9th Cafritz Awards Winners

Philip J. Heinrich
Program Manager
Office of the City AdministratorOver the past 10 years, Mr. Heinrich has applied his background in management consulting and information technology to improve outcomes not just for his colleagues in the Office of the City Administrator but also for many other District agencies. Mr. Heinrich helped DPW to eliminate its backlog of 10,000 abandoned auto service requests and used the Routesmart routing software to create efficient routes and maps that enable DPW inspectors to locate all the sites easily. Mr. Heinrich also pioneered the use of Tableau software in the Capstat team, giving the team an enhanced ability to analyze large datasets and create high-quality charts for mayoral presentations. Moreover, he invested personal time to develop and deploy a payment problem tracking application using Quickbase, which ensured timely, accurate payment to the 20,000 summer youth employees at DOES.

Maude R. Holt
Associate Director
Department of Health Care Finance

Ms. Holt has spent 19 years serving the DC government. She initially served as the administrator of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services and the administrator of Medicaid Managed Care. She was later charged with the task of establishing the Office of the Health Care Ombudsman and Bill of Rights, where she holds her current position as the associate director. Ms. Holt has made highly respected accomplishments that have significantly enhanced the DC health--care delivery. One of her achievements is initiating a screening process that solved the problem of identifying children with special needs and disabilities and providing appropriate health and remedial services to them.

Rehva D. Jones
Director, Higher Education Financial Services and Preparation Program
Office of the State Superintendent of Education

For nearly 7 years at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Ms. Jones has dedicated her time to offering quality service to students in the District. She utilized the HEFStat tool to measure and improve performance and to help define and drive a culture of accountability and excellence; she initiated a targeted outreach effort in high schools that resulted in more than 1,000 students completing their applications for state aid in March rather than in June when they run the risk of not receiving aid because of exhausted funds. Last but not least, Ms. Jones successfully led her colleagues to enhance office efficiency, reducing application processing time from 60 days to one day—a 600% increase in efficiency!

Donna Tucker Sheler, RN
Assistant Coordinator, Woodson Adolescent Wellness Center
Community Health Administration, DC Department of Health

As a registered nurse and assistant coordinator of the Woodson Adolescent Wellness Center for 14 years, Ms. Sheler has made great accomplishments that extend far beyond her job description. She is an inspirational coworker to her colleagues at the Center; she is a beloved and trusted friend to the students; and she is a talented playwright who has written and directed two highly acclaimed plays on violence and teen pregnancy. Using her creativity, she has significantly improved educational outreach efforts on health topics affecting youth and implemented strategies to decrease teen pregnancy and increase HIV testing within the school. She has also been instrumental in establishing the Woodson Adolescent Wellness Center as a model school-based clinic in the District of Columbia.

James Patrick Timony
Librarian, Adaptive Technology
DC Public Library

For more than 5 years, Mr. Timony has been helping to expand the service delivery system of the DC Public Libraries (DCPL). He successfully built a unique and cutting-edge Adaptive Technology Program (ATP) at the DCPL that serves as a national model. This innovative program provides adaptive access for blind and print--disabled patrons of the library system in Washington, DC. Mr. Timony is currently the only Adaptive Technology librarian at a public library in the United States.