8.22.2019

It’s a full year later and a ton has happened since my last update. I picked up new projects, wrote some off after recognizing that I was simply not interested in seeing them through, and I put some away to pull out when I feel inspired and ready to begin again. The biggest change since my last post has been geographic. I moved away from the most beautiful place I have ever lived (Colorado) to well…Texas. I chased a wonderful professional opportunity with the ninth largest city in the United States. The work is challenging and extremely rewarding. I am daily reminded though of how little I care for hot weather. I ran north the first chance I got some five odd years ago when I left Texas for D.C. and now i’m back and I don’t feel any different towards the heat.

I started my new gig at a busy time and it only got busier through the summer, so I feel far from guilty that I have thought about and done basically nothing outside of my main job. I’m excited about going back to a normal people schedule in these coming weeks and have come up with two big things I want to tackle. I am putting these out into the internet universe with hopes that doing so will keep me focused and hold me accountable in some way over the next few months:

1.      I am applying for a fellowship that will help me understand government structures around the world a little better – from a local government/governance perspective. I am interested in how local governments in different countries tackle the flow of residents. Migration isn’t limited to refugees and immigrants, even though we tend to think about it in those terms. In the next few decades we will see more and more movement of people due to various reasons (the biggest probably being climate related) and I want to see how and if municipalities and regions are currently tracking flows and preparing for larger fluctuations in population numbers in years to come. It’s such a broad issue and I realize how vague my interest sounds. I am still diving into writing and research around this topic and will try to share what I learn.

2.      I am also getting ready to apply for Public Policy (and Economics) phD programs to start in Fall 2020. I signed up for a GRE prep course. I am terrified. I have been out of school of more than three years and never seriously thought I would want to go back this soon. I assumed I would eventually start a doctoral program after a decade or so in the real world, but the longer I am in the work force the most questions I come up with about the status quo and what it would take to change it. I believe I need more training and exposure to guided critical thinking to attempt to answer the questions that puzzle me. I spoke with a few friends and professors near and dear who’ve built up my confidence enough to tell me the projects I have worked on  “in real life” and my MPA from a decent school will make me a great candidate for the programs I am interested in joining. If you have any words of wisdom for the application process, please shoot me an email. I would love to hear anything and everything.

I am and will be working on nothing else but these two ‘projects’ for myself in these next few months. I am also travelling and am very excited about said travels with some good friends.

P.S. I lied. I will be speaking at the Indiana University’s first ever #WomensSummit19 in October! I will share more information about that eventually.

7.31.2018

I set up this website some five years ago as a way to for potential employers to view my writing and research samples. I thought this might be needed as I was then hoping to end up at a think tank after grad school- publishing wonderfully researched and well-written articles about all issues migration. Instead, I earned my MPA and am now two years into what will hopefully be a long career in local government.

My day to day does not involve the sort of writing I had intended to post on this website, but I do want to use this space to talk about projects that I have had the pleasure to be involved with and am currently chipping away at.

In 2017, I was tasked with coordinating the City of Aurora's first Electric Vehicle Group Buy Program. Group Buy Programs allow municipal governments or not-for-profit organizations to work with dealerships/OEMs to offer discounts on EVs and related infrastructure. The idea is to use a well-known and trustworthy platform to engage residents and let them know about state and federal tax breaks for certain EVs - as well as entice dealerships to offer further discount pricing for a short period of time for interested residents. The Denver Post and Aurora Sentinel  (link no longer available after a website revamp) - both wrote about this effort! After two years of working with a wonderful group of both private and public sector partners, the City's program was included in the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project's Handbook & Case Studies! I am immensely proud of this program and am looking forward to hosting another one this fall!

Also in 2017, I met a group of like minded volunteers at an event in Denver. We organized a Platt River clean-up event - which led to a conversation about what more we could do to ensure that the river and it's surroundings stayed clean and trash stopped making its way into the water. This question started a conversation with Denver Parks and Rec which is still ongoing. This conversation turned into a pilot recycling study that a group of three volunteers (myself included) carried out from April through July 2018. Westword called us do-gooders and gave us a bit of positive publicity. We hope our findings will lead to either a greater awareness of recycling efforts in the metro area, policy and programming changes, and even start the conversation with business owners in Denver who can be the first line of defense against recyclables that end up in our landfills.

I am also working on some interesting things for the American Pakistan Foundation - check back in another five years (ha!) and i'll post something about them! Until then, let's start a tweet chain to put all other chains to shame: @ghostofliteracy

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | March 2017

City hosts “A Conversation on Race” as part of its 31st Annual MLK Commemoration

This post was written for the Aurora Independent.

