Herocrats Spotlight: Faith Jackson is Fearlessly Strategic about Racial Equity

When Faith Jackson began working for the City of Bloomington in Minnesota three years ago, she was thrilled to break new ground as the City’s first racial equity coordinator. Faith previously worked in racial equity and inclusion for the Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, but her dedication to social justice started long before then:

 “I am a very proud daughter of Mississippi, and I grew up learning at the feet of elders. I always say that. My parents advocated for themselves and others while I was in the womb, so I feel like I was born into it.”

Faith grew up in a racially hostile environment in Mississippi. When she was young, her family moved into a white neighborhood for her father to meet the residency requirement for a county job. They were the only Black family in their neighborhood, and she and her brother were the only Black students at their elementary school. There, Faith’s family experienced racism and discrimination:

 “No one wanted us to stay. We had the Klan members burn crosses in our yard. We would make copies of all our homework assignments so that we could track at the end of the year what our grades should actually be. And all we needed to do was cross over the train tracks, and I would have had an entirely different experience.”

Faith interning at the City of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights. Pictured with Velma Korbel, the former Civil Rights Director.

 Being required to navigate racism at a young age shaped Faith’s perspective of her world. Growing up, she knew she wanted to help improve other people’s lives. This motivated her to work in government. Faith attended Tougaloo College in Jackson, Mississippi, “the cradle of the civil rights movement.” After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she moved to Minnesota to attend Hamline University School of Law.

 Throughout law school, she interned at the City of Minneapolis Civil Rights Department and discovered a passion for policy work. After graduating, Faith was offered a full-time job in the Civil Rights Department. Within a week, she went from an intern to the newest member of their leadership team.

Faith accepting an award from Minnesota Lawyer

 Faith worked for the City of Minneapolis for several years before taking her experience to St. Paul and, ultimately, Bloomington. In the fall of 2019, she was hired to build the blueprint for embedding equity and inclusion throughout the organization’s fabric. 

 Very quickly, Faith faced unprecedented challenges that required courage. After George Floyd’s murder in neighboring Minneapolis, Faith was put in a position where she had to be a mediator between the City of Bloomington and the community. Growing up as an activist, she felt conflicted being on the other side of the table, and she thought a lot about the City’s strategies to progress racial equity and what they wanted to accomplish.

 “I made it through those moments by remembering why I chose to work in government in the first place. I reminded myself of the need and ability to influence change from within the system. I promised them that I would use my position in local government to hold the City accountable to its commitment to racial equity. I asked them to hold me accountable to that promise.”

 It takes courage to disrupt systems, and Faith is leading racial equity work in government fearlessly. It can be scary to make big decisions in unprecedented times without best practices or a blueprint to rely on; to help, she leans on her professional and academic achievements, as well as her personal experiences of growing up as a Black woman and a descendant of the civil rights movement. Faith’s bravery, connection to the community, and strong sense of self help her know the right thing to do in each new situation.

Faith participating in an event with the City of Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights

Herocrats Spotlight: Rachael Button Expands the Definition of a Library

Photo credit: Nick Chill, Decorah Public Library

Rachael Button is a Children’s and Young Adult Librarian at Decorah Public Library in Northeastern Iowa, who spoke with us about her experience as a librarian during COVID-19 lockdowns, and the constantly expanding definition of a library. 

What is your role at the library? 

“I'm the children's and young adult librarian at Decorah Public Library. I handle collection development, programming, and space management for ages 0 through 18. This work is suited to my interests because I get to work with young people at a range of ages and stages. I really like watching the way that kids come into their own, whether they're babies that are learning how to use the stairs, or high schoolers who are asking me for a book that reflects their identity. I feel really honored to be a witness to that, and to accompany them through those experiences.”

Your position has looked really different in the last two years, how have you had to be courageous in the face of a pandemic? 

“I think something that takes courage in this job is that it's a lot of responsibility to be entrusted with the programs and the collections for an entire community’s youth. In March 2020, it was not easy or intuitive for me to jump into the new, digital programming world that was asked of me as our community shut down; I'm an educator, and I'm not necessarily an entertainer. I work for a well resourced library, but during those first shutdown weeks, I was on an old iPod, in my house doing story times and editing on an app I downloaded on our spotty-at-best rural WiFi. It was important that families and children continued to see familiar faces during that first lockdown.  It was a quick and necessary pivot.

