Skip to main content

Our Insights

Danielle Valdes-Jimenez

Employer Engagement Manager, New Hire and Employer Services

Danielle Jimenez works with clients, project management, and executive management to establish outreach plans, objectives, and initiatives while driving the use of scientific theory and research to enhance all communications. She was instrumental in forming Maximus 360 Employer Engagement, an outreach strategy that uses behavioral nudges to drive compliance with new hire reporting laws. This outreach strategy changed employer engagement from a relationship of enforcement to cooperative trust among employers, increasing project metrics across the board.

Danielle also creates outreach campaigns that promote all forms of child support reporting, electronic reporting method usage, and rapid outreach requests such as email blasts to inform employers of essential program changes. She finds innovative ways to keep employers engaged, such as virtual employer events and interactive online training. She utilizes engagement skills to create team cohesion among projects at Maximus to serve multiple clients with varied needs across the nation.

Previously at Maximus, Danielle was the New Mexico New Hire outreach coordinator, providing additional outreach for the New Mexico New Hires Directory through public appearances to employers, business associations, workforce centers, social media, online training programs, and other channels. Her background in anthropology and Spanish language studies allowed her to connect easily with New Mexico’s diverse cultures, including employers within Tribal enterprises. She continues to consult other projects at Maximus that serve Tribal communities in other states.

Before joining Maximus, Danielle was the administrator and membership coordinator for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Santa Fe, a researcher at the New Mexico Department of Health in the Epidemiology Survey Unit, and a practice analyst with Spencer Stuart Inc. She spent 12 years as a server in the hospitality industry, which she credits to her ability to work well under pressure and with all personality types.

Danielle earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Athabasca University and two Associate of Arts in Human Services and Spanish Studies from Santa Fe Community College. In college, she founded Mochilas Para Los Niños (Backpacks for Children), a nonprofit organization to benefit school children in Guatemala, for which she organized outreach campaigns and charity drives for school supplies. She tutored math and reading in Spanish and also taught Spanish language classes as a student teacher. Danielle also completed cultural anthropology fieldwork in Guatemala through Common Hope. Back in the United States, she managed casework for participants with schizophrenia, addiction, traumatic stress, and poverty.

What do you love most about your work?

I love that my work has real-world value. It may look like I'm just sitting at a computer all day, but the information I share through outreach helps children nationwide.

What professional advice might you offer to people starting their careers?

Find something that matters to you, then find the work that supports your passions. If you care about helping people lead better lives, Maximus is the place to be. With all the different projects we serve, we help people every day.

What is your approach to leadership and mentoring?

I embrace the philosophy of servant leadership, in which I work hands-on at the same level of my team members, showing them by example the strategies I have found to be efficient and successful in work and in life. I am here for what my team members need to accomplish what is important to them, here at work and in their homes, showing compassion and true interest in their own success.