Meet Wendy Diaz, Smoke-Free NYCHA Analyst
Wendy Diaz, Smoke-Free NYCHA Analyst, is on a mission to create healthier homes for residents and healthier working environments for NYCHA employees. As a leader in NYCHA’s work to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke and support residents and employees who want to quit smoking, she is responsible for various Operations–based elements of implementing NYCHA’s Smoke-Free policy. In accordance with HUD regulation, the policy took effect in 2018, and the Smoke-Free NYCHA team is driven by HUD guidance to enforce the policy fairly, uniformly, and with compassion.
Among her responsibilities, Ms. Diaz oversees project management of IT enhancements to improve processing of Smoke-Free violations by property management offices and the addition of new logistics and validations to the current Smoke-Free process in Siebel, the computer program used by NYCHA property managers. She is working with colleagues to plan retraining for property management staff once the IT enhancements are in place.
Ms. Diaz also oversees NYCHA’s Smoke-Free permanent signage project, ensuring that signs promoting the policy and access to supportive resources are displayed prominently both in and outside NYCHA developments. She coordinates with vendors who install the signage and property managers to ensure that all NYCHA buildings have Smoke-Free signage displayed in the interior and exterior of every building.
“A majority of NYCHA residents support the policy, and the Smoke-Free team is working to ensure more people realize that their actions affect the quality of life of their neighbors when they smoke,” Ms. Diaz noted. “We know from resident communications that secondhand smoke exacerbates respiratory illnesses in adults and children. We are working to build resident– and staff-driven solutions to promoting adherence to this important policy. There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and we work every day to help NYCHA’s Operations teams strengthen their work to enforce the policy as a critical part of NYCHA’s overall work to improve health and safety.”
With her unique status as a team member who reports to both Management Services and to Health Initiatives, Ms. Diaz has also been designated as a NYCHA “Change Ambassador” – one of over 200 NYCHA employees from across every department within the Authority who volunteer to bring up-to-date news to their colleagues on NYCHA’s Blueprint for Change Transformation Plan, which aims to improve the delivery of services to residents.