 As the library opened up our spaces gradually, we've done a lot of outdoor programming, and tried to support people at whatever comfort level they're at. We are offering in-person programs inside, in-person programs outside, and things that people can do at home. All three have proven to be really popular, and it's been this constant pivot and response as we try to meet people where they're at, and support them.

Something that we have seen is that the things that you do to accommodate people's safety during COVID can also accommodate a myriad of other things that make our work more inclusive. For example: if you’re a person who works a job where you can't take your child to story time at 10:00 AM on a Monday, you can still get a take-home craft bundle. We try to be really seasonal and age diverse in the programs and activities that we put out. I also have some teenagers and seniors who sign up to do our crafts, and I love that! There is an element of being able to do a project at your own pace and in your own space that is valuable beyond the COVID safety concerns that a lot of folks may still need.”

How has your work helped support and build a more just and equitable community? 

Rachael and a student on a biking field trip. Photo credit: Nick Chill, Decorah Public Library

“The further in my career that I have gotten, the more I've realized that access is a huge priority to me. The library offers kids the ability to come in and get books, programming, materials, and community engagement, all for free. We have a maker space, and kids can come in and use the materials that we've curated. Access to materials is really important to me, and giving kids access to their community is important too. 

We run a biking field trip and a winter field trip program with local partners (Winneshiek County Conservation and Upper Explorerland Safe Routes to School), and that's been an exciting collaboration for me to reexamine what it means to be a library and a public space. My definition of my work goes beyond just literacy. I think that books are an invaluable tool for kids that grants them the ability to see both the world reflected to them, and themselves reflected, in a book. But I also believe in creating free opportunities for kids to connect with public land, and public spaces, that go beyond the walls of the library or the pages of a book. 

I’m grateful for the imaginative programming that we've had to do the last couple years because it has expanded the definition of what library programs can look like. I think it also shows that when you put funds to a public place where it can serve a lot of people, it has the ability to make a huge impact. I feel really grateful to get to be a part of that process.” 

Outside of pandemic times, have there been any persistent challenges to your work? If so, how have you handled them? 

“What can be challenging is that the political environment feels really heavy and we are all just hoping that our world doesn’t implode.  One of the things that has taken courage is to trust in my library, to trust in my community, to trust in the choices we've made in terms of building a collection and programs as we continue to center the community in the work.  Reading the news can be overwhelming--but in the midst of a lot of uncertainty our local community has been supportive of the library and I believe the work makes a difference.

I think in my particular role, working with children and families, it is my responsibility to develop programming and a collection that reflects the diversity of my community and to stay really positive and to uplift the good things that are happening. While that work is highly important, it can also be very challenging and it often requires constant refocusing. I don't think it's much different than going into the classroom as a teacher and trying to center yourself to be that person who can be responsive to your students. The people that I work with are not my students, but I think being a person who's centered and ready to respond and bring my full energy to the work is really important. That can be a challenge, but I think it's also something that calls us up, right?”

Rachael painting with students at a library program. Photo credit: Nick Chill, Decorah Public Library

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Herocrats Spotlight: Renee Tyler Infuses Inclusion into Community Service

Renee Tyler is currently the Director of Community Services for the City of Eau Claire, WI, and this spring she will be transitioning to a position as the Director of Administration for the City of Fulton, MO. We spoke with Renee about  her career in public service, and the importance of inclusivity at every level of decision making in government. 

How did you end up working in government?

“Prior to my work in government, I worked in the finance sector in New York City. For years I wanted to help people and see a result. The thing about the private sector often is that you don't see the impact of what you're doing. 

My undergraduate degree is in social welfare, and I have never officially used it, but I use it everyday in community services. My beginning in public service was influenced by living and working in the New York City metro area; seeing how one neighborhood can be beautiful, and not even two blocks down and a block over, and it's not beautiful anymore. These experiences got me learning about service, allocations and funding, and people that were advocating for these areas. When I started this journey, I didn't think I was going to be here. No, I was just looking for a way to be more proactive and to do something that would be a part of positive change.”

After getting into government, how have you become the leader you are today?

“For me, I think that the work has grown because my voice has grown. I have now been able to expand my work, by looking at the inclusion of equitable policies that encourage women and minorities. My career path has taken on a form that is different from many, because I try to use my voice, and I try to implement policies and procedures that are inclusive. This path has allowed me to gain more confidence in speaking my truth, but also hearing, listening, and trying to be a conduit for those who are not often heard or seen.” 

