Aja James — DDS-Det Leadership Timeline
Aja James — DDS-Det Leadership Timeline
Captured 2026-05-08 via Firecrawl scrapes of mass.gov + bhclearinghouse.org + state audit reports, plus a CTHRU manager-tier payroll pull (rxhc-k6iz, dropping the VDE-only filter that scoped the prior dataset).
This document consolidates publicly-available evidence on Aja James's career at MA DDS-Det (Disability Determination Services) and the surrounding leadership chain. It addresses Section 1 of the data-gap punch list. Sources are linked inline; primary captures live in this folder.
⚠ Agency disambiguation: all "DDS" references below are Disability Determination Services (the SSI/SSDI adjudication division within MassAbility/MRC). They are NOT the Department of Developmental Services (DDS-Dev), which is a separate ~5,500-staff agency outside scope. See
docs/dds-det-vs-dds-dev.md.
Aja James — full career timeline (CY 2010–2023, from CTHRU)
| Year | Position Title (CTHRU) | Bargaining Unit | Annual Rate | Actual Paid | Snapshot Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Vocational Disab Examiner (A/B) | SEIU Local 509 (08) | $55,491 | $45,529 | 2010-12-18 |
| 2011 | Vocational Disab Examiner (A/B) | SEIU Local 509 (08) | $61,867 | $16,214 | 2011-12-17 |
| 2012 | Vocational Disab Examiner (D) | SEIU Local 509 (08) | $70,053 | $22,294 | 2012-12-15 |
| 2013 | Vocational Disab Examiner (D) | SEIU Local 509 (08) | $74,344 | $73,936 | 2013-12-14 |
| 2014 | Vocational Disab Examiner (D) | SEIU Local 509 (08) | $78,124 | $79,498 | 2014-12-13 |
| 2015 | Vocational Disab Examiner (D) | Managers (EXE) M99 | $84,509 | $61,653 | 2015-12-26 |
| 2016 | Regional Director, Boston | M99 | $84,509 | $84,509 | 2016-12-24 |
| 2017 | Regional Director, Boston | M99 | $85,776 | $85,630 | 2017-12-23 |
| 2018 | Regional Director, Boston | M99 | $87,501 | $88,252 | 2018-12-22 |
| 2019 | Regional Director, Boston | M99 | $101,960 | $73,351 | 2019-12-21 |
| 2020 | Director of Statewide Support | M99 | $101,960 | $101,960 | 2020-12-19 |
| 2021 | Asst Commissioner DDS | M99 | $116,366 | $94,436 | 2021-12-18 |
| 2022 | Asst Commissioner DDS | M99 | $125,675 | $46,403* | 2022-12-17 |
| 2023 | Ast Comm DDS | M99 | $125,675 | $9,667* | 2023-01-14 |
* 2022/2023 actual_paid figures are partial — CTHRU's latest snapshot for 2023 is 2023-01-14 (~2 weeks of pay only). The annual_rate for those years is reliable.
Inflection points (the answer to "Director → Asst Comm, or direct jump?")
The career was NOT a direct jump from VDE to Asst Commissioner. Four distinct title/class changes:
- 2010 → 2012: Promoted within VDE bargaining unit (A/B → D, a top VDE grade)
- 2015: Bargaining unit flipped from SEIU Local 509 → Managers (EXE) M99 mid-year, while the title was still "Vocational Disab Examiner (D)" — this is the actual moment she left the union. The title changed at the next snapshot.
- 2016: First full year as Regional Director, Boston ($84,509 → eventually $101,960 by 2019)
- 2020: Lateral title change to Director of Statewide Support (same rate as 2019, suggesting expanded scope/role rename)
- 2021 (March 7): Promoted to Asst Commissioner DDS ($14K raise from $102K → $116K, second raise to $126K in 2022)
Source: data/pay-scales/_raw_cthru_aja_james_full.json (raw CTHRU records) + data/pay-scales/mgr-incumbent-timeline-dds-det.json (structured timeline).
Concurrent / ancillary roles (career-long)
- SEIU Local 509 union steward (during her VDE/staff years 2010-2014; pre-management transition)
- Elected to SEIU Local 509 Chapter Board
- Elected to SEIU Local 509 Joint Executive Board
- Co-Chair, Black Managers Committee (state employee affinity group)
- MPA, Suffolk University — earned at night while working at DDS
Pre-DDS background (from mass.gov press release 2/25/2021): Saint Paul's College graduate (HBCU, Lawrenceville VA), relocated from Connecticut to MA when her mother Juanita Taylor (already a DDS employee) encouraged her to apply for a vocational disability examiner opening. Started at DDS approximately 2002 ("nearly two decades" before the 2021 announcement).
DDS-Det leadership chain — full incumbent timeline 2010–2023
Reconstructed from a CTHRU manager-tier pull. Each role's complete year-by-year incumbents below; structured JSON at data/pay-scales/mgr-incumbent-timeline-dds-det.json.
