Following whispers that Howard Brown Health Center is set to hire a new leader of the organization, as reported last week in Windy City Times, comes news of employment terminations at the agency.
The most recent involve six administrative positions. They include Marlon Wells, hired last fall as president of accounting and finance; Chandler Howell, VP of shared services; and Amy Miller, associate director of Broadway Youth Center. The latter decision comes in the wake of the departure of Lara Brooks, BYC director, who has since been replaced by Imani Rupert. Others include Kitri Steigerwald, development associate and David Dodd, communications manager.
WCT confirmed this news with Barbara Tieder, VP of development and communications. She said the terminations were necessary as a result of the new Strategic Plan that HBHC adopted in August 2013. Wells is said to have been hired in September 2013, which raises the question of why his hire went through at that time, but HBHC would not comment on that.
Tieder also said that all the positions were “full-time administrators, non-grant-funded, and non-patient-facing,” and that the decision to let them go would have no effect on the quality of HBHC’s healthcare. Asked about Wells’ hiring in particular, she stated that it was policy to not comment on individual personnel decisions.
As WCT has reported extensively, HBHC has often been criticized for having a top-heavy administrative profile, but it is unclear whether this new set of terminations comes about because of a rumored hiring of a new leader or not.
WCT will continue to follow and cover this and related stories.
Originally published in Windy City Times.