Renee Tyler and City of Eau Claire staff at the 2021 Public Works Appreciation Cookout

What challenges do you face in your day-to-day work?

“Part of the concern that I have with things that are happening today in government is that we tend to still want to be status quo, and we aren’t addressing the important issues. I'm a Black woman working in a white male-dominated area. That's a lot to take in for some people. When I speak truth to light, I'm trying to be as transparent as possible and, in certain areas, making people understand that some of what I'm speaking transcends race. I ask the question, how can we move forward? If I'm in an organization and I'm the minority, but the majority of the people in the organization don't treat one another with respect, how can I expect you to treat me with respect? 

I am not here to be the Black director, I'm not here to be the Black female director. I am here to be the director. And I try to channel those things that I've experienced into my work and my advocacy.”

Can you share an example of your lived experience influencing your work? 

“Transit is a passion of mine. I grew up in rural Arkansas, a very car dependent place, and I was blessed to have reliable transportation. But so many people in my community didn't have access to transportation. Then you factor in navigating life using a mobility device, or having a visual impairment. These factors don’t stop at race, they don't stop at gender. They are equal opportunity issues. So getting people to recognize and respect the need for everybody to have accessibility in community services, to me, that's big.”

How do we do this? What can we do to bring more accessibility?

“I'm a huge advocate of succession planning. In government, most organizations and succession plans target mid-level training for mid-level employees, with the intent to help them become city managers, county managers, and supervisors. I think that's great, but what I don't see enough of is intentional succession planning focused on frontline workers moving into supervisory roles and into management positions. 

I mentor some of my supervisors, and everybody is extended the invitation. Any opportunity that comes across my desk for training or whatever, if frontline staff wants to sign up for it I say, ‘I’ve got money for it, I have the budget, let's do it’. In my work, I am trying to show what inclusion really looks like. Something that becomes disheartening is having to explain to peers what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it.” 

How should we be doing things differently in local government to make meaningful change? 

“You don't get organizational change with comfort. Change is not comfortable. If change was comfortable, we wouldn't be dealing with what we're dealing with today! 

I'm of the mindset that when everybody is sitting at the table is shaking their head yes, and we haven't even discussed the issue, it's a failure. 

When you get people talking, expressing, and you have civil discourse, that’s when change can come about. I can't fix something if I don't know anything about it. I need the operators. I need the frontline workers in the room, I need the team that's outside fixing the sidewalks and planting trees, I need their input. How can I make policy decisions or choices that impact how you do your job, if I don't know how you do your job day to day? It seems like it should be common sense, but the hierarchy of work just isn’t working anymore.”

Renee Tyler at the 2021 National APWA Conference, where she was the recipient of the 2021 National APWA Community Involvement Award.

Herocrats Spotlight: Transportation Equity Planning Coordinator Abdullahi Abdulle

Abdullahi Abdulle is a Transportation Equity Planning Coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Abdullahi’s connection to his community has been an important thread through his equity work, and we spoke to Abdullahi about how his superpowers of connection and courage show up daily in his work in public service. 

How did you come to Transportation Equity Work? 

“When I was doing traditional transportation planning work, programming and design, I felt like there was something missing. I was concerned about who had access to these transportation services, and who didn't. Being a member of the community, and having the experience of trying to navigate the transportation system as an immigrant, made me want to advocate for a specialized role in public works focused on transportation equity. I remember how difficult it was, especially in the first couple of years that I was still new to the country, to get from point A to point B. My colleagues and I in transportation shared experiences of being from the communities that we were serving, and saw a need. All of these pieces led me to where I am today as the Transportation Equity Planning Coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Transportation.” 

What does it mean to you to be connected to your community? 

“I think about this story when I am thinking about my role in government:

I had a neighbor who shared with me that she was working two jobs so that she could pay rent, buy food, and save enough money to put two of her kids through college. I think about how working two shifts does not really leave a lot of time for my neighbor to comment on all of these different transportation plans and programs that government agencies ask people to comment on. There are many people in the community that cannot be there, even if they wanted to. When those community members can’t be there, their lived experiences are excluded from the decision making process. Our role in government is to mitigate that exclusion. One way to do that is by making sure that we have representation for people of different socioeconomic backgrounds and lived experiences. So that, some people with decision-making power at the table share some of those lived experiences, even when we cannot bring everyone to the table.

