After treating sick children for five years, Chisara Asomugha has a new patient to tend to — the city’s decimated community services department.
The 32-year-old pediatrician and minister, a newcomer to the city, takes over next Monday as the city’s new community services administrator.
Asomugha (pictured) will fill the shoes of former social services chief and community activist Kica Matos, who pioneered a set of groundbreaking initiatives focusing on youth violence, prison reentry, and immigrants. Matos earned national media attention and death threats for leading the creation of the city’s immigrant-friendly ID card. Matos left in May for a position at a New York City-based foundation.
In an interview Monday, Asomugha said she intends to continue working along that trajectory, including building on the resident ID card and a prisoner reentry plan.
“I don’t have a goal to change things,” she said. Asomugha said she plans to make youth violence prevention a top priority. Beyond that, she spoke in general statements and declined to offer specifics on what she’d like to accomplish.
“I do have a goal to advance the mayor’s agenda,” she said, “which is to make New Haven one of the best cities in the country, to provide the type of resources that are necessary for every citizen in the city.”
Asomugha will earn an annual salary of $111,723. The salary was boosted by 3 percent since last year, along with 41 other raises that took place July 1 for the mayor’s top staff.
The new job presents a career change for Asomugha, who has spent the past five years of her life working as a pediatrician. She said she sees a common thread in the two lines of work.
She said while treating patients, she kept an eye on the “bigger picture” — how outside factors like poverty, environment and education affect a child’s health. She said she worked with non-profits and other agencies to tackle these “social determinants” of health. As the city’s social services chief, she said she plans to take that same approach to addressing prison reentry issues and youth violence.
Devastating Cuts
In her new job, Asomugha will oversee the community services administration, health, elderly services, vital statistics and youth departments, as well as the Office of New Haven Residents.
The young doctor takes the helm at a difficult time: The city’s social services spending has plummeted over the past two years. As part of a round of layoffs, Mayor John DeStefano eliminated five of the nine jobs in the CSA staff, which Asomugha directly oversees. Twelve jobs were cut from health and elderly services. Three senior centers closed earlier this year. Money for homeless services was cut by $350,000 in July 2008, leaving shelters scrambling to raise money from private donors to stay open in winter months.
Asomugha said she’s ready for all that, and she intends to maintain the city’s level of services to the youth, elderly and homeless despite the cuts.
“Budget cuts are budget cuts,” she said. “You just have to be more creative” in finding solutions.
Matos, her predecessor, kept initiatives alive by raising money from private and federal sources. The Elm City Residency Card and Street Outreach Worker programs were paid for by private money; the prison reentry initiative is being funded by a $350,000 grant from the feds.
Asked if she has fundraising experience, Asomugha said yes: She’s the vice-president of the Owin Foundation, a group that aids orphans and widows in Africa. The organization was started five years ago by Asomugha’s mom, who’s from Nigeria. Asomugha said the annual budget is about $150,000.
The doctor said her first priorities in her new job will be to tackle youth violence and to start building community ties: She has lived in the area for only two years. She said she has built relationships with the Yale Medical School, the Yale-New Haven Hospital and the New Haven Family Alliance; beyond that, she’ll be starting from scratch getting to know members of the New Haven community.
She currently lives in Hamden. She will have to move into the city in the next six months, according to the city charter.
The doctor came to the job post through an unusual path.
Originally from Los Angeles, Asomugha attended Stanford University, got a masters in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, then earned a medical degree from the Duke University School of Medicine, according to her online resumé.
She worked as a pediatric resident in Pittsburgh for three years. In 2007, her career path brought her to New Haven for a two-year fellowship at the
Yale University School of Medicine as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. There, she treated some patients and studied “how religion and spirituality affects mental health outcomes” of people who have been abused.
The research fits in with her other job — as a minister in a New Jersey church.
While in North Carolina, Asomugha became a non-denominational Christian minister. For the past 10 years, she has served as a preacher at Bet HaShem YHWH, a Christian ministry in Bloomfield, N.J. She said she plans to continue traveling down there to preach.
She also intends to keep treating patients on the side, in addition to her full-time job with the city.
“You learn how to manage time wisely,” she replied when asked how she’ll juggle those two jobs. “I’m still in talks” with a local hospital, she added, “we’ll see.”
Does Asomugha see herself working as the city services chief for the long haul? She said she’s keeping the option open.
“Well, my career goal is to basically provide the type of resources and services to youth and families that will make them be the most productive people they can be,” she said, “so if the position allows me to do that, then that’s what I’m there for.”
Sounds like a fantastic appointment!