OLYMPIA – Wendy Korthuis-Smith today announced she is stepping down as director of Results Washington, the nationally-lauded agency launched by Gov. Jay Inslee to make state government more effective.
Korthuis-Smith, a management consultant and professor who has served as director of Results Washington since its start in 2013, has been hired by Deloitte Consulting LLP as a manager for its strategy and operations group.
“Wendy helped build Results Washington into a nationally recognized, data-driven engine to improve government. Her efforts have been recognized by leaders around the country and it’s no surprise that she’s been recruited by a top consulting firm,” Inslee said. “I congratulate Wendy on this big new step and thank her for work these past years in establishing an innovative system to measure our work and be transparent about where we’re succeeding and where we have more to do.”
Results Washington is a nationally recognized leader in government innovation, with staff sharing their system and results with Harvard’s Leadership for a Networked World, the National Governors Association and other states. It hosts an annual conference in Tacoma that draws more than 2,000 attendees.
Rich Roesler, Results Washington’s engagement manager for the past three years, will assume the role of acting director on Sept. 12, while a national search for a new director is conducted. Prior to joining Results Washington, Roesler was public affairs project manager for state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and Olympia bureau chief for the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
“Rich has helped shape Results Washington and is a strong believer in using data to improve government,” Inslee said. “His broad knowledge of government and his close work with Wendy will serve him well as acting director.”
Inslee created Results Washington in 2013 to track data and work with teams of state agency directors on some of the state’s biggest challenges, including high school graduation rates, employment in key sectors, average earnings, homelessness, smoking, teen pregnancy, air and water quality and traffic-related deaths.
Inslee and Results Washington are champions of lean management. Widely used in the private sector, lean emphasizes employee-driven cycles of customer-focused improvements. Lean improvements at dozens of state agencies have resulted in easier-to-understand forms, streamlined processes, faster services, better outcomes, cost avoidance and higher customer satisfaction.
“Today, more than half of the nearly 200 Results Washington goals are on track to meet or beat targets,” Inslee said. “We’ve built great momentum and shown how transformative a data-driven approach to solving problems and serving our customers can be.”
For more information:
- Results Washington’s latest progress report (July 2016)
- Goals, data and strategies for: