FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 7/5/2016
My VA Advisory Committee Releases Statement on VA
Transformation
Panel of experts provides insight and assessment of VA’s
efforts to better serve veterans
In March of 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced the establishment of the MyVA Advisory Committee (MVAC). The MVAC is
a Federal Advisory Committee, independent of VA, composed of leaders and
subject matter experts from the Veterans community, business, higher education,
and the public and private sectors. The Committee is chartered to advise VA on
how to best create a high-performing and customer-focused culture across the
Department, rebuild trust with Veterans and other stakeholders, and deliver
high-quality care and services to the nation’s Veterans.
Over the past 15 months, the Committee has traveled across
the United States to engage VA leadership, VA employees, individual Veterans,
Veteran-serving organizations, private sector experts, and many other key
stakeholders in an effort to inform, calibrate, and evaluate VA’s ongoing
efforts to better serve the nation’s Veterans.
In the fall of 2016, the Committee will release a full
report detailing a summary assessment of those efforts, to include
recommendations for sustained focus and additional improvement. However, in
advance of that report – and in the context of current public discourse related
to Department-wide transformation at VA – the members of the Committee believe
that it is both important and appropriate to provide public insight as to our
current assessment of VA’s transformation initiatives.
Accordingly, today the MVAC is releasing a public statement
(attached) that represents the current assessment of MVAC membership regarding
VA’s progress to date related to enacting transformation and change that
supports improved access to benefits and care for the nation’s Veterans.
The MVAC membership agrees that there is significant work
ahead for the Department to appropriately set the course for long-term
excellence and reform. However, the membership unanimously agrees that the
positive change we have witnessed over the past 15 months is unprecedented, and
that VA’s transformation efforts have been authentically focused on the relentless
pursuit of improving access to benefits and providing quality care for the
nation’s Veterans. For this reason the MVAC believes that it’s critically
important that the momentum supporting the MyVA transformation process – both
inside and outside of VA – be sustained and supported during this period of
political change.
Media inquiries and/or questions related to the MyVA
Advisory Committee can be directed to Debra Walker, Designated Federal Officer,
MyVA Program Management Office, Department of Veterans Affairs, 1800 G Street,
NW, #880-40, Washington, DC, or email at debra.walker3@va.gov.
About the MyVA Advisory Committee: The MyVA Advisory
Committee was established in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act
(FACA), as amended, 5 U.S.C., App.2. The MVAC is composed of leaders and
subject matter experts from the Veterans community, business, higher education,
and the public and private sectors, and is chartered to advise VA on how best
to create a high-performing and customer-focused culture across the
organization, and also to assess and evaluate the VA’s progress toward
improving access to benefits, quality care, and setting the course for
long-term excellence and reform at VA.
MYVA EXTERNAL
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
STATEMENT ON THE
PROGRESS OF ONGOING VA TRANSFORMATION
JULY 5, 2016
In March of 2015, both President Obama and Secretary
McDonald traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to participate in a roundtable discussion
focused on improving the ability of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
to serve the nation’s Veterans. The backdrop for that discussion had been a
profound and public breach of VA’s commitment to “those who have borne the
battle,” in the form of unacceptable patient wait-times and a leadership
culture lacking transparency and accountability at the Phoenix VA. Following
the roundtable, as a step toward informing the course for long-term reform and
excellence across the VA, Secretary McDonald announced the formation of the
MyVA Advisory Committee (MVAC).
The MyVA Advisory Committee is independent of VA, and is
composed of leaders and subject matter experts from the Veterans community,
business, higher education, and the public and private sectors. The Committee
is chartered to advise VA on how best to create a high-performing and
customer-focused culture across the Department, and also to assess and evaluate
VA’s progress toward improving access to benefits and delivering quality care
to the nation’s Veterans.
Over the past year, the Committee has traveled across the
United States to engage VA leadership, VA employees, individual Veterans,
Veteran-serving organizations, private sector experts, and many other key
stakeholders in an effort to inform, calibrate, and evaluate VA’s ongoing
efforts to better serve the nation’s Veterans.
In the fall of 2016, the committee will release a full
report detailing a summary assessment of those efforts, to include
recommendations for sustained focus and additional improvement. However, in
advance of that report – and in the context of the public discourse related to
change and transformation across the Department – the members of the Committee
believe that it is both important and appropriate to provide public insight as
to our current assessment of VA’s transformation initiatives.
