The Director, Jim Farmer, MPH, is accountable for coordinating and organizing day to day operational and management support for school health programs and activities, including school-based health centers, school nursing, school behavioral health, youth suicide prevention, and youth leadership and development programs. Jim has been Director of OSAH for three years, served as Social Services coordinator for12 years and has 18 years of Public Health experience. Jim is responsible for developing systems of accountability within the Office of School and Adolescent Health to guide the program toward meeting goals and objectives set forth in the New Mexico Department of Health Strategic Plan, the State Assessment and the State Improvement Plan through the development of challenging, achievable, relevant, and measurable individual and team goals.
Active participation in strategic planning for OSAH administrative functions and programmatic direction, Public Health Division contract improvement, Health Systems Bureau Strategic Planning, Cross-Cutting Community Change Advocates (C4A) and the Office of Substance Abuse Prevention and Policy (OSAPP).
Responsible for fiscal management of $6 million budget. Activities include monitoring staff salaries, contracting and invoicing oversight, as well as, oversight of other operational expenditures and production of quarterly performance reports and all fiscal assignments as requested. Also, responsible for human resource management including but not limited to developing job descriptions, interviewing candidates, and managing employee performance and evaluation for as many as six employees at a given time. Responsible for clear and effective oral and written communication with peers, employees and customers.
Responsible for legislative bill analyses for twelve years through the Office of School and Adolescent Health. Have also served as a Division level editor for Public Health for the last five years and as a Department level editor for the last two years.
Responsible for clinical protocol development for adolescent services through school based health centers including clinical quality improvement initiatives for pediatric asthma and diabetes, comprehensive risk assessment, suicide prevention and positive youth engagement.
Provided leadership and guidance for OSAH staff to relate job duties to core public health functions. Continuously strived to associate staff duties, contractor expectations and performance requirements to essential public health services through alignment with the Department of Health Strategic Plan and the State Improvement Plan, including but not limited to childhood obesity, drug and alcohol related deaths, diabetes hospitalizations, oral health, teen births and access to care.