Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt on Tuesday named the former secretary of the Department for Children and Families as the new youth suicide prevention coordinator.
Schmidt announced that Gina Meier-Hummel would take the position created by the Legislature in May to implement recommendations of the Youth Suicide Prevention Task Force.
“Gina will give the serious problem of the rising rate of youth suicide the attention it requires,” Schmidt said in a statement.
“I’m confident her leadership and implementation of the task force’s recommendations can begin to change the trend line so the number of youth suicides in Kansas stops increasing and instead begins to decline. I look forward to working with her in this effort.”
Meier-Hummel will work in a part time in the role starting Tuesday. She will be paid $36,000 a year with no benefits.
Other employees in the attorney general’s office will support the suicide-prevention work as needed.
Although the coordinator’s position was created by statute, no additional funding was appropriated to support a full-time position.
There were 20 suicides for Kansans 18 and under during 2016, the most recent year for which data is available.
The suicides for Kansas youth in 2016 was 3.0 deaths per 100,000 population, the attorney general’s office said.
By comparison, in 2005 there were eight suicides at a rate 1.1 deaths per 100,000 population
Meier-Hummel currently works as the executive director of the O’Connell Youth Ranch in Douglas County.
Previously she served as the deputy director of the Victims Services Division in Schmidt’s office.
She also served as DCF secretary from November 2017 through January 2019.
Before moving to DCF, she was the executive director of The Shelter, Inc., a nonprofit organization focused on crisis intervention for at-risk youth in Douglas County and northeast Kansas.
As the head of DCF, Meier-Hummel came under criticism for how the agency awarded state business for foster-care and family preservation services.
Meier opted to award grants instead of seeking bids through the Department of Administration, a move that critics said lacked transparency.
Meier defended the process as open, but newly-elected Gov. Laura Kelly opted to end the contracts with two nonprofit groups and renegotiate contracts with four other organizations.
Kelly terminated the contracts after it was reported that one recipient received low marks during an internal review and didn’t even apply for the work.
