Dawn Swiney, MPA

Ms. Swiney began her career in public service during high school, accepting a position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers providing technical support to the Accounting Office of the Omaha branch of the Corps. Ms. Swiney maintained this role for 5 years, through the completion of her undergraduate studies at Creighton University in May 1996. Ms. Swiney completed her Master of Public Administration degree requirements at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies in May 2000.

While pursuing her graduate degree, Ms. Swiney continued to work in public service and non-profits. Ms. Swiney worked for the YWCA, Cobb County Battered Women’s shelter, which at the time was the largest shelter of its kind in the metropolitan area. In 1997, Ms. Swiney accepted a position with the DeKalb Community Service Board in the Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD) Residential Services. Ms. Swiney managed the daily operations of the Semi-Independent Living Apartment program and personal care homes serving adults with varying MR/DD including Cerebral Palsy and Downs Syndrome, and medical fragility including insulin and wheel chair dependence.

Ms. Swiney served as Office Services Supervisor for DeKalb Enterprises one of the Agency’s three major MR/DD day services programs which provides day services to up to 160 adults with disabilities in a community and facility-based work settings. In this capacity, Ms. Swiney managed all aspects of the administrative operations of the program including human resource and accounting functions, but also served as the Site Utilization Review Coordinator, providing administrative oversight of the clinical documents including prior authorization requests.

Ms. Swiney assumed the role of to Program Manager for the Supported Employment Program which is under the general supervision of the Director of DeKalb Enterprises. In that capacity she managed the supported employment program serving up to 80 adults with disabilities. Along with the Director of DeKalb Enterprises, she managed a combined program budget of $1.9M.

During her tenure as with the DeKalb Community Service Board, Ms. Swiney has created and/or contributed to several quality improvements. Ms. Swiney redesigned the Supported Employment Program and resources to be included in the programmatic structure of DeKalb Enterprises as well she redesigned and streamlined a program component of DeKalb Enterprises resulting in an annual savings of over $35,000. She developed a plan for programmatic staff reorganization to improve efficiencies. She created SOPs for consumers, community inclusion program component. Ms. Swiney developed Supported Employment documentation instruments approved by the agency Medical Records Director for agency use. She developed an instrument to document and report client payroll data. The Supported Employment Program achieved 100% medical record compliance through management and retraining staff on documentation standards and process. Ms. Swiney reallocated funds, with final approval of the Executive Director of the DeKalb Community Service Board, to create a position to serve as critical link b/w program(s) and community resources which has led to near immediate increase in the number and quality of job placements. Swiney developed programming/ training modules for 50+ individuals desiring to transition from facility-based to community-based employment. Finally, as part of a work team, Ms. Swiney designed agency’s newest program for adults w/ DD, CHOICE (Choosing Habilitation Options in Community Environments).