Mischa Martin
Director of Division of Children & Family Services at Department of Human Services
Hometown: Sherwood, Arkansas
Briefly describe your role:
The Division of Children and Family Services’ responsibility is to ensure children and youth have a safe and stable home every day. DCFS is responsible for child abuse prevention, child abuse investigations and protection, foster care, and adoption programs. Yearly, the division investigates over 25,000 alleges of child abuse or neglect, is responsible over 7,000 children in foster care, and serves more than 13,000 children in in-home protective services case. We offer statewide intensive in-home prevention, substance abuse, and mental health services to children and families who we serve.
Q: Is what you’re doing now what you always pictured you would do?
A: I have always known that I wanted to serve and make a difference. As a granddaughter of missionaries and a daughter to an elementary school teacher, I witnessed my role models serving and making a difference in their communities. I did not know that my path would lead to working in the child welfare system, but I knew that I wanted to serve and help children.
Q: What do you see as the greatest challenges for women in your chosen industry? What are the greatest opportunities?
A: I have had the privilege of working in an industry that is majority women. Women with great passion, commitment, and strong leadership qualities. One of the greatest challenges for women in leadership is when their judgement and skills are overlooked based on stereotypical views of women. Due to the nature of child welfare, the situations and cases can be extremely emotionally charged. I have seen intellect, articulate, and passionate women’s judgment undermined because their advocacy was unnecessarily labeled as too emotional.
Some of the greatest opportunities in our workplace that is dominated by women is our ability to support each other and prove that a workplace dominated by women can be highly functional, collaboratively, innovative, and wildly successful in the face of unimaginable challenges and crisis.
Q: Who has inspired you in your life/career?
A: There have been so many people in my life who have inspired and shaped my career. I have amazing parents. My father instilled a strong work ethic. He didn’t treat me as a daughter, he treated me as his child and taught me all the same life lessons and skills that he taught my brother. He taught me to never be intimated or bullied. He taught me to know who I am and to stand up for what is right in even the face of fear and intimidation. He didn’t expect me to be perfect, but he expected me to do my best. He taught me to protect myself, but he also taught me to defend others who couldn’t defend themselves. Through his work and daily life, I watched him connect with people of all different backgrounds and personalities and he treated everyone with respect.
My mother is the ultimate servant with a caring heart. She taught school with a passion and invested in her students. She volunteered at every church activity and poured kindness and respect to everyone around her. They both showed my unwavering love and support.
I have too many people to list, but I want to mention to other strong women in my life who shaped and inspired me. My junior high and high school basketball coach, Bee Rodden, taught me so many life lessons, but it was in the gym and through her coaching that I learned to push limits and that I was capable of so much more than I thought was imaginable. I learned to push myself mentally and physically, and I learned how to lead.
And last, my aunt Sherry Criswell. She was a leader in the community and in the family. She was a single mom, with a successful career, and a community leader. She earned respect because she was seen as a hard-working woman of integrity. She started as the lowest position in the bank and ended her career as the bank Vice President. She was a strong advocate for higher education and believed that it was essential for woman to make education a priority. If I made straight As, but they weren’t all 100s, she would ask why not?? She was one of the only people in my life that supported my decision to pursue multiple degrees after undergraduate.
As a kid, I knew that she saw something special in me even though I couldn’t see it myself. As I have aged, I see and value the qualities that she saw in me and am a stronger person for having her to have believed, invested, and pushed me.
Q: What advice would you give to an aspiring professional?
A: First, invest in an education that matters. Learn a trade or profession that you can be passionate about. Second, select the job where the supervisor/leader is going to invest in you and support your professional growth. I have been blessed to have had amazing female supervisors who invested in me.
Q: What’s been your secret to success?
A: First, I work hard, am passionate about my work, and care about the quality of my work product. Second, I am willing to learn from failures and from others around me. Third, I build relationships based on honesty, integrity, and mutual respect. Fourth, I have an incredible husband and family that supports my career.