The MVAC membership agrees that there is significant work
ahead for the Department in order to appropriately set the course for long-term
excellence and reform. However, it is also important to note that members of
the MyVA Advisory Committee unanimously agree that the change we have witnessed
over the past 15-months – at all levels of the Department – is unprecedented.
Most importantly, the change we’ve witnessed has been authentically focused on
the relentless pursuit of improving access to benefits and providing quality
care for the nation’s veterans.
To that end, we’d like to highlight several examples that we
believe are indicative of the ongoing and positive transformation required to
realize long-term reform and excellence across the Department.
IMPROVING THE VETERAN EXPERIENCE:
The Committee has witnessed real and meaningful progress
toward enhancing the Veterans’ experience with VA services and VA people. This
progress has been informed by exhaustive benchmarking against the best customer
service firms and organizations in the world, and enabled by tremendous
improvements in workforce training, data systems, and data transparency. 2
Statement of the
MyVA Advisory Committee – July 5, 2016
Since the access crisis in Phoenix, VA has completed
millions more appointments, both within VA and within the community, as
compared to the year prior – 97% of those appointments were completed inside 30
days of the clinically indicated or ‘veteran preferred’ date of request. This
improvement was made possible, in part, because today’s VA leaders in the field
have been empowered by performance dashboards and data-driven metrics in a way
that wasn’t even contemplated just two years ago. Importantly, VA employees
across the organization have been given the freedom to leverage this data to
enhance process and practice at the local level.
In a similar way, the Committee identified that confusing
and complicated communications with Veterans – particularly related to
eligibility, access, and benefits determination inquiries – have historically
compromised timely and quality service delivery. In response, VA has launched
an effort to fundamentally transform how it communicates with Veterans via the
web, call centers, mobile apps, text, letters, and by taking action to
consolidate more than 100 webpages into a single entry portal. Additionally,
Secretary McDonald and his team have committed to re-writing all standard
communications with Veterans in clear, concise, and straight-forward language.
ENGAGING AND DEVELOPING VA EMPLOYEES:
The Committee believes that VA’s employees represent the
organization’s most valuable asset, and thus investing in the development of
the workforce represents a necessary condition for long-term excellence. We’ve
been encouraged to learn that VA leadership shares our assessment – and more
importantly we’ve been encouraged by the fact that VA leadership is taking
unprecedented steps to engage VA employees in the transformation process.
For example, VA has leveraged local and national
“stand-down” events to not only streamline access to care for Veterans, but
also as a means to conduct employee training positioned to enhance service and
clinical outcomes. The substance of these stand-downs has been informed by
quarterly surveys of the VA workforce (new), and unprecedented participation by
the union leadership.
Even more transformational has been the development and
introduction of VA’s new Leaders- Developing-Leaders (LDL) program, a
peer-to-peer initiative designed to disseminate best practices across VA. More
than 13,300 senior- to mid-level leaders have already participated in the LDL
program, with over 22,000 total participants. These types of enterprise-wide
initiatives are consistent with best-in-class human capital development
programs in private industry, and serve to ensure that the veteran will receive
a consistent and high-quality experience wherever and whenever they engage VA
people and services.
CREATING A CULTURE OF TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY:
Over the past year, VA has gone to extraordinary lengths
to cultivate a culture of transparency and accountability across all levels of
the organization. Most notable is the shift from a rule-based to a
principles-based approach to decision-making at all levels. This cultural shift
has empowered employees to focus on the Veteran experience in a way where
performance expectations are clear, continuous improvement is the norm, and
accountability is to the Veteran.
Importantly, significant improvements related to enterprise
technology systems have also fueled enhanced transparency and accountability,
leveraging systems that are dynamic and responsive to the needs of Veterans and
those who serve Veterans across the organization. Enhancement in technology
systems has also allowed for unprecedented visibility into health outcomes, and
collaboration between providers inside and outside the VHA. 3
Statement of the
MyVA Advisory Committee – July 5, 2016
Finally, where leadership was not accountable to the
Veteran, we’ve witnessed leadership change. In fact, since the MyVA Committee
was created, twelve of the top-17 leaders at VA have been replaced.
