe we ought to take care of folks who are unfortunate," she said. "Where we can't agree is how to define these groups."
And advice to social service leaders who follow her?
"We're not doing very well educating people on the needs," she said. "It's not real to them. We've seen that in the Legislature. They have never seen poverty; never seen real poverty and how difficult it is to get out of real poverty. We need to educate people about the issues."
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Page last updated: November 14, 2003