ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Mosaic in Southwest Kansas has a new executive director, and its former executive director now has a position with the state Mosaic office.
Jacie Butler began working with Mosaic in Southwest Kansas in 2021 as a quality coordinator and was promoted to associate director in 2023, and she was recently promoted to executive director.
In her short time with Mosaic, Butler said she has been involved with the agency in a number of ways.
“I dabbled in community relations for a hot minute, and I’ve helped with the nursing in certain ways for support with our documentation, for making sure medications were checked in properly, putting in appointments,” she said.
In dealing with medications, Butler said she has learned how to pronounce, although not very well, the names of the medicines.
“I’m not the best at that right now, still have to Google it, but our pharmacies and doctors are very understanding,” she said. “I have to Google diagnosis, and sometimes, the images aren’t the prettiest things in the world. You learn a lot.”
Butler has had the opportunity to dabble in operations as associate director and as interim direct support supervisor, where she supervised nearly 40 people.
“That was very eye opening, but it was very fulfilling to learn at all different levels and have an appreciation for our staff, our supervisors, but at most, our people in service and the things we’ve done to impact them,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mosaic in Southwest Kansas’ former executive director, Janeth Trevizo, has been with the agency for more than 17 years in many different roles, including admin tech, case manager, community relations and quality assurance.
“I’ve been everywhere, and I’ve really enjoyed all aspects of what we do here at Mosaic,” she said. “I’m really enjoying the impact we’re making with people with disabilities.”
Trevizo said taking on many roles has allowed her to find and build on her skill set.
“I found that really cool about Mosaic,” she said. “They invested in your development, what you do and what your interests are, and if you want to make a difference, there’s always a place for you here at Mosaic. If there’s a gap, there’s an opportunity for growth.”
Now, Trevizo has been promoted to Mosaic’s state operations director for Kansas, where she will oversee executive directors across the state, and she will also be the interim director for Mosaic’s Ellsworth and Kansas City offices until a permanent director is hired in those locations.
Trevizo said she and Butler are focused on growing and expanding Mosaic’s volume, all the while providing great customer service and ensuring people are safe while receiving the services the agency provides.
“It’s really cool,” Trevizo said. “I get to meet more people we are serving. I was really excited when I took on Garden City and got to meet all of their folks, and it was so nice to make more connections and impact more lives. Now, I’m getting to meet all the people from Ellsworth, Pittsburg, Coffeyville and all the surrounding counties. I’m very excited about how we’re going to continue to grow in Kansas and make Kansas the go to for shared living. I want to make sure we uplift that service line a lot.”
As leaders, Trevizo said she and Butler take pride in saying “yes” and making a difference, both of which leave them feeling accomplished.
“For us, it’s very fulfilling to be able to be given a new task, a new venture such as the closure of our group home and transitioning them to shared living,” Trevizo said. “It was very daunting for us to take that on, but we’re like challenge accepted. Let’s move forward to make a difference in people’s lives. We always say ‘yes.’”
Butler said no idea has ever been too outlandish, no matter whether it comes from she and Trevizo or other Mosaic staff.
“It’s like, ‘Hey Janeth, I have this crazy idea. What are your thoughts?’” Butler said. “It’s always been, ‘Yeah let’s try it.’ One of my favorite things about working here is thinking outside the box of how can we best support our people.”
Butler said no matter how daunting or unrealistic, Mosaic makes things happen in one way or another.
“It’s so cool to see and how awesome our team rallies behind it, always within our rules and regulations of course,” she said. “We are very innovative in our approach, and we take very seriously that we have barriers in front of us, but we’re going to overcome those things.”
Trevizo said Butler has strongly fit into Mosaic’s values, particularly when it comes to how integrity, ensuring people are safe and have a feeling of belonging, connection, grit and faithfulness.
“She embodies those values,” Trevizo said. “It was really nice to see the progression of that. When I was gone on vacation, she really stepped up. I was able to take time off and really rely on the fact everything was going to be taken care of. I have high hopes and goals for Jacie to continue.”
