SCAA Staff

Karen Schimke, has been President and CEO of SCAA since 1996. She convened the New York Children's Action Network and is a co-convener for the New York State Coalition for Adult Home Reform, and Winning Beginning NY.  She served on two Regents task forces on closing the performance gap and sits on the Health Department’s Long Term Care Restructuring Workgroup as well as the Prevention Agenda Leadership Group.  She is past policy chair for the New York State Association for the Education of Young Children.  In 2006, Ms. Schimke served on the Governor's transition team as co-Chair of the Human Services Policy Advisory Committee.  She currently co-chairs the Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board and co-chairs the state's Early Childhood Advisory Council.

Ms. Schimke has many years of experience in child welfare, social services and health. Prior to joining SCAA, she was Executive Deputy Commissioner at the New York State Department Health, where she oversaw the Department's entire range of programs. From 1993-94 Ms. Schimke was Executive Deputy Commissioner at the New York State Department of Social Services, responsible for the day-to-day agency operations. From 1988-93, Ms. Schimke was Erie County's Commissioner of Social Services where she developed managed care programs for Medicaid recipients, increased child support collections by more that two-thirds, increased services to at-risk children and their families and developed a long-term planning agenda for Erie County.

Ms. Schimke has received many honors over the years, most recently from the Child Care Coordinating Council, NYS Association for the Education of Young Children and the Mental Health Association of  NYS.  She has been an active community volunteer and board member of numerous health and welfare organizations. She is currently a Board member of Prevent Child Abuse New York, Health Information Exchange of New York and WMHT.

She has a Bachelors degree in social welfare from the University of Nebraska and a Masters degree in social work from Western Reserve University in Ohio, and completed the Kennedy School of Government's program for senior executives in state and local government at Harvard University in 1994, and the National Public Health Leadership Institute in 1996.

Ms. Schimke can be reached by phone at (518) 463-1896, ext. 25, or by e-mail at kschimke@scaany.org.