Q & A with Jane Beyer, the Fund’s New Program Officer

Jane Beyer joined the Fund and the Center for Evidence-based Policy as a Program Officer in October. Beyer, most recently the assistant secretary for the Behavioral Health and Service Integration Administration in the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, will coordinate programs and projects between the Center and the Fund and work on state health policy projects for each organization. A legal services lawyer by training, Beyer has also served as a staff attorney to the Washington State House of Representatives and as Washington’s Medicaid Director. Highlights recently had a chance to speak to Beyer about her new role.

The Fund and the Center share a mission to improve the health of populations through the use of evidence-based policy. Why did helping to improve the health of populations with evidence-based policy appeal to you? How does it fit in with the work you’ve done during the rest of your career?

I began my career as a legal aid lawyer, where I had the opportunity to represent individuals with legal problems and work on broader health policy issues. Since then, my core goal has always been to improve the lives of people living in poverty. As a staff attorney with the legislature and in my executive branch positions, I learned that evidence-based health and social services policies satisfy two core needs—they improve people’s health and well-being, but also represent wise investments of taxpayer dollars. An evidence-based approach gives legislators and governors the opportunity to work across branches of state government and on a nonpartisan basis to make a difference in the lives of the people they represent.

You have first-hand experience with evidence-informed policymaking. Why is it so important? People also say that while evidence is necessary, it is not sufficient to implement policy. What else is needed?

Every state legislator and state agency staff know that successfully implementing evidence-informed policy takes a multi-pronged, and sometimes a multi-year, strategy. Once we have evidence to show that a program or strategy works, we need to bring others along—both on the fundamental question of the value of evidence-informed policy but also on the specific policy strategy. That takes work with the governor’s office, other legislators, stakeholders, and their constituents. It means communicating clearly and simply and listening to build consensus. It means addressing both the policy and fiscal impacts of a proposal, taking the risk of investing in new strategies, and being willing to build evaluation into a new policy and be held accountable for results.

What will your experience as a state legislative staffer and state agency program director enable you to bring to the Fund and the Center? What are you looking forward to doing in this position?

I bring my “real world” experience in the state legislative and executive branches and years of health and social services policy study, development, and implementation. I am honored to have been given the opportunity to further the shared missions of the Fund and the Center and to support states in their efforts to develop smart, humane health and human services policies that will improve the lives and well-being of the people they serve.