In this moment of uncertainty and rapid change across the public sector, I’ve found myself paying closer attention to the kinds of leaders who make a difference within their organizations in ways that have a ripple effect externally. The leaders that stand out most are navigating uncertainty with a focused, strategic lens, and deep care… Read more »
When he died, his successor said he felt as though “the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.” Harry Truman was speaking of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Their tenure began at a time when, around the world, economic downturn led to unemployment, poverty, institutional failures. Populism was on the rise. The beginnings… Read more »
Like fragments shored against our ruins – I celebrate the commitment of public resources to universal access via the Chicago Public Library. This winter we convened to champion the 81 Club – an initiative the Chicago Public Library Foundation hired us to support in 2023. The 81 Club puts a Chicago Public Library card into… Read more »
The federal funding boom of the pandemic era is ending—and this moment is going to test what was built. But that’s the point: the partnerships, plans, and connective structures created in the last few years aren’t fragile. They’re durable, disciplined, and ready to be used. That’s why this is a call not to retreat, but… Read more »
The list of forbidden words keeps growing, building on itself. Driven by memos, fear, ‘getting ahead of it,’ word of mouth advice, by experience… The scrubbing of RFPs, web sites, bios, resources and toolkits. It’s comprehensive, exhausting, and terrifying. Meetings with people whose urgent right to live is in question, people who are watching themselves… Read more »
2024 Indiana Girl report When the heads of six Girl Scout Councils sat down with the Executive Director of the Girl Coalition of Indiana, Mackenzie Pickerrell, they were discouraged by the disparities they saw between what girls and their young peers experience. The 2023 Indiana Girl Report showed that girls experience bullying twice as often,… Read more »