To celebrate the life and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the City of Aurora has events scheduled throughout the month of January.  This year’s highlights included two sessions of a presentation and discussion titled ‘A Conversation on Race’ led by Katheryn Russell-Brown. Russell-Brown is the Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law and the Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law.

The first session was held at the Aurora Municipal Center at 2 pm in the afternoon, while a second was held at the Community College of Aurora in the evening on Wednesday, Jan 11 2017. Audience members included city staff and local residents.

Russell-Brown’s presentation, titled “fostering racial dialogue,” started with an interactive exercise where audience members were asked to conjure up images when certain racial groups were mentioned. She used this exercise on perception to point out how much of how we view these groups is based on media representation. She went on to talk about the idea of a post-racial society and how it assumes that conversations around race are no longer needed, when in reality informed dialogue is necessary to creating a more just society. She urged the audience to approach race-related discussions with caution and to not limit these conversations to dysfunctions and stereotypes of racial groups.

Her presentation included a brief look at how federal data on race is classified, including methodology used by the United States census to characterize race over time. She then talked about racial hoaxes, which are fabricated crimes and blame placed on a person because of their race. Russell-Brown noted that while the majority of such claims have been brought forward by whites, there is a small percentage of those from minority groups. She also noted that the media tends to portray the accused differently based on race, where if white – the accused is claimed to have committed a random act of senselessness and if black, the crime is portrayed as a hate crime. Russell-Brown noted that the lack of interaction between groups is what ultimately leads the public to believe such narratives.

She ended her presentation with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King’s lecture on the Quest for Peace and Justice. Dr. King noted that while mankind built bridges to span the seas and gargantuan buildings to kiss the sky, it lacked something basic - a sort of poverty of the spirit.

The audience was then able engage in a frank conversation around race, bringing up personal concerns about approaching the topic. Russell-Brown encouraged audience members to get tighter in small groups and have conversations on the topic, and to avoid painting groups of people with a broad brush. Parrish Gibson, a City employee who attended, noted the importance of “having frank, uncomfortable conversations” and said they are “the first step to dismantling the systemic problems we face every day. One of the great things about events like this is that everybody can walk away more knowledgeable. If each of us were to tell just one additional person what we learned, that’s progress.”

Malcolm Hankins, Director of Neighborhood Services at the City of Aurora, said “the discussion encouraged attendees to simply begin the dialogue and be open to others having differing views and level of understanding” and that “if the goal is unity among races (to walk together) we must first agree that walking together is ultimately good and be willing to start by having a conversation.” He said that the event was valuable in part because it gave permission to discuss race without the often-requisite focus on solving “problems” or the negative aspects of race. 

The celebration of Dr. King’s legacy continues this weekend. The following events will be held around the city:

Saturday, Jan 14th
Aurora Celebrates More Love & Kindness
5 pm, Heritage Event Center, 14401 E. Exposition Ave,
An evening of musical and cultural performances

Sunday, Jan 15th
Interfaith Service
4 pm, New National Church, 2001 Jamaica St.

Monday, Jan 16th
Motorcade, Wreath-laying and Marade
7:30 am, Meet at Aurora Municipal Center to drive collectively to Fletcher Plaza, 9898 E. Colfax Ave. for wreath-laying and then continuing to the state Marade at Denver City Park

African American Heritage Rodeo of Champions
6 pm, Denver Coliseum, National Western Stock Show (Tickets required for this event)

Monday, January 25th
MLK Dedication Luncheon
12 pm, Community College of Aurora, Centretech Rotunda (RSVP required for this event)

Meet the Local Government Management Fellow!

This post appeared on the ICMA Blog.

Parrish started her Local Government Management Fellowship (LGMF) with the City of Aurora, Colorado the year before last and was part of the 2015-2016 LGMF cohort. She has been working as a Project Coordinator for City's Planning Department since May 2016 and is getting ready to start a new job in a few weeks. I wanted to catch her before she left and ask a few questions about her LGMF experience .  

Name: Parrish Gibson
School/Graduation: University of Alabama-Birmingham 2013
Fellowship Site:  City of Aurora, Colorado

Why did you apply for the LGMF? The city manager I was interning under suggested I apply. He thought I would be a good fit for the LGMF and offered to be a reference. I consider him a mentor and a path maker for me because I had never heard of the program before him.

What did you expect from the Fellowship? I expected it to be a higher level internship that would basically be a city manager training program. I also expected to learn and work directly under the city manager that developed into a close relationship.

