Every year during Public Service Recognition Week, the State of Oregon honors a select group of employees as “Ambassadors of Public Service.” These individuals reflect the best of what it means to serve: creativity, compassion, resilience, and a belief that public institutions can – and should – work for everyone.
This year, four recipients from the Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) were recognized:
The roads that brought them into public service differ but reflect the rich tapestry of public servants we have working throughout OYA.
Maddie Thein: A Passion for Process Improvements
Only five months into her role as a fiscal analyst, Maddie Thein has already built a new reporting tool that visualizes key financial data. This tool reflects her sense that she is “a facilitator” who helps programs engage with their budgets in a more accessible and meaningful way.
“We need money to fund all of these things,” she says. “If I can help get [budgeting] out of the way so [OYA staff] can just focus on their jobs – that’s how I see my job.” And, “if I can do something to make someone else’s job easier, then that feels like a win to me.”
Maddie brings not just technical skill, but contagious energy to her work. “My main passion is process improvements,” she said. “I try to motivate others through my own passion – how obsessed I am with process improvements. I try to make that infectious.”
Asked what she’s most proud of, Maddie pointed to the culture shift she’s helped foster. “Managers that we work with have historically not been super engaged with budget,” she said. “They’ve told me that they’re more engaged than ever. And I feel like it’s really nice to hear.”
Susana Escobedo: Building Support for Survivors
A year ago, Susana Escobedo was hired to create OYA’s first-ever Victim Engagement Program. In that time, she’s built a survivor-centered model grounded in respect, communication, and equity. She aims to “help people access what they need to access, get help in whatever they need help in,” and sees that as a shared goal of public servants whether “you’re a police officer or if you work at the parks department.”
Susana’s perspective is rooted in the fundamental recognition that “[government] systems can be really confusing.” That confusion is an obstacle “whether you’re a victim in the system, or you’re a juvenile in the system.” Public service “asks us to be empathetic,” she believes, and to make sure people are not “swallowed up by [the system].”
Her connection to the work also comes from a place of personal reflection. “I saw a lot of my friends really get systems-involved really young,” she shared, and recognized that “I could have easily been that person.” As she neared a career choice, she decided “to work with youth that were struggling the same way I did.”
She also draws inspiration from her parents and others who work or have worked in Oregon’s agricultural industry. “They’re out there really breaking their back to pick whatever groceries we’re going to be eating,” she said. “I don’t know that there is a more hands-in-the-dirt kind of public service than that.”
Jennifer Falzerano: Building Bridges Through Education
Jennifer Falzerano’s career in public service took her across three continents, between schools at various levels, and finally to OYA in 2023. She sees a deeper mission in the work: “Public service is really about helping people understand government and making government better so people will believe in it.”
Her work to support youth earning degrees or certifications, or the underlying skills and knowledge, is life-changing. She helps implement programs in fields like firefighting, barbering, and electrical pre-apprenticeship – fields with real-world relevance and long-term payoff. “When youth find something they’re passionate about,” she observed, “they are so much less likely to come back to us or to have to spend time [in the adult prison system].” Ultimately, finding that passion “makes our communities safer and our youth have better outcomes.”
Jennifer’s path through public service was influenced by cross-cultural experiences. The more we work to “figure out places that are tough and relate to people” – the more we try “to talk to each other, to understand each other” – “it makes society better for all of us.” Education is one way to do that, building “a bridge to opportunity and a bridge to other people.”
Eastern Oregon Youth Correctional Facility: Rising to the Challenge
The team at Eastern Oregon Youth Correctional Facility (EOYCF) embodies public service not just in their daily commitment to youth, but in how they show up under pressure. When wildfires forced a full evacuation of the campus in summer 2024, 80% of the staff relocated alongside the youth – keeping treatment, education, and vocational programs going without interruption.
In the words of Superintendent Doug Smith: “The words ‘that’s not my job’ have never been uttered at EOYCF.”
Their nomination also highlights years of work building culturally responsive programs, investing in leadership training, and helping young people develop job-ready skills in welding, barbering, and heavy equipment operation.
A Shared Commitment
These honorees represent very different roles – but share a deep commitment to OYA’s mission. Whether designing tools, standing with survivors, building pathways, or holding steady in a crisis, they remind us what it means to serve with purpose.
Congratulations to Maddie, Susana, Jennifer, and the EOYCF team. You make public service something to believe in.