Changemaker Catalyst Award recipients, Mrs. Bedar “Bee” Warren and Ms. Khamani “Gigi” Williamson traveled to Kansas City, Missouri for the Transforming Local Government (TLG) Conference in April 2023 to gain insight on ways to implement their innovative project within the government sector. Gigi and Bee are 2023 John Lewis Public Administration program graduate candidates.

In the spring of 2022, Bee and Gigi collaborated to re-imagine a health dashboard for a student-led project. Their project, PinPoint Framework, was selected for presentation at the annual International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Conference. PinPoint Framework has a mission to eliminate vulnerable populations’ health inequities by providing data that connects public officials, private partners, and community members. After the ICMA conference, the two budding changemakers gained valuable feedback which furthered their project to become a part of the Changemaker Institute. Bee and Gigi applied for and were awarded the Changemaker Catalyst Award to support their idea. As the recipients of this award, they allocated their funding to attend the Transforming Local Government’s think tank conference. They began preparing for their experience; however, they were challenged with securing additional funds to attend the conference. Bee and Gigi became innovative in requesting that conference registration fees be reduced. After some negotiating, the sponsor proposed waiving the registration fees if the two agreed to volunteer throughout the conference. Thus, began Bee and Gigi’s change journey through volunteering. Upon arriving at the conference, the duo was greeted by the hosts who provided instructions for them to assist with the general sessions. During the opening session, Strategic Government Resources’ (SGR) CEO Ron Holifield captured the audience’s attention with a stunning introduction that included a clip from the film Space Odyssey. The segment depicted how the artificial intelligence, HAL, was the driving force to change, comparable to today’s Alexa, and Siri features as well as the future of Artificial Intelligence. From there, Ron gave glimpse of innovations that would be a be shared during the conference. As a former public servant of 18 years, Bee was intrigued by the technology available to transform governments. She was amazed at how she had not heard of this government think tank, but pleasantly surprised of the resources that were available. Bee and Gigi realized that the TLG conference allowed them to consider the endless opportunities that lie ahead for their project.

 The opening afternoon also provided an opportunity for Bee and Gigi to hear from one of their former professors, whom they admire, Dr. Mark Funkhouser. Bee and Gigi view Dr. Funkhouser as a change agent because of his proven experience as the former mayor of Kansas, former publisher of  Governing magazine, and author of the blog, Bring on the Funk and the book, Honest, Competent Government: The Promise of Performance.  At the conference, Dr. Funkhouser spoke on The Building Blocks of an Anti-Fragile Government and the necessity to ensure day-to-day vital services while addressing deep-rooted issues. Bee and Gigi were engaged with his comments that “a government must remain mission-focused, integrated into the community, operate with fewer but better-equipped staff, and empower learning and innovation.”  His speech was riveting and led to a lengthy conversation between Bee and Gigi to ensure their project addressed emerging population-level challenges faced by governments with better-equipped staff. Dr. Funkhouser’s respect for his two former students prompted an informal introduction with nationally sought-after speaker, author of 4^th Dimension Leadership, and CEO of Strategic Government Resources, Ron Holifield which led to a photo opportunity and words of encouragement.  

Because of their commitment to serve as volunteers, Bee and Gigi were required to remain in the general sessions, lessening their opportunities to glean on subject matters relative to PinPoint Framework. However, in the general sessions, they realized as volunteers they had greater accessibility to the think tank innovators; thus, increasing the opportunity for conversations about their project having its place in transforming local government. The different topics such as lessons learned from the private sector, reimagining innovation, leveraging partnerships to build innovation capacity, using artificial intelligence technology in local government, the implementation of applications that provide housing and opportunities for formerly incarcerated, and collaboration with ride-shares to provide transportation services, encouraged them to pursue their idea. The examples shared in the general sessions reassured Bee and Gigi that they were on the right track to network with government think tank conferences and that their idea aligns with SGR’s mission of transforming government.   

Based on conversations with peers, Bee and Gigi were able to recognize areas of improvement with their project. They will have to determine if they will serve as partners, charge fees, form a corporation, etc. Because of Bee and Gigi’s visibility at the conference and  a previous relationship established with a city manager as  an unsung mentor, the City of Chamblee’s management analyst recognized them and agreed to a future meeting to discuss their project. The conference experience demonstrated the importance of networking and being on the cutting edge of systems.  Bee and Gigi are more determined to network their ideas and become leaders that can work with others who desire to be change agents. They plan to share lessons learned, and best practices as time allows and events permit.  Overall, the Transforming Local Government conference served as a changemaker agent not only for local governments but also for Bee and Gigi. Because presenters shared positive changes, and lessons learned, the duo has an opportunity to reassess their project to ensure it will align with current trends of government. Serving as volunteers afforded Bee and Gigi more visibility to a community, they were new to. They were able to learn more about the value of government think tanks and how ideas are developed to transform governments to be more efficient. Because of the exposure Bee and Gigi received on this journey, they can serve as mentors for promising change-makers. 

This blog post was Co-Authored by Khamani Williamson and Bedar Warren.