LEVERAGING INNOVATION AND PARTNERSHIP:
At the outset of the Committee’s engagement with VA, one of
our most troubling findings focused on just how much VA’s approach and
“thinking” related to innovation and partnership was inwardly focused and
consistent with a “not invented here” mentality. Today however, the change
we’ve witnessed at VA in this regard has been profound.
With purpose and ambition, VA has dramatically expanded
its portfolio of external partnerships as a means to introduce new resources
and expertise as fuel for innovation. Examples include partnerships with
world-class service firms like Wegmans, Starbucks, and USAA, to drive
innovation related to the Veteran experience; partnerships with world-class
technology firms like IBM, Google, Coursera and Amazon to drive innovation
related to data, measurement, and human-centered design; and partnerships with
Veteran-serving non-profits and other NGO’s, to better situate VA people and
services within the broader ecosystem of organizations and institutions
addressing the social, economic, and wellness needs of Veterans.
In a similar way, VA has also created Community Veteran
Engagement Boards (CVEB’s) in communities across the U.S., as a means to
leverage community-connected resources to improve Veteran outcomes more
holistically. Fifty-five CVEBs have been launched to date, and VA is working to
have 100 CVEBs online by year’s end. The CVEB’s will serve not only to bring
new resources and partners to the table in service to the needs of today’s
Veterans, but equally important is the fact that the local and regional
engagement cultivated by the CVEB’s will seed long-term, community-connected
partnerships positioned to serve many future generations of Veterans.
SUMMARY
Over the past year, the work of the MyVA Advisory Committee
has driven home to the membership – many of whom have extensive experience and
praiseworthy accomplishments related to transforming and modernizing large and
complex organizations – that the challenges ahead for VA remain significant.
The committee continues to emphasize the need for an enhanced focus on
accountability throughout the organization, and a purposeful strategy to engage
‘the whole of VA’ in the transformation effort; in both these areas, progress
must be accelerated. We are convinced that the transformation currently
underway at VA is right, appropriate, and does set a course for long-term
reform and excellence across the Department.
Accordingly, the membership of the MyVA Advisory Committee
strongly urges those who would propose or act to politicize the ongoing reform
at VA to consider first and foremost the debt of honor that’s been earned by
America’s Veterans, and how a grateful nation best pays on that debt. It is the
well-considered opinion of the Committee that the leadership and countless
dedicated employees of the Department are committed to change and excellence at
all levels, and that significant progress has been made toward transforming the
Department into a ‘Veteran-first,’ learning organization capable of providing
class-leading and resource efficient services and care to this and future
generations of America’s Veterans. It is therefore critically important that
the organizational momentum supporting the MyVA transformation process – both
inside and outside of VA – be sustained and supported during this period of
political change. 4
Statement of the
MyVA Advisory Committee – July 5, 2016
MYVA ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP: MG
Josue “Joe” Robles Jr; Chairman, MyVA Advisory Committee
Major General Josue (Joe) Robles, Jr., USA (Ret.) retired
from USAA in 2015 after serving seven years as president and chief executive
officer. During MG. Robles’s tenure as CEO, USAA grew customers 63 percent,
revenue 67 percent, net worth 87 percent, assets owned and managed 70 percent,
and more than doubled employee engagement. Robles joined the U.S. Army in 1966,
and for the next 28 years, served in a variety of command and staff positions,
including director of the Army budget and as commanding general of the 1st Infantry
Division (the Big Red One).
Michael Haynie, PhD; Vice Chairman, MyVA Advisory
Committee
Dr. Michael Haynie is Vice Chancellor at Syracuse
University, and also holds positions as the Executive Director of the Institute
for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF), and as the Barnes Professor of
Entrepreneurship at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. A
veteran of the U.S. Air Force, Haynie’s academic expertise is focused on
innovation, entrepreneurship, and competitive strategy. For the past three
years, Haynie has also served as the chairman of the U.S. Secretary of Labor’s
Advisory Committee on Veterans’ Employment, Training, and Employer Outreach.
Herman Bulls; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Herman Bulls is Vice Chairman, Americas, as well as an
International Director and the founder of JLL’s highly acclaimed Public
Institutions Business Unit, which specializes in delivering comprehensive real
estate solutions to federal, state and local governments, economic development
& nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions. He is an Army
veteran, a West Point graduate and serves as a director of the West Point
Association of Graduates and the Military Bowl, an NCAA sanctioned post season
football game.
