| resident at some time in his/her life, are rarely made under the spotlight's glare. While the consumer protection office in the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Protection does receive a lot of attention when it successfully uncovers a case of fraud, DRL doesn't receive attention for the fraud it prevented in the first place. In April 2005, Governor James Doyle appointed Celia Jackson as the secretary of DRL. One year later, Doyle approved Jackson's choice for her deputy secretary, Barbara Wyatt Sibley. Together, they are the first African American women to hold the top two positions in a state department. They are also a great combination to head a 110 staff agency that regulates 128 types of credentials in 57 different professional fields. Over 340,000 professionals, from funeral directors to physicians to dentists, are credentialed by DRL. For the most part, outside the public glare, the boards and committees at DRL play an important role in making decisions concerning the standards and regulations that govern the professional fields DRL regulates. When people have a seat at the table through the appointment process, they have a seat in the halls of power where major decisions that affect people's lives are made. However, not everyone is seated at the table. "I think one of the things the secretary has started to do relative to the board is ensuring that we have diverse representation on our boards," Wyatt Sibley said in an interview with The Capital City Hues. "We have over 300 board members. When you look at people of color -- Latino, African American, and Asian -- the numbers are not good. You need to make sure that the people who are at the table and on the boards represent the cross mix of the state. There is a growing minority population in Wisconsin. And there are certain professions that have an increased number of minorities. So I think the secretary is really pushing to ensure that people are at the table when those discussions are happening and rules are being created in terms of scope of practice. I think that is new and it is a challenge." "We are working on some really intentional, proactive measures to try to recruit and identify people for the Governor's Office for a lot of these boards so that we can have more diversity amongst our board members because this is where the decisions are being made as it relates to the professions," Jackson added. A case in point is the development of new standards and regulations for substance abuse counselors. In the past, the profession was certified by the Wisconsin Certification Board, but not regulated by a state agency per se. The Wisconsin legislature passed new legislation that made substance abuse counselors a regulated profession. It was up to Jackson and the department to create the process, structure, and the standards that would regulate the profession. DRL officially began regulating it on December 15. The first order of business was creating the advisory committee that would help guide DRL as it developed the regulations. "I had the responsibility of appointing," Jackson said. "I actually went out and recruited people, talked to people, and identified people. We probably had the most diverse group of people engaged in rule making on that committee. It was a large group, about 18 people, but it was people from around the state of Wisconsin. It was people from different ethnic groups and people who came into that profession via different routes. It was people with a wide history of background." In the area of substance abuse, people have traditionally entered the profession via two major paths. One is through the grassroots. Ex-addicts, having overcome their abuse, become almost religious in their efforts to help other escape the horror that they themselves have gone through. Many of these individuals have only graduated from high school or have attained their GED. They may just be informal counselors attached to a church or a grassroots agency. Some have received their certification by working at a licensed substance abuse counseling center for a specified number of hours. The other route is through formal education, receiving a B.A. or Masters in guidance and counseling. An inordinate number of counselors who have gone the first route are people of color. An inordinate number of counselors who take the latter route are Euro-American. "What were the implications of having so much diversity on the advisory committee? This meant there was a lot of struggle,"Jackson emphasized. "People aren't always used to having that much diversity around the table. Usually it's more people that are like you than are not like you. Having that many different voices around the table was wonderful. It was hard. I';m not going to say it was easy. But it was wonderful. And I think we got the best that we possibly could have gotten out of that group given the give and take that they did. I think at the end of the day, as long as everyone could respect each other, I think they felt they had a good product. And there was a lot of compromising that went on. There was a lot of give and take. Those were all pluses. I think it was a great example of what is possible. But it took a lot of work. Staff had to spend a lot of time because when folks got stuck, how do you get them unstuck. We had to deal with all of that. But in the end, I think there has been a lot of value to it." One important result was that multiple entryways into the profession were preserved. "There was some movement afoot to try and make it more restrictive, " Jackson said. "Some people, let';s say, were looking at the Masters level as a way of gaining entry into the profession. Before, people didn't necessarily have to have an advanced degree in order to get into the profession. We had a whole lot of conversation and dialogue to really maintain that access into the profession when we were engaged in the rule making. I think we are very sensitive to it, but I think we have to look at what kind of times we are in because more and more degrees are being looked at as entryway into a particular profession. And the professions are deciding that amongst themselves. We are the regulators, but a lot of the decisions as far as what happens in a profession do happen within the profession because these board members are made up of a lot of people who are within that profession." Since substance abuse counseling is such a personal and deeply engaging profession, it is important that the counselor be able to effectively reach the addict. Culture can play a big role in the process. "Continuing education is definitely a component of the substance abuse program," Jackson said. "Cultural competency is included in that. They have to have some classroom hours as it relates to cultural competency." Sitting at the table does indeed ensure that the needs and interests of people of color are represented. And that is a priority -- that all people are represented -- for Jackson and DRL. |
| The one-two punch at Wis. Dept. of Regulation & Licensing Consumer protection By Jonathan Gramling Part 2 of 2 |
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| The Wis. Dept. of Regulation & Licensing (DRL) is one of the more "quiet" state agencies. It rarely makes headlines; its management team is rarely seen on television. Yet, as conventional wisdom goes, the real decisions affecting the everyday lives of thousands of people and touching the life of every Wisconsin |
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