TASB RMF's Dubravka Romano Honored with Leadership Award

Austin—  Dubravka Romano, associate executive director for Risk Management Services at the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB), has been selected to receive a prestigious Award for Excellence in Leadership by the Association of Governmental Risk Pools (AGRiP). 

Romano has served in her role supporting the TASB Risk Management Fund — one of the largest and oldest risk pools in the U.S. — since January 1988. Romano’s transformative leadership and commitment to the important purpose of public entity pooling have allowed her to navigate and guide the Fund through several challenges and transform it into the successful entity it is today. 

When she assumed her role as the Fund’s top administrator, the workers’ compensation program was struggling. In response, Romano helped develop and implement a multi-year remediation strategy to gain reinsurance support. The success of the Fund today results directly from Romano’s insight and guidance.  

“TASB is fortunate to have Dubravka at the helm of the Fund to provide leadership, experience and excellent customer service to our membership,” said TASB Risk Management Fund Chair Ted Beard, who also currently serves as TASB president. “She is relentless in her commitment to serving Texas public school districts and other education entities across the state so that they’re prepared with proactive risk prevention and mitigation strategies. She is certainly deserving of this prestigious honor and we’re extremely proud of her and her work.” 

Romano also transformed TASB’s four distinct property/casualty, employee benefits, workers’ compensation, and unemployment compensation pools with separate operations into a single multiline pool. Consolidating the pools provided broader and more comprehensive coverage for members, financial leverage for various exposures and reduced the Fund’s administrative costs.  She moved claims in-house more than 25 years ago, increasing the responsiveness of the Fund with an ongoing dedication to ensuring excellent customer service and claims management. During her tenure, Romano has been a leader in service and coverage enhancements and operational improvements for the Fund.  

“Few are more passionate, experienced and credible than Dubravka Romano,” said industry colleague Amy Guilford, chief program administrator with the MASB-SEG Property/Casualty Pool. “She recognizes that the future of pooling is dependent upon the leaders of tomorrow, and her mentorship and commitment only strengthen and secure the future for all governmental risk pools.” 

Throughout her career, Romano has been a staunch advocate for Texas school districts and their employees through TASB and the Fund. She’s also been a notable influence across the public entity pooling community. As a frequent speaker at AGRiP conferences and active in a variety of pool gatherings, Romano takes time, energy and care to share her knowledge and experiences with her pooling peers. 

“We’re all indebted to Dubravka for her lifelong work in pooling,” said Jon Shull, AGRiP Board President. “Her tireless efforts at TASB, the Fund and beyond have deeply benefited our community.” 

AGRiP’s Award for Excellence in Leadership is given to an outstanding leader and/or mentor in the public entity pooling community who has made strong contributions to the industry and inspires others. Romano will receive her award on March 7 at AGRiP’s Governance Conference in New Orleans.  

About the TASB Risk Management Fund

Established in 1974, the TASB Risk Management Fund is a multiline pool offering workers’ compensation, property, auto, liability, cyber and unemployment compensation coverage that responds to risks faced by more than 1,000 public education members across Texas.  

For more information about the TASB Risk Management Fund, visit tasbrmf.org. 

About AGRiP

The Association of Governmental Risk Pools is a multinational organization for public entity risk pools with over 200 members from the United States, Canada and Australia. By providing support through education, intelligence, advocacy, networking and best practices, AGRiP energizes the power of pooling, making member organizations more effective, collaborative and informed.  

For more information about AGRiP and the public entity pooling industry, visit agrip.org. 

Contact
Ann Gergen, Executive Director
agergen@agrip.org 
9 Cornell Rd. 
Latham, NY 12110 
518.220.0336