Westmoreland commissioners hire help to create new human services department

Westmoreland commissioners on Thursday hired a consultant to forge a newly created office that consolidates all county human services programs into one department as the search for its permanent director continues.

The effort to hire a full-time human services director has been ongoing since last summer after commissioners adopted findings from a study that recommended independent agencies such as the county’s children’s bureau, area agency on aging and behavioral health be led by one person as a means to coordinate and improve services.

Don Goughler, 76, of Harrison will be paid $6,000 for the next several months to set up the new department and help find its new director.

“He’s going to help develop the role that is going to be for our human services director. He can tell us what a human services director will be responsible for doing,” Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher said.

Human services provided by the county now are administered by three separate departments. A consolidated department also is expected to improve coordination and communications with more than 100 nonprofit entities that provide services to residents.

Goughler has worked for more than a half-century in the nonprofit human services field.

From 2014-20, he served as executive-in-residence at The Forbes Funds, where he oversaw and focused on organizational capacity building, including executive coaching with nonprofit executives and board leaders from 260 organizations.

In 2020, Goughler worked for eight months as the interim president and CEO of Familylinks, which provides behavioral health services as well as programs for youth, adults and families in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, as it searched for a permanent director. He previously served from 1999 through 2014 as the top executive for Family Services of Western Pennsylvania and before that as an executive vice president for Southwestern Pennsylvania Human Services.

The process of integrating county services is needed, and it requires everyone to buy-in to the idea, Goughler said.

“My job is to do the preparatory work,” he said.

Westmoreland County last year received a $250,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to redesign how the county administers human service programs and help hire a director for the redefined department.

A third of the county’s $367.6 million budget for 2022 is allocated to pay for human services.

Commissioners said there is no timeline in place to hire a permanent director.

“We want to make sure whoever takes this position obviously has the qualifications and skill sets that is needed for the job,” Commissioner Sean Kertes said. “His (Goughler’s) skill set and his knowledge is obviously monumental to Westmoreland County in helping set up the position for the person who is chosen.”