Meeting in Frederiksted Monday, the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committee enthusiastically endorsed acting Health Commissioner Julia Sheen to fill the post permanently, sending her nomination on for a vote by the full Senate.
While the committee took the opportunity to drill Sheen on Health Department finances, federal stimulus funds, the reopening of the Frederiksted Health Center’s Frederiksted offices and other aspects of health care in the territory, it was clear early on that her nomination was not in danger.
"You have demonstrated your ability to perform," Sen. Carlton "Ital" Dowe said. "I ask my colleagues to give a vote to this strong black woman here."
Senate President Louis Hill said he was happy her testimony touched on many of the topics he had hoped to discuss, and he was impressed with her abilities.
"But I was particularly moved by the story of your life," he said.
Sen. Neville James agreed.
"Your predecessor, Vivian Ebbesen-Fludd, I thought she was an excellent commissioner and I think you will be also be excellent," James said. "I’m glad you are Crucian, but we don’t support you just because you’re Crucian. You have to have the portfolio. And you do."
Sheen’s parents were attending Howard University when she was born in Washington, D.C., in 1968. After leaving Howard, her parents returned to St. Croix when Sheen was an infant. She attended public schools, graduating from St. Croix Central High in 1987.
“Nothing in my life says that I should be here," Sheen said. "You see, I became a parent at the age of 15. As though this was not challenging enough, I was a single parent working part time and going to school full time. I was told by family members — who literally cut me off — I would amount to nothing."
Sheen paused with emotion for a moment at this point, as did the senators.
She held a variety of jobs while finishing high school and, after graduating, went to Morgan State University in Baltimore, Md., earning a bachelor’s degree in management in 1991. She returned to the territory that same year and, in 1993, joined the Health Department, overseeing a variety of programs and projects. She left government for a time in 2004, opening up a grant-writing, research and consultation shop called JSA Consulting.
"We served mostly nonprofit organizations and some government agencies," she said.
At the time it was the only professional grant-writing business on St. Croix, she said. While working in the private sector, she was a grant reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Children and Families, where she raised more than $5 million in private and federal funding, she said.
That experience has prepared her to manage the $41 million in federal funds received by the Department of Health every year, she said.
In October 2007 Sheen became assistant commissioner of Health. She has been acting commissioner since Vivien Ebbesen-Fludd resigned in the wake of the department running out of AIDS drugs.
Voting yea to forward Sheen’s nomination to the full Senate were Dowe and James, as well as Sens. Patrick Sprauve, Michael Thurland and Celestino White. Absent were Sens. Usie Richards and Sammuel Sanes.