My lived and shared experience with the community is a source of foundational knowledge, and a reminder to fight for equitable outcomes for my fellow community members who often are not invited to the decision-making table. When I look around, I sometimes see spaces where I'm the only person that has my background. To me, my connection to the community is not only something that grounds me, but is also a constant reminder of what is at stake, and how loud I need to be in these spaces, because staying silent is not really an option.” 

Are there moments in your work where you have to lead with courage? 

“I feel like the moment is always requiring that I need to be more courageous and share with sincerity what my thoughts are. What that really means is for me to get comfortable with that discomfort, and being comfortable having conversations with people that do not agree with me and sometimes don't see the value of what I'm saying. It's not feasible for us to only talk about the weather; we have to talk about the substantial issues. Issues like transportation, housing, and equity that make people think, ‘what is my role here?’. It’s important to me that I try my best everyday to lead with both my heart and my mind so we can have those brave conversations. 

Sometimes leading with courage means that I say something that is very uncomfortable about institutions or systems that we like. We have something in our industry that we often call ‘proven practice’. It is an understanding that there are proven methods of practice for how we do our work. But ‘proven practice’ is only proven practice for the people that have many blind spots and gaps in their knowledge and grounding with communities, and to question that takes a lot of risk and requires a lot of courageous conversations.” 

What are some projects that you are most proud of in your work? 

“I'm really most proud of a project in Minneapolis that repurposed a highway into a car-free pedestrian and bicycle connection from this high density, mostly immigrant community to downtown Minneapolis. The community advocated for that project for so many years and they were able to get it. approved and also name it to honor one of the community's core members, Samatar Crossing. If we look, I'm hoping we find stories like that. Not necessarily what the actual outcome looks like, or even the car-free nature of it, but projects that show communities and their countless hours of advocacy led to something meaningful and concrete. I’m hoping that there will be more outcomes like this that we can celebrate soon.”

Herocrats Spotlight: Mobility Manager Danielle Elkins

Danielle Elkins is the Mobility Manager for the City of Minneapolis, where she reviews mobility and transit technologies that are hitting the market, and determines if they are a good fit for the City’s mission. In her work today, Danielle juggles the dissonance of ever-changing technologies with government policy change. 

“We have a public works department that was created 150 years ago. How do you adapt something that is 150 years old to things that are changing on a six month, one year cycle now?” 

“After ridehailing launched in 2010, companies started coming to the US Conference of Mayors and National League of Cities looking to preempt cities out of regulating them. In these rooms I saw how these tech companies were treating government officials, and I saw a lack of understanding of government and how it works. I was like, ‘something is wrong here’.”

“People hate change, and everything I've ever done in mobility policy is preparing for and reacting to changes, whether it's working on projects like a high speed rail program in California, or developing new mobility programs in Minneapolis. You're also fighting an internal perception that you are changing people's jobs, and a lot of people get uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the public sees the changing landscape that the market is pushing for, and can get really angry about who they think is bringing about that change, when most of the time the government is just responding to market forces.”

“So much of this anger is rooted in fear because this work is so complicated, and it is changing so quickly. Our ability to articulate these changes to the general public has been a struggle particularly because our strength in government is not storytelling or communications. Our job now is to try to find ways to explain these changes to the public. This is a modern challenge across government, that as things become more and more complex, our current systems are not set up to handle it.”

“We need to be okay with admitting that change is going to keep happening and that we will never know 100% of what is coming. If we know what our goals and our outcomes are going to be, and if we stay aligned on anything that comes our way, we can handle it.”

Herocrat Spotlight: Brian Bonanno's Approach to People Centered City Planning

While we typically highlight current government employees, we recently talked with a former government worker about the importance of cycling in and out of city government work, in order to be an effective changemaker and prevent burnout. Brian Bonanno is a seasoned public servant with experience working in city government and in the nonprofit sector, with a focus on community engagement. 

“I've worked adjacent to local government for most of my career, starting in Chicago. In Iowa, I worked closely with a few different cities, specifically Des Moines, and Dubuque. I came to New Mexico in the fall of 2020, and started working as a planner for the city's behavioral health and wellness division. 

I transferred last spring to the urban design and development division where the city was experimenting with ‘mid-range planning’, a new division created to specifically address difficulty with on-the-ground engagement from city government. Most of my background consists of working with residents, business owners and community organizations to press the city to make changes. This role flipped that around, by employing someone within the city government to do that kind of work out in the community.” 

