Director of Health and Human Services
Washington County Health and Human Services
Hillsboro, OR
Marni Kuyl is the director of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington County, Oregon. She provides vision, leadership and strategic direction for all programs within the department of approximately 250 FTE. The program areas within the department includes public health, behavioral health, children and family services, animal services, solid waste and recycling, and disability, aging and veteran services. The major area of focus for the department is improving coordination and collaboration across program areas, within the county and community. A second major priority is to align with Oregon health transformation by ensuring a strong, accountable and effective governmental system that supports the Coordinated Care Organizations and our community’s goal of improving population health, health care and managing costs. In 1986, Kuyl began her career in public health as an RN for Pinal County, Arizona, a small rural community. As a community-based public health nurse, she was responsible for providing all public health nursing services in a largely Latino, Spanish-speaking community. Services included tuberculosis prevention and treatment, communicable disease control, well child and prenatal care clinics, home visiting services, family planning and Women, Infants and Children's (WIC) nutrition services. While working as a public health nurse, Kuyl obtained a bachelor's degree in community health nursing at Arizona State University and a Women's Healthcare Nurse Practitioner certificate through the University of Phoenix. During this time, she acquired progressively more program management responsibility and began to lead teams. In 1991, Pinal County promoted Kuyl to nurse practitioner to manage the Title X family planning services. In 1995, Kuyl graduated with a master’s degree in community health nursing from Arizona State University and moved to Kalispell, Montana, where she provided reproductive health services as a nurse practitioner. During her five-year tenure in Montana, she developed additional women's health programs, specifically the breast and cervical health screening program and a menopause clinic to complement the existing family planning and STD services. In June of 1999, Kuyl moved to Vancouver, Washington, to serve as the clinical services manager for Clark County Public Health. She progressed rapidly in her leadership within the department to become the deputy director, a position she held until joining Washington County. In this position, Kuyl was responsible for all operations within the department. Some of the accomplishments she is most proud of include: · Co-led a successful effort to transition categorical public health clinic services to a federally qualified health care clinic with a behavioral health primary care integrated model. These efforts led to increased access to a comprehensive health home for several thousand low-income Clark County residents · Developing and implementing a new “place-based" population model of integrated maternal and child health and chronic disease prevention combining federal community transformation and Maternal and Child Block grant funds and local revenue from county general funds · Obtaining funding and community support to implement the Nurse Family Partnership program · Serving as co-investigator on a randomized clinical control research study to evaluate home distribution of hormonal contraceptives within a home visiting program · Integrating environmental health specialists in the chronic disease prevention efforts · Developing and mentoring innovative creative managers within the department