Could you tell us a bit about your experience as a Fellow? Since it was the first year for the City of Aurora to participate in the LGMF program we built the experience as we went along. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing because I got to have more input on where and what projects I wanted to work on. The only mandatory assignment was Budget which I could definitely appreciate. The Assistant City Manager/City Clerk actually hired me and I started off under her supervision. I worked closely with her and consider her a mentor. She went above and beyond to ensure I was happy with the work I was doing and made sure I was introduced to everyone in the high ranks. My first few weeks started off as a meet and greet with all the department heads. I learned about everybody’s departments which helped me figure out which departments I would enjoy working with. After budget season I chose a department I wanted to rotate to, I chose the Office of Development Assistance. I learned mostly about economic development and the current development projects that were occurring. I also assisted the ODA manager with background information related to certain sites and attended weekly pre application meetings. From there I moved to planning where I became part of the development of the new comprehensive plan team. I remained there throughout my fellowship. Of course, in between rotations I was doing several off projects such as helping with elections, attending council meetings, development fee studies, and labor management relation projects. But, for the most part the fellowship was very structured.

How about any specific projects that you worked on? My favorite project was with my time in planning and the development of the new comprehensive plan. Because I was such an integral part of the team I felt much invested in the success of the new comp plan. I was there from the very beginning, as soon as the Planning director chose a consultant we began going through the work plan. One thing I appreciated about the consultants is how they took a different approach to the average “textbook comp plan”. Their goal was to tell the story of Aurora based on the community’s input. Before any documents were drafted we had a very thorough initial community outreach phase. It was one of the biggest community outreach efforts the city ever completed. One of the most fulfilling moments was when a refugee community organizer told me she appreciated us coming to their organization and asking for their input. She said that had never been done before even though the plans that were previously made would affect their lives. I realized then how important it was to go to the community (every part) and get their input. One of our goals was to hear from the community what they valued and what they wanted to change. If that was different from what the council valued and wanted to change it would highlight the disconnect between the policy makers and the policy endurers. –is this a word? lol

What were your biggest learning moments from your fellowship? I learned a lot about management styles. I was always observant and recognized how management styles affect those managed. I learned a lot about what people appreciated and didn’t appreciate about their manager and took notes. I will always remember this and apply what I learned here during my fellowship.

What is your most memorable part about the 2016 ICMA conference? Hearing Soledad O’brien speak and actually meeting her was literally the highlight of 2016’s conference. She was so inspiring! I also really loved Marc Ott’s incoming ICMA director speech. That was extremely heartfelt and enlightening. Before this speech I viewed Mr. Ott as somewhat quiet and almost cold but his speech made him more humanizing. 

Where can we get the best coffee in the city you were placed? The Cuba Bakery & Café, I’ve only been there once but the fact that I still remember their coffee says something. I also really enjoy Ethiopian coffee but can’t think of the name of a specific place. For the best tea go to Café Paprika, they have really good mint tea.

What about the best food or drink? So many options! I would say definitely go ethnic. You can try food from literally everywhere here so be experimental. My favorites are Filipino, Thai, and Ethiopian.

Do you have any advice for incoming fellows? (things you wish you had known beforehand yourself) I would say this is the time you can try anything and fail and it will be ok. They know you are young and learning so they should give you challenging projects that you might fail at. If you’re not being challenged speak up. Your fellowship is a learning experience so approach it as such. I wish I would have learned a little more about the grant writing process but that’s super specific to my goals. Just make sure you are getting out of it what you expect to get out of it and you should be fine. Go to the really high level meetings, I tried to go to as many executive meetings as I was allowed to go to. People would literally look at me like why are you here lol, but I was there to learn. I liked to see what type of decisions the city manager was expected to make and how he came to that decision. I also loved the inside stories that he questioned if he should actually tell us (the fellows) or not. I wish I was in front of council more. They are extremely intimidating and I only had one opportunity to semi present to them so I wish I had more. Once you do it once I think it gets easier.

Do you have any advice for current MPA students interested in a career in local government? My advice would be that if you are interested in local government you already know how big of an impact you can make. I always knew I wanted to be in government but I started off in Federal government and wasn’t very fulfilled. I realized local government gives me the opportunity to literally see the fruits of my labor in everyday life. I love knowing what new development is going in that vacant lot, or which service provider can help this family. I know people say this about every job but literally every day is different especially at the City Manager level.

So, what’s next for you? I just got a new job as a Management Analyst in the City of Artesia, CA. I interviewed directly with the City Manager and will be working directly for him. I’m excited about this opportunity because in the interview he said I will basically be doing everything he doesn’t have time to do. This will give me the opportunity to apply what I learned during my fellowship especially when it comes to decision making. With that job under my belt I’ll be able to continue my path to City Manager. Wish me luck!