Director Spotlight: Zane Garcia Ramadan (AZ)

1. What inspired you to enter the I/DD field?

Unlike many leaders in this field, I do not have long-standing experience with the I/DD community. My journey into this field started through a passion for public service, and it introduced me to this incredible population.

After spending the first 8 years of my career working with the Peace Corps, my wife and I relocated to Arizona, and I looked for jobs in government to continue my career in the public sector. I was hired as a Business Operations Administrator through Arizona’s Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD), and it was my first meaningful introduction to this field.

I learned more about the population we serve and the work that DDD does on a daily basis to serve individuals and families supported by this program. I began to better understand the positive impact that our agency has on the lives of the people we serve, and I was so impressed observing the passion and dedication of the DDD employees.

Through site visits and other opportunities for direct engagement with the I/DD population we support, I more clearly saw the role that our organization holds in supporting individuals with I/DD to live self-directed, healthy, and meaningful lives.

When given the opportunity to lead the Division, I eagerly accepted the position recognizing that the issues we were facing at the time were not about a lack of subject matter expertise among our nearly 2,500 employees, but rather a lack of trust, recognition, and empowerment for our employees to do what they do best.

Having been the leader of our Arizona DDD program for six years at this point, I still start from that baseline recognition for our staff as we work to incorporate best practices in the field. We are continuously working to implement improvements to our system that give our team the space to effectively support the individuals we serve to live their best lives.

2. Which priorities are guiding your work this year?

DDD recently implemented its 5-year Strategic Plan in August of 2025. The four main priority areas are 1) Develop Support Coordination Program Excellence, 2) Deliver High Quality Services, 3) Empower Individual Success, and 4) Maintain Public Trust and Confidence.

At a time when the DDD program in our state continues to grow and brings up questions about sustainability, funding, and other political considerations, we feel that these four areas of focus will remain applicable no matter what is happening around us. The four focus areas build on each other — for example, if the quality of support being offered by our staff is at a high standard, and the quality of services being delivered directly to the individuals we serve is outstanding, then it is more likely that individuals supported by DDD will be able to achieve their definition of individual success. And it becomes increasingly more difficult to be successful in those three areas if we do not have the trust and confidence of the public.

In order to continue on our journey towards developing support coordination program excellence, we intend to build on the recent NCQA accreditation that we received for Case Management in LTSS. We need to implement the person-centered concepts that we worked so hard to develop. From the service delivery perspective, we implemented a new contract for our HCBS providers that took effect at the beginning of 2025. Through continuing to enforce the elements of that contract that focus on quality and accountability, we will be more likely to see the quality of service delivery continue to increase.

In order to empower individual success over the next 5 years, the Division intends to lean back into the NCI survey. Unfortunately, in recent years we have not garnered the necessary amount of surveys to qualify a representative sample. This past year we did gather the necessary number, and moving forward we are going to dedicate more resources to ensure we get this critical information so we can make data-based decisions on where additional interventions may be needed in order to support the individuals we serve to live their best lives and reach their individual definitions of success.

Finally, we have expanded our website and intend to seek additional ways of reaching the public through different media strategies as well as more transparent publication of relevant data and information.

3. What place best reflects the spirit of your state?

I/DD related

The Arizona Training Program at Coolidge (ATPC) is an Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) that has been operating since 1952. At times there were over a thousand people with developmental disabilities living at ATPC in the 1950s and 60s — in truly awful conditions. If we fast forward today, ATPC represents the progress Arizona has made as a state when it comes to supporting individuals with developmental disabilities.

While there are still around 50 residents at ATPC, they have all chosen to live there and the staff and facilities are of high quality. ATPC is emblematic of the Arizona DDD program as a whole, in which there are currently less than 100 individuals living in institutional settings, with more than 99% of people supported by DDD living in home and community-based settings. This progress is a testament to the incredible advocacy community in Arizona, and the decades of efforts to fight for the rights of individuals with I/DD and to support these individuals to live self-directed, healthy, and meaningful lives.

Non-I/DD related

The Grand Canyon best reflects the spirit of Arizona. It represents the state’s incredible scenic beauty, a connection to Indigenous people, and examples of conservation and ingenuity. The natural beauty is reflective of the incredible sights one would see in so many places around the state. The canyon’s vast, colorful layers tell the story of time and resilience, qualities that represent Arizona.

The Grand Canyon also represents home and a place of spiritual and cultural origin for multiple tribal nations. The efforts to conserve this landscape through national park stewardship and sustainable tourism show Arizona’s commitment to conserving its most treasured environments. The ingenuity of scientists, engineers, and park stewards who work to balance access, preservation, and environmental challenges mirrors the state’s creative spirit.

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona’s spirit is apparent — and shows connection to both its people and environment.