Foxhoven begins dream opportunity as DHS head

DES MOINES - Thursday was the first day of what Jerry Foxhoven considers 'a dream opportunity” as director of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

'I'm excited. It's a great opportunity to try to do good,” said Foxhoven, 64, a well-known leader in child protection and family law who is Gov. Kim Reynolds' choice to lead one of the state's largest agency.

'I'm going to love working with the people here and kind of dealing with some of the challenges that we have,” he said in an interview.

Foxhoven is succeeding Chuck Palmer, who is retiring Friday. The department annually serves more than 1 million Iowans - many the state's most vulnerable children, elderly and disabled - and administers necessary services, including food assistance, Medicaid, child welfare, mental health and disability services.

Often a lightning rod, the department has received criticism for converting the state's $5 billion Medicaid program to privately managed care for nearly 600,000 clients, closing state-run institutions in Clarinda, Mount Pleasant and Toledo, and its handling of child-protective services in the wake of the deaths of two adopted teenage girls.

Foxhoven said he wants to take some time gathering information on how best to make improvements and bolster the sagging morale of a workforce that tops 4,600.

'Nobody's talking about the hundreds of things that they do every day that are really good,” he said, noting that staffers work 'little miracles every day.”

''I can raise morale a little bit by just recognizing the good things they do and not only focusing on the bad things,” Foxhoven said.

Foxhoven said he applied for the director's job because it offers an opportunity to affect quality of life for about a third of the state's population who are DHS clients. He found that he and Reynolds have the same mission to change the agency for the better.

'What she didn't say to me was get rid of the bad press, figure out how to fix our publicity problem, our ‘P.R.' problem,” he said. 'What she did say to me was help me figure out how to make this a safe place for kids. ... That was the mission that I was driven to.

'She's really a change agent. She wants us to take a look at everything that DHS does and see how we can do it better and provide better services to the people that we serve,” he added.

Foxhoven, who began practicing law in 1977 with an emphasis on trial practice in criminal and civil law, has been involved in juvenile and family law cases.

In 2000, he took over as administrator for the Iowa Child Advocacy Board and was responsible for developing and implementing personnel policies, strategic planning and public policy advocacy.

He also directed two separate child welfare advocacy programs - Court Appointed Special Advocate and Iowa Citizen Foster Care Review Board programs. Most recently, he served as executive director of Clinical Programs and Professor of Law at Drake University's School of Law where he supervised a number of administrative responsibilities - experiences he said that prepared him for his new challenge.

'The person who leads DHS needs to have good leadership skills, good listening skills, not be afraid of change, and be open and transparent, and I think those are traits that I aspire to,” he said.

Foxhoven said guiding a department that has divisions larger than many state agencies at a time of tight budgets is 'a little daunting,” but he planned to rely heavily on the experienced staff during his transition.

He said his job is not to assess past decisions but to move things forward.

'I'm focusing kind of like a laser on where are we now and how do we make it better,” he said.