When Heroes Come Home

Each year, more than 200,000 military service members return from active duty tours abroad back to civilian life. These typically young individuals often have little workforce or educational experience outside of the military, rendering them unprepared to integrate into a civilian occupation after coming home. According to a RAND report, unemployment among young veterans inRead… Read more »

Driving Customer Satisfaction in Cities

After slogging through the Great Recession, cities are making a comeback in a big way. Residents have been flocking to urban areas across America to take advantage of jobs, parks, convenience and amenities. Population growth in large cities exceeded 1% on average from 2010 – 2013, and cities gained more residents in the first few yearsRead… Read more »

Mentorship: Harnessing the Force within You

Could Luke Skywalker harness his abilities without Yoda’s wisdom? Would the Banks family learn the importance of family without Mary Poppins? There are no shortage of mentor-mentee relationships in cinema. In these examples, the mentors provide insight to bring out the best in the mentees. Similarly, we can leverage the advantages of mentorships to get ahead and avoidRead… Read more »

How Gov Can Deliver Better Care

According to the Congressional Budget Office, spending on health accounts for nearly 27 percent of the US federal budget. On the state level, a similarly large portion of budgets is dedicated to Medicaid spending. While those staggering numbers highlight a large expense for government, they also represent a large opportunity to cut costs. And accordingRead… Read more »

Making Bureaucracy Better

Bureaucracy – it’s not a word that inspires a whole lot of positive feelings these days. To the public, it can symbolize government inefficiency and unresponsiveness. To the federal worker, it often represents a rigid structure that stifles their agency’s agility. Bureaucracy can be overwhelming, even painful, but it doesn’t have to be. And forRead… Read more »

Valuing Experience: Advice from a Seasoned Public Servant

I recently had the distinct pleasure of interviewing one of my favorite public servants, the Director of the Division of Community Service and Nonprofit Support at the Arkansas Department of Human Services, Sherry Middleton.  With over 32 years of experience in public service through both government and nonprofit work, Sherry is a respected, influential, andRead… Read more »

Do Good, Build Your Career

Pro bono consulting –the delivery of professional services undertaken voluntarily– is a great way to enhance your professional skills while doing public service for your community. According to the Taproot Foundation, one of the larger organizations in this space: “Most organizations tackling social problems don’t have access to the marketing, design, technology, management or strategicRead… Read more »

Top Takeaways From Some of the Best Fed Facebook Pages

Federal agency and department presence on social media varies widely—some have multiple accounts on various platforms while others have just a page or two that is updated infrequently. I wanted to find out what makes some sites more useful than others, so I set out to look at as many federal social media pages asRead… Read more »