An Interview with DCDHS Interim Director Astra Iheukumere: Called to Service (Part 1 of 2)

Astra

Astra Iheukumerehas been with Dane County Dept. of Human Services since 2019.

by Jonathan Gramling

Dane County Dept. of Human Services is one of the largest governmental offices in Dane County. In 2022, its budget was over $242 million. The city of Fitchburg’s budget was $42 million in 2022 and the city of Sun Prairie had a 2023 budget of close to $135 million.

It is a large operation that touches the lives of around 200,000 Dane County citizens in some way each year. It has 816 employees who are scattered throughout Dane County working in a diverse array of human service areas, serving the very young and the very old and everyone in between. It’s main office sits on top of a hill on Northport Drive with a great view of the city of Madison.

And since last year, Astra Iheukumere has led the department as its interim director, having served as the deputy director before that since 2019.  Iheukumere has been acquainted with the work of Human Services having been born and raised in a working class family in Madison and seeing the work of the department in the community.

“I definitely don’t come from money,” Iheukumere said with a chuckle. “I understand the needs and how challenging it is to navigate Dane County when you are resource deficient. “

Iheukumere is also well-versed  in government service. After leaving the Madison Mayor’s Office in 2014, she headed to UW-Madison.

“I went to work for a national program based on the UW-Madison campus called County Rankings and Roadmaps, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,” Iheukumere said. “I went to be their Community Networks and National Partnerships assistant director. I was there through 2018. I did a lot of traveling. I went all over the country. County Rankings and Roadmaps is built on the framework of the social determinants of health. It is sort of rooted in the public health space. And really what I got to do was travel the country visiting different communities, doing presentations about the social determinants of health and building partnerships to promote the model of county health and what that looks like. It got to do that for four years. It was an amazing experience. I was mainly on the road. It was 50/50 in town. I spent a lot of time in airports during those years, but I really learned a lot.”

From there, Iheukumere moved over to the Madison Metropolitan School District to work for Dr. Jennifer Cheatham, the former superintendent. Unfortunately it was a brief stay.

“I was the director of strategic partnerships,” Iheukumere said. “I was there just shy of a year. I loved it. I started there and loved the position and my team. I loved the work. I left because Jennifer left that year. You know how it is when leadership leaves. Everything changes. Unexpectedly, and fortunately, the deputy director position for Human Services was open and they were recruiting. 2019 was a very interesting year because my mom was ill and was on the decline health-wise. And so I was very content at the district and wasn’t aggressively looking, but several people in the community asked me to apply. I applied the last day of the posting. And the rest is history. I started as the deputy director for Dane County Human Services in Sptember 2019.”

Iheukumere worked in that position for three years under Shawn Tessman. In 2022, Tessman decided to step down and assume a role as a division administrator, something she had done befor becoming the human services director. County Executive Joe Parisi asked Iheukumere to step in as the interim.

“I’ve been doing in this position since July 2022,” Iheukumere said. “It’s been wonderful. I’ve loved it. I’m very fortunate to have these experiences that I have had and worked alongside such amazing teams and people for this community in different ways. I am really happy and really blessed.”

Before and during her professional career, Iheukumere earned a bachelor’s degree in political science, a masters in public administration and policy and an MBA, all of them from UW-Madison. Iheukumere was ready to take on the responsibilities of being the interim director.

“I’m a spiritual person,” Iheukumere said. “And I think doors open and prompt you in the direction you are supposed to go. I’ve been lucky and very fortunate in that the decisions and career opportunities that I have been presented with have complemented my preparation as well as my personal interests and passions. It’s been great.”

As was said before, Human Services is a large department with a long reach.

“We are the largest local government agency department in Dane County,” Iheukumere said. “I believe we are the largest human services department in the state. And we serve all kinds of people. We have eight divisions and I have an amazing leadership team that I work with. I am very proud of the work that my staff does across the spectrum. We’re a big department and growing. We’re big.”

One of its divisions sits just off of Hwy, 18-151 just outside Verona.

“We have Badger Prairie Healthcare Center,” Iheukumere said. “That is basically a skilled nursing facility. It has 120 beds. Our most physically-challenged people, mostly elderly people and severely disabled people who need full-time care. It is a residential facility. This is a state-of-the-art facility that has been a part of the department for decades. It is a pretty impressive facility and is updated. We usually have a waiting list of people wanting to be admitted to Badger Prairie.”

One of its largest divisions is Children, Youth and Family, DCF for short. It houses a number of programs that impacts the lives of thousands of Dane County children every day.

“It houses our Children Protective Services unit and also our Youth Justice Team, which was formally the Neighborhood Intervention Program,” Iheukumere said. “We serve children along with families in crisis. We ensure the safety of children, advocate for children who are experiencing chronic neglect. We look for ways to keep children out of out-of-home care. We’re always looking for ways to unite kids with their families. On the Youth Justice side, we’re always looking for ways to keep our kids out of the criminal justice system and develop a path towards mentorship or for kids who have been in the system, trying to find ways to keep them out of the system.”

There are a number of programs that are housed in the Prevention/Early Intervention Division that works to keep people out of the system and become independent members of the Dane County community.

“It houses our Immigration Affairs Office led by Fabiola Hamden and our Joining Forces for Families,” Iheukumere said. “We have 18 social workers who are scattered throughout Dane County. They practice community-based social work. They are there to connect families and individuals throughout the community with different resources, not only what the county offers, but also what our partners offer. A lot of times at Joining Forces for Families, social workers are co-located with our partners like food banks and pantries, and clothing drives. They are just located where there are other services. They are doing great work. We have the Community Restorative Court, which provides a path for restoration for people who have been in the criminal justice system. It’s sort of a progressive model, experiential model that is gaining momentum. We’ve been doing that for a number of years now. And of course there is our Out-of-Home Care Team, which is foster care. One of the things that I am proud of is that Dane County has the lowest out-of-home care placement numbers of any county in the state. That means that we are keeping kids in their homes, keeping them with their families and not having to place them in foster care. We like that number to be low.”

Thousands of children are impacted by these divisions from attending programs at neighborhood centers and schools to receiving counseling and therapy to participating in intramural sports. It’s all designed to help youth become self-sufficient, productive citizens. And that’s not all the department does.

Next issue: More services and change