Main Responsibilities of a Director of Program Quality, Training and Assessment at Girls Inc. of Alameda County
Johanna, Director of Program Quality, Training, and Assessment at Girls Incorporated of Alameda County, oversees grant compliance, "because if you don't follow the rules, you cannot be at service," while also leading training initiatives and an evaluation team that provides crucial feedback on program effectiveness, allowing the organization to directly improve its impact on young people. This work is deeply meaningful to Johanna, stemming from past experiences and a commitment to community support.
Project Management, Compliance, Training and Development, Data Analysis, Nonprofit Management
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
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johanna masis
Director of Program Quality, Training and Assessment
Girls Incorporated of Alameda County
U of A, Tucson and UC Santa Barbara
Holy Names University, MA ESL
Humanities
Education
Operations and Project Management
Immigrant, Transfer Student, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Project managing grants and ensuring compliance with federal, state, and city regulations to maintain program funding and service to the community.
2. Overseeing training for staff, incorporating current trends and feedback from younger staff members to ensure relevance and effectiveness.
3. Leading the evaluation team to assess program impact, analyze data, and share results with practitioners to improve future programs and outcomes for young people.
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
My current role has a pretty lengthy title: Director of Program Quality. This essentially covers compliance, training, and assessment. I work for a national nonprofit called Girls Inc.
I'm at the largest affiliate, Girls Inc. of Alameda County. My main responsibilities are project managing grants from federal, state, and city sources. I oversee the compliance for these grants.
When you receive money from these sources, you have to justify it and follow specific rules. I ensure we adhere to these rules because non-compliance can prevent us from providing services.
For example, if we were to do anything illegal, like with mandated reporting, it would be detrimental. We work with young people, so fulfilling requirements like this is crucial. If there's an audit and we haven't met these standards, it could lead to our program doors being closed.
Compliance isn't the most exciting part of the job, I understand. However, I have some work trauma from a previous agency where this exact situation happened. I never want anyone in this field to experience having to close doors to about 800 families and try to find other organizations to serve them.
Compliance is very close to my heart because of that experience. I learned my lessons. I wasn't part of the downfall, but I now understand the consequences of not following the rules. It's detrimental to communities, especially those with limited resources.
The other part of my work is overseeing training for the entire organization. With over 20 years in youth development, I make sure I stay informed. I'm not saying I'm entirely up-to-date with pop culture; I genuinely don't get it. I grew up in the golden age of hip hop and rap, so it's hard for me to connect with current trends.
All that to say, I stay close to what young people and even my young staff are interested in. We hire staff between 18 and 24 years old. I need to provide training relevant to their jobs. If that means following trends to include in my training, I do that work.
I let them fill in the gaps for me, and I have no shame. If I say something weird or mispronounce something, I let them correct me, I honor it, and move forward.
Lastly, I oversee the evaluation team. One of the beauties of this work is seeing our actual impact on our young people. Not many people get to see the seeds they planted bear fruit. Being in evaluation allows me to do that.
My team is responsible for implementing surveys year-round. Literally every month, there's always some program being evaluated. We take the data, analyze it, and share the results with practitioners. This helps them understand if young people connected with a particular workshop or unit.
We then work on revamping it to make it accessible for the next group of young people. It's really cool to see the fruits of our labor.