FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
OJA Hires Key OKDHS Administrator as Chief of Staff
OKLAHOMA CITY, AUG. 9, 2021 — Office of Juvenile Affairs (OJA) Executive Director Rachel Holt today announced she has hired Constanzia Nizza as the agency’s chief of staff.
Nizza, of Oklahoma City, has worked the past three years in key administrative roles at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (OKDHS). Since February, she has served as the agency’s legislative liaison, and as coordinator between the director’s office, agency’s divisions and other state offices on legislative concerns, providing consultation and guidance to the director, the agency’s senior executive staff and other administrative personnel on all legislative concerns. Before that, she served as the agency’s executive project manager, aligning services and resources of seven agencies to achieve state leadership’s annual goals, and as deputy legislative liaison and senior comptroller.
Nizza will serve as OJA’s chief of staff, a position that has been vacant the past several years. She will be legislative liaison and help with agency-wide projects. She will also bring her experience from OKDHS to help develop True North goals for OJA and to make it a hope-centered agency. True North goals are a set of priorities developed by OKDHS Executive Team leadership to guide the work of the agency in order to focus resources and improve collaboration and communication with stakeholders. Each of OKDHS’s divisions has approximately three to five focused True North goals in addition to eight agency-wide True North goals.
Nizza begins her new duties with OJA on Aug. 16.
”I am proud to add Constanzia to our OJA team,” said Holt. “I am impressed by her experience in project coordination, relationship building and government relations. She will be a tremendous asset to me and our agency as we work on our True North plan and she will be a leader in its development, implementation, and sustained success. OJA will benefit from Constanzia’s solid reputation among state agencies and at the state Capitol. She will bring those skills in strengthening OJA’s relationships with our state agency and community partners. It is an exciting time at OJA and Constanzia is the exact person we need to keep pushing our agency forward in our dedicated service to youth and families.”
OKDHS Director Justin Brown, who also serves on Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Cabinet as secretary of human services, said he appreciated Nizza’s work in delivering project needs on time and analyzing agency objectives and goals to develop effective strategies.
“Constanzia has been an integral member of the OKDHS leadership team,” said Brown. “She has excelled as a dedicated public servant bringing professionalism, commitment and compassion to her role working with our partners in the Legislature and other Cabinet agencies. I look forward to continuing to work with her in her new role at OJA as we continue our transformational work for the children and youth of Oklahoma.”
Before joining OKDHS in July 2018, Nizza worked six years at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Center for Public Management as special projects manager. She supervised a multi-level program that provided direct services to Oklahoma’s current and prospective foster and adoptive families and initiated, planned, implemented and evaluated regional and statewide initiatives for child welfare staffing efforts to improve the outcomes of children in care.
“OKDHS has afforded me opportunities to serve Oklahomans and promote the agency’s mission,” Nizza said. “The people I have been fortunate enough to work alongside and the lessons I am grateful to have learned will forever guide my work. As I enter a new professional season at the Office of Juvenile Affairs, I carry with me the passion for service and commitment to progress that OKDHS has instilled within me.”
Nizza earned a master’s degree in public administration, non-profit management from OU and a bachelor’s degree of liberal arts and sciences in political science and history from OU.
Nizza, who grew up in Moore, lives in Oklahoma City with her husband who shares her passion for volunteering in the community through the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA), Habitat for Humanity, and Bridges of Norman.
###
