It's late Friday afternoon and Lisa-Michele Church is peppering Don Rollins with questions about South Valley Training Center, a packaging and assembly facility that contracts with the state to employ mentally retarded Utahns. The site visit is one of 20 she has undertaken to better understand Utah's social services.

On the job five months, Church is still learning the ropes.

A former corporate attorney, Utah's Human Services director is a newcomer to social services. Her 5,200-person agency is the arbiter of millions of dollars in government aid to Utah's most vulnerable citizens: the elderly, abused and neglected children, substance abusers, the poor, young offenders and others.

With impending budget cuts, the policy issues she will be asked to weigh are some of the most volatile in state government. It's no wonder she has kept a low profile. But that's changing, and fast.

Earlier this month Church accepted the resignation of Randy Bachman, who headed the agency's Substance Abuse and Mental Health division. She describes Bachman's resignation as a "mutual decision," adding, "We had different goals for the division."

At least three other top-level administrators also recently left the agency. Two retired; one is working with Church's predecessor, Robin Arnold-Williams, now director of Washington's human services department.

And on Friday, Church laid off Meredith Mannebach, the agency's legislative liaison - one of the changes she plans for the 10 to 11 employees who report directly to her.

Bachman could not be reached for comment. But Mannebach, who under state policy will be given an opportunity to secure another state job, has no hard feelings.

"It was totally unexpected. But it's the prerogative of a new administration to come in and see how things work and change things as they see fit," said the eight-year human services employee.

Precisely what other changes are in store, Church won't say. But her reorganization of the executive office offers hints at her priorities. New appointments to be announced in two weeks include: a quality-control monitor over employee training and an employee-recognition post.

Church also will appoint overseers charged with streamlining services and improving outreach to minority populations, which are overrepresented in juvenile court and substance-abuse programs.

"If we don't fund kids in the mental health system, they wind up in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems," said Church, who will advise lawmakers, "Let's talk about where you as policy-makers want to fund it, here or here."

Some advocates for disabled and mentally ill see the reorganization as proof that Church subscribes to the politically conservative mantra: Do more with less.

"State government is already very lean," said Jan Ferre, technical advisor for the Legislative Coalition for People with Disabilities. "Are we carefully weighing all the options before cutting? It worries me."

A staunch Republican, Church, 46, comes to the office from a privileged background. Her father was an executive for General Motors. And her professional history reveals brushes with serendipity.

The California transplant was working as a sportswriter for the student newspaper at the University of Utah, where she majored in journalism and political science, when she lucked upon an assignment that changed her life: a profile of U.S. Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah and his views on water rights in the West.

After the story ran, Church says, Garn's press secretary invited her work as a Senate intern in Washington, D.C., in 1978.

"What a great experience. . . . It was so heady," recalls Church.

Before Church could return to school, Garn's assistant press secretary quit - and he offered her the job. After two years, Church returned to Utah to finish college and enroll in law school, with an eye toward returning to D.C. and working for the Department of the Interior.

"I wanted to be in the [public policy] mix," said Church.

While clerking for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Church learned Sinclair Oil was moving its corporate headquarters from Colorado to Salt Lake City and was looking for a staff lawyer. They hired her in 1984, straight out of school.

Church loved the variety of corporate law, but traveling and long hours began to take a toll.

She said her two boys, then ages 8 and 10, "needed Mom," so she quit and took a job at her husband David's law firm. Six years later, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. solicited her for the top human services post.

Says Garn, who recommended Church, "You have to have the talent to take advantage of opportunities."

Church jumped at the chance to, as she puts it, "contribute at the beginning of a new administration."

"I loved the corporate sector, but there just wasn't that fire that I ended up having for some of these other things I had done on a volunteer basis," she says, citing her work at Women Lawyers of American, the Rape Recovery Center and Dixie State College.

Church says there are no layoffs on the horizon, but acknowledges some services for the disabled and mentally ill might be shaved in order to extend service to more people. Human Services is under legislative instructions to serve the poorest of the mentally ill and most acutely disabled first, says Church.

"That puts us in the position of giving an acutely disabled person who moved in from outside the state last week priority over the 10 families who need less help and have been on the waiting list for 20 years," she said.

Rollins, of South Valley, for one, appreciates Church's new perspective. He is lobbying for a small amount of funding to enable him to accept mentally retarded citizens now on the waiting list for disabled benefits.

"We have people who want to be here and all they need for funding is money for a bus pass," said Rollins.

Church also is emboldened by the site visits, which she says have underscored her staff's talent and commitment.

"Some have said, 'What's your interest here? You don't seem to be a longtime member of this community,' " says Church. "I tell them, 'I'd be tempted to give you a resume that would establish my social conscience, but honestly I think a better approach is to work with me for a few months and form your own opinion. I either do or I don't have [it], and you're either going to see it by the things I do, or you won't.' "

kstewart@sltrib.com

Lisa-Michele Church

Age: 46

Family: Married with two sons

Politics: Republican married to a loyal Democrat

Utah roots: Church's ancestors were Mormon pioneers who settled in St. George in 1861

Education: Bachelor's degrees in political science and journalism and law degree, University of Utah

Profession: Attorney specializing in employment and discrimination defense

Hobby: Scrapbooking