Mary Jane Dessables
Mary Jane Dessables has a bachelor’s in Social Work from the State University College at Buffalo and master’s from Hunter College School of Social Work. She began her career working with those experiencing homelessness in Buffalo and entered the child welfare field upon moving downstate. Ms. Dessables worked with teens in foster care and their families, trained child welfare professionals and paraprofessionals, and managed and implemented client information systems at a private NYC nonprofit agency.
Ms. Dessables worked for 18 years a nonprofit membership association. There she provided technical assistance to nonprofits in multiple management areas including financial, quality assurance/quality improvement, risk, information technology/information systems, client programs, health, policy, and advocacy. In addition to technical assistance, Ms. Dessables was responsible for collecting and managing data, managing the association’s database and IT systems, managing social media, assisting with grants, and facilitating communication about the field with multiple internal and external stakeholders. Ms. Dessables interacted frequently with city and state partners and developed an extensive network of government and private agency contacts.
Ms. Dessables works remotely and enjoys traveling to clients around the state. She is collaborative and partners effectively with client agency individuals and teams for mutual problem-solving. Recent projects include composing a policy manual for a new program (merging federal requirements with those of two state agencies), writing proposals for two different SAMHSA grants, and evaluating a human service agency’s health and mental health service provision process in light of regulations, efficiency, and potential Medicaid revenue.
Ms. Dessables is a fan of the Buffalo Bills, cats, and the Oxford comma (unless a grant proposal has a tight character limit).
