Stories of Work That Matters

The following are just a handful of the many public employees doing work that matters all across Montana. Watch this page as we add more stories. Read about:

Joel Felix – fighting chemical terrorism
Eric Rykal – keeping streets and neighborhoods safe
Linda Nichols – helping inmates kick their addictions
Dwain Lowry – Protecting our youngest Montanans
Dee Neiter – helping kids thrive

Joel Felix – fighting chemical terrorism

Meet Joel Felix, a scientist at the Montana Dept. of Public Health and Human Services in Helena.

As Montana’s chemical terrorism coordinator, Joel was part of the State Laboratory team that analyzed the mysterious white powder that showed up in the state capitol mailroom in 2008. They determined it was not anthrax, a chemical explosive, or any other chemical threat.

“My job is about being prepared,” Joel said. He works to coordinate with other local, state, and federal agencies to make sure any potential threat is met with a timely, effective, and coordinated response.

Eric Rykal – keeping streets and neighborhoods safe

He says, “I’m a full-time detention officer. I also help with dispatch. I work a lot of overtime because I’m cross-trained. The job can be anything from dealing with accidents on the pass when it snows, to housing 21 prisoners at the jail.

“We deal with people who get arrested for felony DUI, illegal immigrants being held before deportation, etc. We also hold prisoners for the U.S. marshal–anything from embezzlers to people who shot someone in a drug deal.”

Eric says a busy day can involve a bust on a construction site, where he might be dealing with 12 illegal immigrants at a time. Or it can be a big snowstorm on the pass, when he handles overflow calls, helping the dispatchers. All 911 calls come through his office.

“We help keep the community safe and the streets safe,” Eric says. “Our officers are out there keeping criminals off the street. If we weren’t there, they’d be right back on the streets doing the same thing they were doing. “

Eric and his wife have four young children: Dalton, Brieanna,  Braden, and Wade. He and his family plant a big vegetable garden. They sell their produce at local farmers’ markets and can vegetables to help them last through the winter.

Eric loves to hunt and fish. He is also a middle school football coach.

Dwain Lowry – Protecting our youngest Montanans

Dwain Lowry gives newborn Montanans a chance to start out with a healthy life. As a clinical laboratory scientist, Lowry works at the Public Health Laboratory in the state Department of Public Health and Human Services.

“Primarily, I work in the area of newborn screening,” Dwain says. “We test newborn infants for errors in metabolism. Diseases tested for in this lab include PKU (phenylketonuria), galactosemia, cystic fibrosis, congenital hypothyroidism, and sickle cell disease. Many other diseases are tested out of house by a method known as Tandem Mass Spectometry.

“The screening tests are important because these diseases are undetectable by physicians at the time of birth. Undetected infants with diseases face serious consequences such as brain and internal organ damage, possibly death. I feel this is very important work and am proud to be a part of it.

I also work in the area of tissue culture, growing viruses for positive identification of diseases. This is important especially for epidemiologic purposes.”

Dwain says changing technologies are among the toughest challenges of the job. “Changing technologies require us to continually stay on top of updates in this field,” he says. “Customer relations are very important, as our clients include physicians, nurses, and other labs.”

Dwain gets great satisfaction “knowing that we are able to detect and inform physicians about possible cases of these diseases and knowing that we had a part in allowing afflicted infants to lead normal lives with proper treatment.”

Outside of work, Dwain spends time with his six grandchildren. “I love the outdoors and many of the activities it affords us in Montana.”

Linda Nichols – helping inmates kick their addictions

Linda Nichols has worked for the State of Montana for 21 years, first as an LPN (licensed practical nurse), and currently as a licensed addictions counselor at the Montana State Prison.  “I interview and screen new inmates and recommend the appropriate level of chemical dependency treatment,” she says. “I work to get people the right treatment.”

Why does it matter? “The reality is, these inmates are going to be on our streets. They will be our neighbors,” Linda says. “I want to see them healthy with treatment rather than thrown out there with nothing.

“The majority of these inmates will be discharged to communities across Montana. They have families, children, wives, girlfriends, parents, and siblings who care about them and want them to succeed in life.”

With treatment and the development of pro-social living skills, education, and work skills, Linda says, we can help inmates become productive citizens rather than a drain on society.

Linda’s toughest challenges on the job are dealing with inmates’ resistance and the prison setting. “A prison is a hard place to do treatment,” she says. “It’s hard to get through to them. We need to keep them positive and busy to keep them from acting out.”

Her reward for this difficult work is helping people get better.  “Another reward is the development of numerous friendships and relationships with others within the Dept. of Corrections and across the state to achieve a positive outcome,” Linda says. “To name a few, the state Dept. of Revenue, the Board of Pardons, Probation and Parole, MEA-MFT, AFSCME, and FMSPE.

“There are a lot of good people, and they work hard.”

Dee Neiter – helping kids thrive

Surviving middle school can be a struggle for just about anyone. For Montana’s American Indian children who often face poverty and racism, it’s especially difficult.

Fortunately for the Indian students at Riverside Middle School on the south side of Billings, they have Dee Neiter to help them navigate the stormy waters of middle school. Neiter is the school’s Indian Education Tutor.

For two decades, Neiter has helped Indian children — and all children — survive and thrive in school. “Her commitment to her students starts every day before the first bell rings and usually continues long after the school day is over,” said Janet Baum, Neiter’s colleague.

In honor of her boundless dedication to students, Neiter was named as Montana’s Education Support Professional of the Year for 2008.

Neiter understands the pressures minority children face. She herself is Navajo and Spanish. She grew up speaking Spanish in a low-income family. “She knows where her students are coming from,” said Baum.

Along with tutoring students in math, reading, and writing, Neiter finds ways to help low-income students get eyeglasses and dental appointments. She oversees the school’s Upward Bound Program and teaches knitting at “Friday Late Night,” a program to keep students off the streets from 5:30 to 9:00 p.m.

Former students and their families “remember her as the saint that helped them through those rough middle years,” said Marcia Beaumont, Neiter’s colleague at Riverside.

Montana’s Indian children tend to have a much higher dropout rate and lower achievement than their non-Indian peers. “A lot of our Indian kids drop out after the 8th grade,” Neiter said. Her goal is to help as many students as possible, one student at a time, stay in school and succeed.

The Diversity Club that Neiter sponsors at Riverside has helped keep many children in school by giving them a sense of belonging and dignity. Through the club, Neiter finds opportunities for students to volunteer in the community and celebrate Indian culture.

“She leads by example, and the club’s emphasis, like hers, is in service,” said Beaumont.