As director of Wayne County’s Department of Health and Human Services (WCDHHS), Edith Killins, SBA ’07, oversees a $700 million operation that includes areas as diverse as public and mental health, jail health services, the Wayne County Library, Medical Examiner’s office, emergency preparedness and Wayne County Head Start.
It would be hard to find a citizen of Michigan’s most populated county whose daily life Killins doesn’t impact in some way. A few might even see her as a lifesaver. Indeed that’s the case for one gentleman who participated in the annual health care expo at Cobo Hall last spring. The WCDHHS event drew more than 5,000 mostly uninsured participants, for whom this is likely their only annual exam.
As Killins tells it, the elderly gentleman attended because his wife encouraged him, there was free parking and he had exhausted his excuses not to. A nurse took his blood pressure, noticed a problem, and recommended he get to the hospital. He did, and found that he was nearly having a stroke. “He let us know that the expo saved his life,” says Killins. “You know when someone comes back and says ‘thank you’ that makes working nine to 12 hours a day worth it because you know you are saving lives.”
Killins says that her inspiration comes from Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quote: “Of all the forms of inequity, injustice in health care is the most shocking and
inhumane.” One of 13 siblings, Killins was raised in Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University with a psychology degree. After working for the State of Michigan in Corrections, Community Health and the Unemployment Agency, she joined the WCDHHS as deputy director, then director, a position she has held for almost five years.
While working full-time, Killins completed her SBA in 2007, and last year she was one of a select group of women to receive the 2009 Women of Excellence honor sponsored by the Michigan Chronicle. That it happened to coincide with her 50th birthday year was truly icing on the cake.
Yet Killins won’t be happy until she sees that the citizens of Wayne County have what she considers three basic rights: healthy food, clean air and clean water. For that, she must continually focus on ensuring that the public and politicians understand the impact of human services.
“Serving people is the most important part of my day, being accessible and assuring that our services are quality and visible,” she says. “It is a huge task to have so many divisions under this department, so it helps to remain focused.”
This article first appeared in the Spring 2010 issue of OU Magazine. Read the full issue online here
By Alice Rhein, a freelance writer from Huntington Woods, Mich.
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As director of Wayne County’s Department of Health and Human Services (WCDHHS), Edith Killins, SBA ’07, oversees a $700 million operation that includes areas as diverse as public and mental health, jail health services, the Wayne County Library, Medical Examiner’s office, emergency preparedness and Wayne County Head Start.