Policy & Practice | Summer 2026

Q: WHAT FIRST DREW YOU TO PUBLIC SERVICE? LINDA SCHROEDER: My dad. Growing up, I never felt like I went without, but I also saw that not everyone lived the way we did. My dad was good to everybody. He did not care what walk of life someone came from. If someone needed help, he helped them. I watched how he treated people with dignity, and those experiences made me want to make a difference. That is what brought me into social services. It was not the money, certainly, but the opportunity to serve others. Q: HOW HAS YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF SNAP CHANGED OVER THE COURSE OF YOUR CAREER? LS: I often say that I grew up in the SNAP world. I have watched the program evolve in positive ways and seen changes that concern me. What I have learned is that you must look at the whole picture. There are federal requirements we have to follow, but states also have choices about implementation. Leaders need to consider what each decision will mean for program integrity, staff, partners, and participants. When we consider a change, I ask: What will this do for our error rate and participation? How will it affect staff and customers? Do our processes and communications also need to change? A decision may appear efficient in one area but create unintended consequences somewhere else. It can become a domino effect. Leaders have to anticipate those connections. Q: WHAT IS MOST TOP OF MIND FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM RIGHT NOW? LS: The balance between stream lining, efficiency, quality, and service. Those goals do not automatically conflict, but we must understand the risks. Moving too far in the name of streamlining can affect accuracy or make it harder for eligible people to receive assistance.

Partnership also requires honesty. We should be able to say when some thing is not working, learn from it, and adjust before decisions are final. Q: HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS BEYOND TRADITIONAL PERFORMANCE MEASURES? LS: Accuracy, timeliness, and par ticipation are important, but numbers do not tell the full story. Success also means eligible people can navigate the program, staff have the tools they need, and our processes do not create unnecessary barriers. People sometimes ask, “How many customers will this issue affect?” We may know about one household, but how many others experienced the same issue and never contacted us? How many eligible people never applied because they were confused, discouraged, or afraid? Those are the people I worry about, the ones we do not know about. A strong program looks beyond the cases that reach our desks and asks who may still be missing. Q: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE BEGINNING A CAREER IN HUMAN SERVICES? LS: Understand that it is not just a job. Human services is a people business. You need to reflect on whether you truly want to serve people from every walk of life. You cannot be judgmental. Your role is not to assume someone is dishonest or to look for a way to make them ineligible. Your role is to determine whether they qualify, follow the rules, and help them navigate the process. I tell staff: You are never better than the person you are serving. That person could be your mother, brother, sister, or grandmother. Would your grandmother understand the applica tion or notice? How would you want someone to treat her? Some people use every bit of courage they have just to walk into an office or call us. They may have taken a bus with their children or used limited phone minutes to complete

States are responding to major policy and funding changes while facing intense attention on payment accuracy. We need clear information, reliable processes, and expectations that states can understand and trust. We also cannot focus so heavily on one measure that we lose sight of the program as a whole. Accuracy, par ticipation, customer service, and staff capacity all matter. Strong leadership requires us to hold those responsibili ties together. Q: HOW DO YOU HELP STAFF NAVIGATE NEW POLICY AND OPERATIONAL DEMANDS? LS: I try to make sure the people developing policies and processes remain connected to what is happening partners and public informational forums. They hear questions and concerns directly from community organizations and the people they serve. This helps staff see how an agency decision can affect the infor mation participants receive, the steps they must complete, and their ability to access benefits. Staff may recognize a challenge they had not considered and bring that lesson back to their teams. A change may make sense on paper but create a burden for eligibility workers, call center staff, partners, or customers. We need those perspectives involved early enough to identify challenges. Q: WHAT DOES MEANINGFUL PARTNERSHIP LOOK LIKE DURING A PERIOD OF CHANGE? LS: It means having the right people at the table early enough to influence the work. That includes agency staff, federal partners, advocates, food banks, legal organizations, technology teams, and people with direct experi ence navigating the program. Community partners often hear immediately when a requirement or process is creating confusion. They help agencies understand what is happening beyond the cases that formally reach us. outside their immediate work. Members of our staff attend meetings with SNAP outreach

12

Policy & Practice Summer 2026