Founder and CEO, Working Partners®
Dee Mason, founded Working Partners®, a consulting and training firm working with end-user employers and systems to develop and maintain drug-free workplaces (DFWP). With more than 30 years of experience, her firm directly services 1,700 employer-clients annually covering a wide span including; large conglomerates to small ‘mom-n-pop’ enterprises of private, non-profit companies and governments, across multi-states, with and without federal mandates and unions. The firm has extensive “in the trenches” experience providing:
- Development of written policies and procedures
- DFWP employee education and supervisor training in every format (live trainers, Training-of-Trainers, OnDemand)
- Management consultation
- Technical assistance and troubleshooting
- Consortium management (i.e. group-priced EAP, drug testing)
- Partnership management
- Strategic marketing of DFWP concepts, products and services
- Community-based assessment and collaboration around workplace AOD (alcohol and other drugs) prevention
- Management consultation
Evolution Benchmarks of Dee and Working Partners®
| 1974-1988 | Dee Mason, Supervisor for Art Therapists throughout Franklin County 648 system (predecessor to ADAMH), Ohio |
| 1976-1987 | Developed and delivered Psycho-Social Drama ™ to corporate and community audiences throughout the U.S. |
| 1989 | Asked by Mayor Dana Rinehart and Health Commissioner Bill Meyers to develop and provide education for 7,500 City employees for compliance with federal Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 |
| 1991 | Established Business Against Substance Abuse (BASA) Coalition, DFWP private not-for-profit community information/support service (supported by Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Franklin County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board (ADAMH), Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS) and CompDrug, Inc. |
| 1992 | Lobbied and was the first non-profit organization to have rights as a member of The Institute for a Drug-Free Workplace (Wash., D.C.) 501 C9; Board composed of Fortune 50 companies contributing to and shaping the drug-free policies of corporate America |
| 1992-1993 | Administered the Working Partners Program taking forty small businesses through a developmental process to implement a comprehensive drug-free workplace program |
| 1993 | BASA Coalition was contracted to develop and administer Ohio’s Reasonable Suspicion TOT for state employees |
| 1993–FY10 | Awarded prevention project grants from ODADAS & Franklin County ADAMH for DFWP |
| 1994 | Lobbied and won U.S. Department of Labor’s S.A.I.D. for Ohio (one of eight state awards) |
| 1994 | Developed the Consortium of services to leverage volume and drive down the cost of ‘gold-shelf’ services needed by clients to maintain a DFWP |
| 1996 | First Lady Hope Taft & U.S. Rep. Rob Portman asked Dee to educate Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) about DFWP |
| 1997 | Facilitate an interdisciplinary task force that developed BWC’s DFWP, the deepest workers’ compensation discounts in the nation for 13 years (contributed Working Partners intellectual property including the definition of an accident.) |
| 1997 | Dee wrote the technical assistance manual for the State of Ohio’s DFWP |
| 1997 | Incorporated Working Partners Systems, Inc. (Working Partners) and formed a public-private partnership between BASA Coalition and Working Partners® transitioning clients outside of public-sector grant obligations to Working Partners® for services |
| 1997-1998 | BASA Coalition trained first 150 Ohio BWC representatives in DFWP (12, one-hour trainings) |
| 1997-2018 | Working Partners® continues to provide technical assistance to OBWC |
| 1997-2018 | Became preferred provider for several associations, third-party administrators, MCOs and occupational medicine including (partial list) Nationwide’s Gates McDonald Insurance, The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, The Builders Exchange (Ohio), National Association of Retail Marketing Services (NARMS), Printers Industry Association of Northern Kentucky and Ohio, Ohio Ready Mix Concrete Association, OhioHealth Hospital system, The OSU East Hospital, MedCentral Hospital, Careworks and Compensation Consultants Incorporated. |
| 1999 | Developed system and ran accountability and compliance for DFWP on Nationwide Arena Project (third OCIP in the state) which after two years and 1.5 million man-hours from 112 contractors from around the country, credited their drug-free operations with containing workers’ compensation claims to $400,000 when they had projected a maximum of $7 million. |
| 1999-2015 | Worked with Kentucky (Chamber, Office of Workers’ Claims, SHRM) doing DFWP classes and presentations |
| 2006 | Became provider of choice and established systems for Sequent, Inc. the leading Professional Employer Organization (PEO) in Ohio |
| 2006-2011 | Served on the Board and Executive Board of Ohio’s leading prevention organization, Drug Free Action Alliance |
| 2009 | Developed a toolkit for the Leadership Foundation (national), in collaboration with the Department of Labor and support from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Community Anti Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and others, for Governors’ spouses and coalitions to promote drug-free workplace education and potential legislation to legislators |
| 2013 | Developed for Cardinal Health Foundation and The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy Dose of Reality, a one-hour online employee education course, and GeneartionRxWorkplace.com, a resource site on prescription abuse in the workplace |
| 2015 | Created Business Impact Zone (BIZ), the business component of Ohio Governor Kasich’s Start Talking! initiative |
| 2015 | Developed for the Cardinal Health Foundation, the Columbus Police Department and other stakeholders an online intervention and education course for peace officers about prescription (Rx) drug abuse and action steps to be a critical, responsible consumer of Rx drugs |
| 2016 | Was contracted by the Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services (OhioMAS) to adapt and apply the Working Partners® Drug-Free Workforce Community Initiative (DFWCI), an environmental prevention strategy model, to 20 Ohio counties to prepare employers to prevent and respond to employee substance misuse and substance use disorder and build a drug-free workforce for Ohio in local communities |
| 2017 | Contracted by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce Board to create the Opioid Toolkit, an employer toolkit for distribution to all Ohio employers free of charge, including an employer course about best practice DFWP, Dose of Reality Employee Education course, and additional resources. Additional funder, Anthem and in-kind contributions from Cardinal Health Foundation and Working Partners® |
| 2018-2019 | Contracted by Indiana Chamber of Commerce to replicate Drug Free Workforce Community Initiative (DFWCI) activities throughout their state, customize the Ohio Chamber’s Opioid Toolkit for Indiana and write the state guidelines for their HEA 1007 |
| 2019 | Contracted by Arkansas Chamber of Commerce to adapt the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s Opioid Toolkit |