In Butler’s time with Mosaic, the local agency has transformed from originally having separate offices in Liberal and Garden City to now combining those offices to make what is now Mosaic in Southwest Kansas. She said she was the last piece of that at transition, and the agency’s team has rallied together to make a joint effort in serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“They’ve really flourished with that,” she said. “I haven’t really had to push too much with them. For me, it was very easy to do that. I got to spend a year in Garden exclusively and get to know all the people there, the staff and the people in service, who you just fall in love with so quickly.”
Trevizo said Mosaic clients now look forward to going into both communities, and eventually, agency leaders would like to expand into Dodge City, Elkhart and Ulysses.
As for her time with the local agency, Trevizo said challenges have been faced head on, all the while never seeing barriers at the end of the road, but rather opportunities to find solutions together.
“I’ve witnessed a remarkable shift in our culture, fueled by accountability and a shared commitment to our mission,” she said. “It was really fulfilling. It was so nice and humbling to see. We’ve put a structure in place. We have slumps sometimes when we feel defeated, and we have picked up the momentum of feeling like we can overcome anything as long as we try together.”
Trevizo said Mosaic’s shared living model, Mosaic at Home, has grown, and the agency’s day services have taken place more in the community and less in the workshop. She said anticipates that continuing in the future.
“We want people out in the community,” she said. “That was a really big goal of mine.”
As a state leader for Mosaic, Trevizo said her goal is to grow the agency, and she emphasized customer service is an important aspect of that.
“We want to hear from our consumers,” she said. “We want to see what’s working, what’s not and how to best provide quality service for them and ensuring safety overall. Shared living is a model that hits all those areas.”
For Butler, her goals come in with modeling and executing Trevizo’s direction at the state level with Mosaic in Southwest Kansas, and this includes continuing employment service lines and finding people meaningful jobs.
“More often than not whenever they first meet you, they ask you what do you do, and as a person in service, more often than not, they can’t answer that question,” Butler said. “It becomes part of your identity, and a lot of opportunity don’t have the opportunity to have that meaningful part in their day and their lives of what they look forward to versus just going to workshop, doing activities. They want to give back to their community.”
As Mosaic has moved forward, Trevizo said she and Butler are seeing a clear visual look at what is being done, what has been accomplished and what their future goals are.
“Everything’s aligning,” Trevizo said. “We’re starting to see some of the hard work pay off within the culture, within the activities that are happening, with the growth we’re having. We’re here to stay. We’re here to expand in Mosaic in Kansas.”
“I’m learning different aspects,” Butler said. “I’m learning how in Pittsburg and Coffeyville it works. I’m learning about Ellsworth and Kansas City.”
Trevizo said the Mosaic at Home model encompasses the individualized services the agency wants to provide.
“It makes it where you’re receiving almost one-on-one care,” she said. “It falls in alignment with our state regulations. We ensure people are safe. They have continuity of care.”
Butler said for her, the timing to becoming executive director could not have been more perfect.
“Now that we have a full team and our team works so well together, it was just the last piece with that,” she said. “The team has embraced the change so much. They are so sad to see Janeth go into her role, but they’re very excited to work with you in your new capacity.”
Butler said the Mosaic in Southwest Kansas team is excited for the promotions she and Trevizo have gotten and what the two leaders can accomplish working together in their new roles.
“I feel we’ve already made such a big impact in the positions we were in, and being able to be that next step higher with that, we’re able to make that much bigger of an impact and change,” Butler said. “We make a really awesome team and we’re able to accomplish these goals and do it with such grace.”
Trevizo said she enjoys the mission Mosaic has, and even from a young age, she wanted to make an impact in people lives regardless of her role.
“The end goal was making a difference,” she said. “In every role I’ve been in with Mosaic, I feel I have had the opportunity to do so, but also, it’s given back to me so much more with my personal growth, with allowing me to challenge myself and even discover things I didn’t know about myself in these leadership roles. It’s really exciting to be here now as a state ops director, and I get to make a difference in the whole state of Kansas.”
