News and Updates

What New Orleans neighborhood do you live in? / Where did you grow up? 

I live in Gentilly and grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Describe your job to us!

Officially my title is Acting Director of Boards and Commissions and Senior Projects Manager in the Office of the Mayor.  In short, I get to connect people interested in serving fellow residents to the opportunities to do so.  The more than one hundred bodies that govern our city depend on New Orleanians who are willing to share their time and talents for the good of the whole.   Our city is just teeming with talented people.  I also have the privilege of serving as the project manager for Project Why, whose goal is to increase or rebuild trust in government.  All of my work is done in conjunction with other city departments, residents, non profit partners, councilmembers and national thought partners.  Our Mayor is clear about expanding the spectrum of who is engaged with city government to include everyone. 

Tell us about your career path.

I am an educator by trade and taught mathematics to high school and college students.  That step created an opportunity to work as a program manager for an educational nonprofit in Washington, DC.  My service on the Police Community Advisory Board in the First District connected me to the programs of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Engagement.   A couple of years after completing their Civic Leadership Academy (CLA shout out!) I joined the NEO team.  My many roles in that office brought this opportunity my way.  In this role, I utilize every skill that I honed as a teacher and all of the relationships built across the city when serving as a neighborhood liaison.

What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most?

Problem solving, relationship building, process designing, listening and learning and the 4700 or so folks who make up the City staff.

What challenges do you find to be the greatest in your role?

Committing hundreds and hundreds of new things to memory at once is not easy.  I depend heavily on technology and scores of colleagues willing to share insights and get to hone new skills.

What is your favorite thing about New Orleans?

Easy answer:  New Orleanians!  New Orleans did not spring forth on its own.  EVERYTHING here was cultivated, created, birthed, preserved, endured, designed, labored over, protected and perfected by those who have called this place home from hundreds of years ago to right now.