Go Beyond the Vote

Holly L. Wolcott is the City Clerk and has worked for the City of Los Angeles for almost 33 years. She lead the effort to develop the City Clerk's first Strategic 5-Year Plan, supervises the City's Municipal, Special, and Neighborhood Council elections, serves as clerk for all City Council proceedings, provides administrative, fiscal and personnel services to the Mayor and City Council, manages the City's Business Improvement District (BID) program, administers the Neighborhood Council finances and maintains the City's records management services and official archives.  In this podcast, she talks about:Why its important to provide information access to its multi-lingual residents?Challenges faced. How city over comes these challenges. LinkedIn: Holly Wolcott, City Clerk | City of Los Angeles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/holly-wolcott-09773757/ 

Cheryl Hughes is a civic architect and a thought leader in civic engagement. As a consultant, she works with local and national organizations to design and implement programs and initiatives that foster and measure engagement and impact.In this podcast she talks about:What exactly is a “civic architect?” What might people be surprised to learn about civic engagement at the local level? How should local government officials think about the future of civic engagement? How can people in local government ensure that marginalized voices are heard? How can they build trust in their communities? What are your best pieces of advice for anyone looking to engage more in their local government and communities?You can connect with Cheryl at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheryl-hughes-consults/ 

Katherine K. Glass, a Hampton native, has been the Clerk of the Hampton City Council since 2005. During that time, she has worked to utilize technology (agenda management software, video-streaming, etc.) to expand citizen access to information, as well as to achieve greater efficiency and cost-savings.  Much of her work as Clerk has focused on ways to better involve citizens in serving Hampton through boards and commissions.In this podcast, she discusses: Her back storyClerk's day to day dutiesWhat makes her successful at her role How to get younger residents involved in local government, and How to change resident's perception about local government 

Kirsten Wyatt is the executive director and co-founder of ELGL, and a co-host of the GovLove podcast. She also serves as an elected school board member for the West Linn-Wilsonville School District. Previously, she served as Assistant City Manager of West Linn, Oregon.In this podcast, she talks about:Getting younger generation involved in boards and commissions and government jobs. Her journey for running and winning the seat for the school board. How to promote change and organization that wants to do things differently?How to get buy-in into your programs?Omni-channel communication - What, how and the why?Contact her at: https://elgl.org/

Vote Mama Foundation, a non-profit working toward gender equity by breaking down the structural and cultural barriers mothers face while running for office, has launched an aggressive campaign to enact the use of Campaign Funds for Childcare for state and local elections in all 50 states by 2023.Vote Mama Foundation founder and CEO Liuba Grechen Shirley was the first woman to receive federal approval to spend Campaign Funds for Childcare during her Congressional run in 2018. Eleven states have enacted legislation, and Vote Mama Foundation is partnering with 18 states in 2021.You will learn about:Liuba's journey leading to the start of this campaignWhy this matters to communities across the nationChallenges in getting it passedHow this helps first-time candidatesWhat comes nextHow YOU can get involved

Kristin Richardson Jordan (KRJ) is a third-generation Harlemite who has known Harlem since she was four months old. She is the daughter of Dr. Lynne Richardson and Dr. Desmond Jordan, two minority physicians trained at the historic Harlem Hospital.Kristin is passionate about social justice, and the history, politics, and culture(s) of all people generally and Black people in particular.In this podcast, Kristen talks about:How did she get interested in civic engagement and running for City Council?Her goals for serving on the NYC city council?What did she learn during her campaign? Her advice to others who are interested in running for office?

In this episode, Steve shares examples and creative ideas, such as getting a musician, to increase engagement on his younger constituents in boards and commissions. Steve McShane is the Salinas City Councilman and currently serves as Chair of the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments and the Monterey Bay Air Resources District. Steve is the Salinas Valley Food and Wine Festival founder and the Salinas Valley Ag Tech Summit. Tom Spengler interviews Steve; Tom is the CEO of Rock Solid Technologies with the mission to partner with local governments to amplify civic engagement. Previously, as the founding CEO at Granicus, Tom led the company from 0 to 1,300 customers, becoming the market leader in cloud software for the government.Connect with them on LinkedIn: Steve McShane: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemcshane/Tom Spengler: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomspengler/

Eddie Ahn is the executive director of environmental justice nonprofit Brightline Defense, based in San Francisco.  He also serves on three government commissions: the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), San Francisco Commission on the Environment, and the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC).  Prior to being a nonprofit lawyer and commissioner, he worked as an afterschool programmer, teaching art and public speaking.In this podcast, Eddie shares his thoughts on:Civics 101: differences between charter commissions vs. advisory committees.Social and environmental justice: how do they overlap? How do they differ? Challenges of representing underrepresented communities. Advice: Inspiring next generation to get involved.Connect with Eddie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddie-ahn/https://www.brightlinedefense.org/

Gail Schnitzer Eisenberg is a civil rights lawyer and mother of two young children, who had wanted to run for office since kindergarten. She was elected in April 2017 to a four-year term as New Trier Township Trustee, serving the mostly affluent community's most vulnerable populations. Gail was slated for the Township Supervisor position by the non-partisan New Trier Citizen. In this podcast, she talks about the difference between running via a caucus vs. boards and shares her journey to inspire other women to run of local government. Connect with Gail at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaileisenberg/https://www.facebook.com/GailforNewTrierTownshiphttps://twitter.com/gail_eisenberg

You're thinking about running for office, but you don't know what's really involved. You don't necessarily have money or connections, but you think it's a worthwhile endeavor. A lot of the traditional wisdom isn't exactly holding up these days - voters want someone authentic and - they don't necessarily need to agree on everything, but they want to feel like someone's in it for the right reasons, and that when things go wrong, they'll be told how it happened and why and have an actual plan going forward. They want people who share the same values - of accountability, of transparency, of fairness.If you are thinking of running in 2022, this is what you need to start doing 1 year before running. Marissa Miller, the President of She Votes Illinois, and Quandra Speights, an attorney and board member of the organization who ran for alderwoman of her ward in Chicago's last campaign cycle break down the process for you. 

As the Vice President of the Regional Impact team at Leadership for Educational Equity, Lori leads a diverse team of Directors in 21 regions across the country working to support our members to change laws and policies to be more equitable. In this podcast, Lori breaks down how LEE supports, inspires, and nurtures the next generation of civic leaders to end injustice of educational inequity. LEE aims to be one source of diverse, engaged leaders working at all levels and across disciplines – as policymakers, public officials and community organizers – to ensure that every child in every community across the nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.They are a source of leaders who:Believe deeply in the potential of all children.Work to overcome racial and economic barriers that perpetuate educational inequity.Have first-hand experience teaching and leading in low-income communities.LEE strives to inspire our members to work with families, schools and communities to end educational inequity.#localgovernment #educationalequity #LEE 

Annie joined us for a podcast interview to share her journey as she runs for the school board. With this conversation, her goal is to inspire other women and demystify the process. Annie is a former teacher, an entrepreneur, a community activist, and a professor of Gender Studies. She aims to create policies for the community that expand the district's equity efforts and amplify parents', students', and teachers' voices. In the podcast, she shares: Step Zero: How and where to begin the process when you choose to run? Fundraising: Step by step process to fundraising & pitfalls to avoid.Campaigning: How to run a campaign and connect with your voters?