We talked with Brian about the value and importance of working inside and outside of the system to advocate for justice, and the possible roadblocks that arise within government that make community engagement a difficult practice. 

“I think public servants are getting attacked in a lot of ways from all sides. They're being asked to do a lot with a little- here in Albuquerque, we’re struggling to keep up because budgets are tight and there’s more work to be done in neighborhoods than ever before. The challenge now is that we are trying to do that work with fewer people.

In the planning department we're struggling to meet all of the expectations of the city and the citizens we serve. I think some people misunderstand our role in the community. Sometimes, even the planning department is unsure of their role. That's partly because the nature of the work has changed; there's more of an emphasis on acknowledging the mistakes in planning in the past that have led to inequities and disinvestment and injustice. In the time that I've been there, we’ve started trying to make amends for instances of injustice, like histories of redlining or community disinvestment that planning is partly responsible for. This has been a harder challenge to address than was anticipated. A lot of people don't like to admit to mistakes, they want to keep moving forward with planning and maybe acknowledge these things, but no one wants to take full responsibility.”

We talked to Brian about the work of a city reckoning with their role in historical injustice, and what it might look like for city government to take meaningful responsibility and make amends. 

“Cities tend to move in highly regimented schedules. It's a two year plan, it's a five-year plan. These plans rarely go beyond, five, maybe 10 years. I think cities need to be willing to accept that this work takes a very long time. It took a long time for communities to end up where they're at. It took years, and decades of neglect and disinvestment, particularly in lower income communities. From the government, there’s an unwillingness to dedicate more than a couple of years to solving that problem. What a lot of these communities have lacked is consistency. 

For example, when I worked in Des Moines, the city had their five-year plan. Four years into their plan they said ‘it's not working the way that we expected it to work,’ partly because they weren't willing to be vulnerable to their own mistakes. And this causes cities to pick up and move to another neighborhood or pick up a new project or a new planning idea, and see what else is going on, and what the new planning trend is, and put their energy into a new project.

Brian was recognized as the 2019 "Creative of the Year" by the Greater Des Moines Young Professional Committee for his community engagement work and facilitation of public art projects around the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

If you sit in a place long enough and you open yourself up to be vulnerable and transparent with communities, you are going to reach a better outcome. That was the something I really pushed for in my department- we need to stop rushing. There's always a sense of urgency, but it's in an urgency focused around finishing a project in order to move to the next neighborhood. What I’m advocating for is a model of city planning where we stay a while- get to know people, spend time in communities outside of just going to an event at a library or a community center. Why don’t we talk to our business owners and residents in the community? 

To me it feels like the city planning model isn’t capable in its current form of being the kind of community partner that's needed. The things that I see missing from the system are time consistency, transparency, and sincere community engagement.” 

Brian is hopeful that these trends are changing, both in city government structure and in the higher education programs producing the next generation of city planners- but, at the end of the day, these changes are happening very slowly. Brain shared with us lessons that he learned about the importance of knowing the why of public outreach before engaging with a community, in order to be a more effective resource. 

“In city government, it can be really easy to get beaten down and become complacent, and feel like the system wants you to conform. Before I left city government, I tried to impress upon the people that I work with the importance of knowing what you are asking for when you engage with a community. I think there’s often an idea that we just have to get out and talk to people. 

I've been in this situation where I've engaged people and built relationships and had nothing tangible to offer them. Ultimately, that leads to you letting people down. After that, how can you expect them to trust you again? When I consider all of this, I try to focus on how we can hone in on what we are asking the community, and what we can offer the community before we go out and try to create meaningful engagement.” 

Brian will continue to work in community engagement in a new position with a housing non-profit in Albuquerque, New Mexico this winter.

Herocrat Spotlight: Medical Countermeasures Coordinator Gabriela Hurtado

Gabriela Hurtado is a Medical Countermeasures Coordinator for the City of Long Beach, CA. In the past two years, she expanded existing city pandemic preparedness plans to develop citywide testing, and, when the time came, helped create a citywide vaccination effort to serve the 400,000+ community members of Long Beach.  

“To operationalize our plans for the test sites, we basically took our anthrax plan and adjusted it for COVID-19. It's not like it was all from scratch, but we were creative and able to build on that existing knowledge to serve the community.”

