Press Release - TuscBDD Welcomes New Board Member: Julie Brinkman

PRESS RELEASE

TuscBDD Welcomes New Board Member: Julie Brinkman

New Philadelphia, October 6, 2017: At the September 2017 regularly scheduled board meeting for the Tuscarawas County Board of Developmental Disabilities (TuscBDD), the board cordially welcomed a newly appointed Board member: Julie Brinkman, who was appointed by the Tuscarawas County Probate Judge to fill the position previously held by Jeremy Everett.

Brinkman is currently the Assistant Principal at Buckeye Career Center. She has an extensive background in early education and education administration through positions at a local preschool and Buckeye Career Center. She works closely with the team of Special Education Coordinators and teachers at Buckeye and also has experience with boardmanship through her work with the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System and with the Career Technical Education Professionals Board of Directors. "We are happy to have someone on our board with such an extensive professional background in our field of developmental disabilities," shared Nate Kamban, TuscBDD Superintendent. "I think Julie will be a great asset to an already excellent board."

At the conclusion of the welcome and introduction, Julie expressed her excitement for the new responsibility and leadership opportunity. "I am excited to get started and to serve on this board," expressed Brinkman. "This opportunity comes with a great deal of responsibility, and I am ready to see what we can do."

Also at the September board meeting, members approved $4,200 to purchase a one-year- county-wide subscription for area agency providers in Tuscarawas County for the Ohio Provider Resource Association's (OPRA) new DSPOhio marketing and recruitment tool for Direct Support Professionals. This subscription will eliminate the local providers' upfront costs to participate and is a part of TuscBDD's ongoing goal to provide top-notch support to area agency providers through a Provider Support Program initiative. "TuscBDD has been meeting with area agency providers over the last few months to nail down problematic issues within the field." Shared Kerri Silverthorn, TuscBDD Community Relations and Special Projects Coordinator. "Through those conversations, we learned about key issues, and we are developing solutions that will be made available through our Provider Support Program. The subscription to OPRA is one of the first steps in our program. We hope that providers will access the tools and utilize them, especially since it is no cost to them! We plan to host an information session next month on everything providers can do with this tool, and we look forward to rolling out other opportunities within our Provider Support Program in the near future."