Teresa Carlson; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Teresa Carlson serves as the vice president of the world
wide public sector at Amazon Web Services where she is responsible for
operations, strategy, sales and business development. The more than 20-year
industry veteran is also the head public policy advisor for the global public
sector at AWS and oversees revenue and partnership strategy. She previously
served as vice president of federal government business at Microsoft. Carlson
also has 15 years of experience in the health care field and was recently named
to Washingtonian Magazine’s “100 Most Powerful Women.”
Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H, FACS; Member, MyVA
Advisory Committee
Dr. Richard H. Carmona served as the 17th Surgeon General of
the United States (2002-2006). Carmona is a combat decorated and disabled Army
Special Forces veteran of the Vietnam War. Carmona is currently a Distinguished
Professor at the University of Arizona, and holds numerous public and private
leadership positions and has extensive experience in public health, clinical
sciences, health care management, and national preparedness.
Laura Herrera, MD, MPH; Member, MyVA Advisory
Committee Dr.
Laura Herrera is medical director for population health and community health
programs at Johns Hopkins HealthCare, responsible for providing physician
leadership in the design, development, implementation and evaluation of the
population health care management programs. Previously Dr. Herrera was deputy
secretary of public health services for Maryland’s Department of Health and
Mental Hygiene. She served as a medical officer in the Army Reserve, as
National Director of Women’s Health, and the Acting Deputy Chief Officer of
Patient Care Services in VA’s Veterans Health Administration. 5
Statement of the MyVA
Advisory Committee – July 5, 2016
Chris Howard, DPhil; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Chris Howard is currently the 8th President of Robert Morris
University in suburban Pittsburgh, and was formerly the President of
Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Howard is a retired Air Force lieutenant
colonel and an Air Force Academy graduate. A Rhodes scholar, he earned his
doctorate in politics at the University of Oxford and an M.B.A. with
distinction from the Harvard Business School. Howard previously served on the
National Security Education Program Board and previously served on the American
Council on Education’s board of directors.
Nancy Killefer; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Nancy Killefer, vice chair of the Defense Business Board.
Killefer was senior director in the Washington office of McKinsey &
Company, an international management consulting firm. She founded and led
McKinsey’s global public sector practice. She is also a former chief financial
officer, chief operating officer and assistant secretary for management for the
Treasury Department, and previously chaired the IRS oversight board.
Eleanor “Connie” Mariano, M.D.; Member, MyVA Advisory
Committee
Dr. Eleanor “Connie” Mariano is Former Physician to the
President of the United States and Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (ret). Dr. Mariano
was the first female director of the White House Medical Unit and the first
military woman to become a White House Physician to the President. After
serving in the White House she joined Mayo Clinic’s Executive Health Program.
She is also the founder of the Center for Executive Medicine (CEM), is a unique
medical practice designed for executives and their families who seek the
highest standard of personalized and responsive medical care.
Jean Reaves; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Jean Reaves is a Vietnam era veteran, the wife and mother of
veterans, and has acted as a veterans’ advocate for over 20 years. Reaves is a
member of AMVETS and several other veteran service organizations. She is
currently president of North Carolina AMVETS Service Foundation, and previously
served as veteran liaison for former Sen. Kay Hagan, D-North Carolina
Maria “Lourdes” Tiglao; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Maria “Lourdes” Tiglao is the Regional Communications
Manager for Team Rubicon Region III. She is a US Air Force veteran who served
in the medical field as part of the 3-person USAF Critical Care Air Transport
Team and helped co-found and launch the first USAF Critical Care Medical
Attendant Team in the Pacific. Lourdes also served as a member of the
International Health Specialist Team for the US Air Force, an organization that
used medicine as an approach to crossing cultural barriers.
Robert E. Wallace; Member, MyVA Advisory Committee
Robert E. Wallace serves as the Assistant Adjutant General
and Executive Director of Veterans of Foreign Wars. Wallace is a Vietnam
veteran. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations of VFW activities in
Washington, DC. He previously had a career in banking and also held positions
in New Jersey state government in its Veterans Affairs and Employment and
Training Commission.