Hurtado partnered with government agencies across the city to develop a unified effort against COVID-19, with the goal of creating accessible test sites and vaccines for all community members. 

Hurtado began her career with the City of Long Beach as an intern in 2012, building community awareness of emergency preparedness measures. In the nine years since, she has helped develop the emergency management division; In particular, Gabriela assisted with HIV surveillance efforts, flu vaccine rollouts, and bioterrorism preparedness before focusing in on pandemic preparedness in 2019, and putting skills into practice in early 2020. 

“Vaccines are really my niche so it was exciting when I was able to participate in the vaccine rollout. Vaccination is something that we are really well versed in as a department because we do a flu vaccination every year. We took our plan that we practice every year with the flu vaccine, swapped out the flu, and inserted the COVID vaccine.”

Long Beach Public Health Nurses drawing up COVID-19 vaccines at the Convention Center. Source: Gabriela Hurtado.

Throughout a year and a half of pandemic management, Hurtado has juggled the opinions of stakeholders, community members, and public health officials in developing a just pandemic response. 

“I think in all of this, the most difficult part was that for so long we did our job and no one noticed. I think that's a good thing, right? Because that means we're doing our job well. But when COVID-19 happened, all of a sudden everyone was an emergency manager, an epidemiologist, a statistician. I think that was really difficult because our entire team serves as subject matter experts, but then you have politics come into play. And It's challenging when everything on the news or social media is negative all the time. It's so divisive and polarizing that I have to remind myself and our team constantly, ‘we're doing this for everyone else, not just for us’. I think that really helps.

I think that one of the other really challenging pieces is trying to reinstate ourselves as a trustworthy entity. Because we would never ask the community to do something that we wouldn't do ourselves. Trying to navigate that was really difficult; specifically, trying to make sure that all of our communities of color were getting the information and not just getting it, but understanding it and knowing that it came from a trustworthy source. I think those are probably the two hardest parts of this pandemic from an emergency management standpoint.” 

Amidst the myriad of challenges brought on by the past two years as a Medical Countermeasures Coordinator, Gabriela has taken on a role as a public health authority and community spokesperson in the COVID-19 response in Long Beach, CA. 

Command staff that led the Convention Center-Public Health Emergency Management team, Fire Department, and National Guard. Source: Gabriela Hurtado.

“I've never been in this type of leadership position before where there's so many people looking to me for information or answers. I have to remind myself that a lot of people are going to feed off of my energy. If I'm stressed and overwhelmed, everybody else is going to feel that too. So I have to remind myself that it's okay to have off-days or off-moments, but  just because it's a bad moment, doesn’t mean it's a bad day.” 

I always remember the day that we went down to the convention center and they were like, ‘okay, Gabby what do you want to see? How do you want us to set this up?’ I literally said, ‘I want this to look and feel like Disneyland’. At the time we were seeing up to 6,000 people a day. And, we had signage everywhere and everyone was so happy to see the next person in line. It  was not just our team being happy to see this next person getting vaccinated, but it was also the community sharing their gratitude and their hope from a vaccine, which I think is my favorite piece of all of this.”

Gabriela overseeing the drive thru vaccine clinic at the Convention Center. At the height of vaccination, 6,000 residents passed through the Convention Center daily. Source: Gabriela Hurtado.

Herocrat Spotlight: Meleesa Johnson builds understanding of the public policy process

“In this time of division, how can we build one another up? How can we support one another? How can we build capacity? How do we help people to understand this is hard work? Don't ever think for a minute that this is easy.

We need to set a policy agenda that is not reactive to attacks, but one in which we can work collaboratively to advance sound public policy. And it has to go beyond just one little community, to a broader level.

I'm trying to demystify the budget process so that people, when they show up for a budget meeting, don't think ‘I don't want to ask a question because I don't want to look stupid.’ I'm trying to help shed some basic light on the public finance process so that people can understand. What are the expenses, where's the money coming from and what are all these special funds? What does it all mean?

This is an education job. And it's worth it. Especially when you recognize that you're not alone, even though you feel like you are sometimes. I want my legacy to live on in the capacity of other people. And so you lift them up, you build them up, you give them tools, you guide them, you find their strengths and build on them. That's what we should be doing. And that's what someone did for me. And that's why I try to do it for others.”

