Career Highlights

House Manager

Ms. Saiz previously worked as a House Manager and Support Staff at Zarephath. The responsibilities of this role included ensuring the safety of all clients within the respite care setting during the presenting weekend stay, encouraging development amongst the clients within the behavioral health spectrum, and providing an environment in which growth and development could occur. Character quality development and positive reinforcement were crucial aspects to this role.

DCS Specialist

Ms. Saiz also worked as a DCS Specialist at the State of Arizona’s Department of Child Safety. Ms. Saiz conducted family functioning and present/impending danger assessments. This ensured the overall safety and wellbeing of children and their families. Developing rapport quickly was crucial when engaging in outreach and interviewing families in potentially hostile or dangerous situations. Other job requirements included investigative responsibilities, working collaboratively with community service providers, participation in court proceedings, and extensive in-state travel. The last year of Ms. Saiz’s work with DCS was in the field during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Behavioral Therapist

Ms. Saiz worked at Trumpet Behavioral Health as a Behavioral Therapist. The core responsibilities of being a Behavioral Therapist within the field of Applied Behavioral Analysis consisted of building rapport with a client who is diagnosed with Autism or other related communication disorders, running multiple programs within a condensed session time, collecting various measures of data, recording program progress, observing the underlying causes of behaviors, and creating a fun and safe environment to work with the client .

Crisis Professional

During the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Saiz worked as a crisis professional to help those in a time of crisis and need. The core responsibilities of this role were to complete inbound crisis calls and outbound follow up calls to those in crisis. This role required triaging Members for
various concerns such as for active hallucinations, substance use, risk of danger to self/others, depression, anxiety, and distress in mood. This was done in order to ensure adequate care advice was provided and the overall safety of the individual. Ms. Saiz completed training with this agency and passed a skills verification for this role and gained insightful knowledge in reference to mental illness.

Administrative Assistant

While pursuing a bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University Ms. Saiz worked as an Administrative Assistant for Kohl’s Department Store. Ms. Saiz was responsible for creating weekly schedules for 80-100 employees on average, as well as submitting payroll for those same employees in order to ensure that they were paid in a timely manner. Ms. Saiz also conducted office orders to refill the supply closet to ensure that the store could operate smoothly with the necessary tools.

Internships & Volunteerism

While completing her studies at Arizona State University, Ms. Saiz had the opportunity to volunteer at St. Vincent De Paul’s where Ms. Saiz aided in serving individuals who were facing homelessness and conducted intakes to assess for the needs of the presenting individuals. Ms. Saiz also completed 3 internships throughout her undergraduate and graduate programs. Ms. Saiz interned at Zarephath in both the life-skills and respite settings and was able to work with the Pascua Yaqui tribe community. Ms. Saiz then completed an internship at both the Department of Child Safety as an Ongoing Case Manager and at Westwood High School within the School Social Work department. Ms. Saiz worked with students one on one, assisted in running the food pantry, and conducted 2 groups which students partook in. One of the groups was focused on coping skills and developing them within a classroom for students diagnosed with Emotional Disabilities.