1. STATE OF CALIFORNIA — DEPARTMENT OF STATE HOSPITALS EDMUND G. BROWN JR., GOVERNOR
DEPARTMENT OF STATE HOSPITALS NAPA
2100 Napa Vallejo Hwy.
Napa, CA 94558-6293
June 20, 2016
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter on behalf of Karlee Pierce. Ms. Pierce and her colleagues facilitated an all-
day retreat with the Psychology Department at Department of State Hospitals-Napa (DSH-Napa)
on April 27, 2016.
DSH-Napa is a 1200-bed inpatient forensic psychiatric hospital in Napa, California. The
Psychology department includes over 60 psychologists who provide a number of functions in the
hospital, including psychological care of the patients and administrative activities involved in the
implementation of psychological programs. This is a diverse group of clinicians who work with
varying types of patients, and have different work assignments in their duties at DSH-Napa. The
goal of the retreat was to bring the department together to work on increasing work satisfaction
and improving performance outcomes within the department.
Ms. Pierce and her colleagues met with us on several occasions to help us identify our retreat
meeting goals, and to establish measureable outcomes for the meeting. They spent a significant
amount of time understanding our department and work site, to better assist us in meeting our
specific needs. They then developed a one-day agenda that mixed presentation of data, break-
out work sessions, teambuilding exercises, sharing of work outcomes, and then summarizing the
product of the day’s work. They even developed a mural that illustrated the activities of the day,
to help encourage and remind the department of the action items to follow.
I am very appreciative to Ms. Pierce and her colleagues for their work with us to develop and
implement the retreat. Our department came out of it with increased focus on our goals and next
steps. Ms. Pierce was able to keep us organized, in a supportive and encouraging way
throughout the day. I would recommend her for future organizational meetings without hesitation.
Please contact me at 707-253-5334 for any additional questions or for further information.
Sincerely
Anthony Rabin, Ph.D.
Chief, Psychology Department
Department of State Hospitals-Napa