Meleesa Johnson is a public servant that holds dual roles as an elected official and government employee. Meleesa Johnson was elected to the Stevens Point City Council to represent the fifth district in 2016, and was elected President of the body by her peers just one year later. She also has 10+ years of experience as a public servant directing the Marathon County Solid Waste Department, and is currently serving her 3rd term as a Supervisor for the Portage County Board.

Herocrat Spotlight: IT Director Elizabeth Lo

Elizabeth Lo is an IT Director in Bedford County, VA with nearly twenty years of government experience.

“I’m currently working in Bedford County in Southwest Virginia. It’s very rural compared to Minneapolis. There are a lot of hills and mountains— it’s right by the Appalachian trail and edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I run the IT shop here. We have 11 full time IT employees including myself. There is a lot of great talent within the group. We're really trying to do the right thing and do things right. At organizational level, the IT Department supports internal county departments and those departments who support and serve the community. Technology is changing so fast and just keeping up with everything is very challenging. It used to be that there was a very specific skill set in terms of being a programmer/developer, but that’s changed quite a bit.

The technology field has expanded to include business analysis, project management, GIS, and more. A big part of IT is now about being a good communicator in order to help staff and leadership navigate technology toward achieving the County's goals and mission.

The bad actors are very clever and sophisticated in their approach. They're everywhere. What I've explained to people in my organization is that we're not hidden from these bad actors. You feel like since you’re in Southwest Virginia, nobody's paying attention to you, but every week we block 35,000+ external phishing attempts from across the world.

There’s a lot of collaboration between state, federal, and the local county. There can be moments of conflict and cross purposes between the various levels of government. But when we do come together, when we actually know what our purpose is, what we're trying to achieve, we really knock it out of the park.

Everybody talks about the bureaucratic red tape, but there’s a flip side— the green tape. Those rules that actually help. They pull everything together. They’re not just policy, but policy with purpose that we understand. You know what the purpose is, the policy is consistently being applied across the board, and well-communicated. A big part of government is providing that structure in a way that actually moves things forward. Green tape is what I think we need more of, not less of. Unfortunately, a lot of people say that if you have a rule, then it's red tape and that is not necessarily always the case.”

Herocrat Spotlight: Dawn Beck Brings Her Lived Experience to Work

“I'm the child of an incarcerated parent. I wasn't okay with sharing that with anyone until I was in my forties.

I worked for Olmsted County for nearly 20 years. In 2017, the Minnesota State Community Health Services Advisory Committee, a group of county commissioners and public health directors, formed the Children of Incarcerated Parents Workgroup. The group was charged with advancing how Minnesota and local governments can better support children of incarcerated parents. At that point in Minnesota, having an incarcerated parent was the most frequently reported adverse childhood experience.

After I heard about the workgroup, I went to Olmsted County Commissioner Sheila Kiscaden—one of the group’s co-chairs to let her know that I was the child of an incarcerated parent, and that I was willing to help by giving insight from the child’s perspective.

I felt really courageous because it's not something that we’d ever talked about. A few months later, she called and said, ‘I just talked to your boss and asked if you could participate in the workgroup.’ After I joined, I found out I was the only person with the lived experience of parental incarceration serving on the workgroup. Advocating for families and children affected by incarceration has since become a calling.

When we plan to engage communities, it’s important to include community leaders and those that care about their community, and it’s vital to hear from those who might feel disengaged, the people who have lived through the issue. In order to appropriately address systemic issues, including the voices of lived experience is essential.

Ultimately, the group did accomplish its original charge, which was to study the issue in Minnesota and come back with recommendations. The big takeaway is that we need to raise awareness in order to change attitudes and move to action. Kids with parents in jail or prison don't talk about it, and teachers don't know about the traumatic experiences these kids may have encountered. There’s a huge lack of awareness. When we you start talking about it, people say things like, ‘‘those criminals did a crime, so I don't feel bad for them.’ They assume that there are services and systems for addressing the impact of parental incarceration on the kids, but there aren’t.

Although I was set to be the workgroup co-chair in 2021, I was nearing the end of a special assignment with Olmsted County and made the leap to starting my own consulting business. I’m still working on the issue as a strategic advisor for the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee of Minnesota and other organizations with missions in support of families experiencing incarceration.”

Dawn with her grandsons

Dawn Beck worked for Olmsted County, MN for 19 years. She currently runs New Dawn Consulting, where she helps organizations transform individuals, teams, and communities with strengths-based leadership and team development, organizational excellence via talent optimization and collaborative problem-solving.