Asst Commissioner, Disability Determination Services
| Years | Holder | Annual Rate Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008–Jan 2015 | Barbara Kinney | $108K → $124K | Per MRC Annual Report 2012, position "September 2008 – present"; observed in CTHRU 2010 onward; left mid-Jan 2015 (only $61K paid in 2015) |
| Mar 2015–Mar 2021 | Patricia Roda | $111K → $122K | Silent transition — no public press release found. Observed in CTHRU 2015-12-26 onward at the Asst Comm DDS annual rate, last paid through 2021-03-27. |
| Mar 7, 2021–present | Aja James | $116K → $126K (verified through 2023) | Per mass.gov press release 2/25/2021 |
Commissioner, MRC (oversees DDS-Det as one of 3 divisions)
| Years | Holder | Annual Rate Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ≤2010–Mar 2015 | Charles Carr | $115K → $131K | Last CTHRU pay-snap 2015-03-21 |
| 2015–Feb 2017 | Adelaide Osborne | $125K | Interim/acting commissioner — not previously identified in firecrawl press-release scraping; surfaced only via CTHRU. Last CTHRU pay-snap 2017-02-04. |
| Feb 2017–present | Toni Wolf | $140K → $161K (through 2022) | Confirmed by July 2018 state audit letter and current MassAbility org page |
Deputy Commissioner, MRC
| Years | Holder | Annual Rate Range |
|---|---|---|
| ≤2010–2017 | Kasper Goshgarian | $116K → $137K |
| 2018–present | Kathleen Biebel | $132K → $146K (through 2022) |
Director, Quality Assurance, DDS
| Years | Holder | Annual Rate Range |
|---|---|---|
| ≤2010–2013 | Brian Miles | $82K → $87K |
| 2013–present | Kristine Robbins | $78K → $97K (through 2022) |
Fiscal Director, DDS
| Years | Holder | Annual Rate Range |
|---|---|---|
| ≤2010–present | Luis Mancebo | $72K → $101K (through 2022) |
Single incumbent across the full 14-year span — the longest continuous DDS-Det leadership tenure in this dataset.
Regional Directors, DDS (concurrent — Boston + Worcester)
| Years | Boston | Worcester |
|---|---|---|
| 2010–2011 | Lori Stevens | Luz Espino |
| 2012–2014 | Eileen Daley | Luz Espino |
| 2015–2016 | Eileen Daley | Luz Espino |
| 2017 | Eileen Daley → Aja James (transition mid-year) | Luz Espino → Matthew Dichard |
| 2018–2020 | Aja James → Kelly Forss (when James moved to Director Statewide Support) | Matthew Dichard |
| 2021–2022 | Kelly Forss | Matthew Dichard |
Note: Aja James's 2016-2019 "Regional Director, Boston" tenure overlaps with this row — she's the same person as the Boston Regional Director listed for those years.
Training Director / Hearings Director (low-frequency titles)
These titles appear only 12 times each in the CTHRU dataset (vs ~14-15 for the higher-tier roles), suggesting they may be rotated or partially-filled positions. Not enough data here for a clean incumbent chain; if needed, query CTHRU directly: data/pay-scales/mgr-annual-salary-by-employee.csv filterable by position_title.
Sept 2023 inner-ring snapshot (BH Clearinghouse deck)
Cross-references with CTHRU + the published deck:
| Role | Holder | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Commissioner, MassAbility (formerly MRC) | Toni Wolf | mass.gov/orgs/massability + BH deck Sept 2023 |
| Deputy Commissioner | Kathleen Biebel | CTHRU through 2022 (likely current) |
| Asst Comm, DDS-Det | Aja James | BH deck Sept 2023 + mass.gov |
| Director, Statewide Support Operations (DDS-Det) | Karen Sampson Johnson (email: Karen.Sampson@ssa.gov) | BH deck Sept 2023 |
Karen Sampson Johnson uses an ssa.gov email despite being a state employee — DDS-Det staff are issued federal SSA email accounts because the agency is fully SSA-funded under a federal–state agreement, even though personnel are MA state employees. This is a non-obvious detail relevant to records-request planning (some artifacts live on federal systems → FOIA, others on state systems → PRR).
Remaining gaps (post-CTHRU)
- Full DDS-Det internal org chart for 2024 and 2025 — CTHRU coverage stops at 2023; a 2024+ snapshot will become available when CTHRU publishes calendar-year 2024 data (typically next quarter).
- Sub-director / line-management roles — Area Directors, district leadership, team leads. The CTHRU manager-tier pull captured ~352 unique managers; the named §1/§2 priority roles are extracted, but the full org-chart hierarchy below the named roles is not synthesized in this document.
- 2024 Asst Commissioner DDS pay — Aja James continued in role through 2023 in CTHRU; 2024 pay rate (if any change) requires a CTHRU refresh after CY24 close.
Captures in this folder
| File | Source URL | Bytes |
|---|---|---|
aja-james-mass-gov-press-release-2021-02-25.md | https://www.mass.gov/news/aja-james-named-assistant-commissioner-disability-determination-services | ~5.8KB |
mrc-annual-report-2012.md | https://www.mass.gov/doc/annual-report-2012-1/download | ~7.9KB |
state-audit-2018-0054-3s-mrc.md | https://www.mass.gov/doc/massachusetts-rehabilitation-commission-0/download | ~17KB |
massability-commissioners-staff-2026-05-08.md | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/commissioners-staff-0 (Permanent Commission — different body, includes one-line Carr biography only) | ~42KB |
Adjacent CTHRU outputs (data/pay-scales/)
_raw_cthru_aja_james_full.json— 20 raw rows for Aja James across 2010-2023_raw_cthru_mrc_managers.json— 2,555 raw rows for all MRC manager-tier records 2010-2023mgr-annual-salary-by-employee.csv— deduplicated per-employee per-year, includes canonical_role mappingmgr-incumbent-timeline-dds-det.json— structured incumbent timeline by role × year for all DDS-Det priority roles_build_mgr_pay.py— the build script (re-runnable; refresh raw JSON via curl, then re-run script)