Organizations are only as strong as the people and processes that underlie them. At Metrocrest Services, Director of Client Services Jo Beth Collier is working to ensure that employees and systems work smoothly.

Collier oversees the agency’s housing stability, financial education, and workforce development programs. When someone reaches out, Collier and the client services team work together to connect them to the resources they need to get out of crisis situations and achieve self-sufficiency.

“The other piece is to make sure that my leaders have the tools that they need to be able to do their job successfully and, in turn, provide guidance to the people they lead,” she said. “It’s a way of ensuring those staff have the skills needed to serve their clients successfully.”

The number one reason Collier came to Metrocrest Services was because of what she’d seen the organization achieve over the years.  “I knew the type of culture that Tracy has created here, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it,” she said.

Collier came to Metrocrest Services following an extensive work history, including time as Executive Director for Mosaic, where she provided employee coaching and spearheaded organizational goals.

She also brings an array of volunteer experiences, including having served on the Metrocrest Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors.

The best part of the job for Collier is the people she works with. “It’s incredible to be around like-minded people who truly care,” she said.

Collier wants to strengthen Metrocrest Services’ foundations with basic standard operating procedures, general onboarding practices, and coaching for leaders. “I want them to lead and then be able to be so independent that that energy transfers to others,” she said.

When Collier was a little girl, she discovered her purpose–to give a voice to those that need to be heard. “I was nine years old at gymnastics practice, and I had three of my friends that were across the gym,” she explained. “As I was walking towards them, I noticed that one of my friends was crying and that the other two people were making fun of her. She happened to have a disability. I didn’t know it at the time because, you know, we were just kids. She was my friend who became upset, so I chewed them up one side and down the other.”

When her mom came to pick her up, Collier said she confessed because she still felt bad about chewing up her friends. “[My mother] said, ‘Jo Beth, that is your purpose. Your purpose is to stick up for people unable to do so for themselves’, and that’s what I’ve been doing.”

Collier used to go to Washington, DC, and down to Austin to provide testimony, advocating for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as the staff that provided the services.

“I always ended it with the valor of the nation being measured on how it treats its weakest people,” she said. “What Metrocrest Services is doing is filled with valor and it is proving that quote.”

About the Author

Wolf Isaly is currently interning with Metrocrest Services as an assistant with communications work. Isaly is a University of Texas at Arlington alum, with a BA in journalism and experience as a news reporter at UTA’s student run publication, The Shorthorn.