Profiles in Public Service

In 2022, James Wright and Tiffany Russell helped initiate a groundbreaking three-digit voice and text hotline, the 988 Lifeline, that enables individuals in crisis to access trained counselors 24/7 via calls, texts or online chats. In this episode, they are joined by Jennifer Battle , the vice president of community access and engagement at the Harris Center, one of Texas’ largest providers for in...

Michael Boyce is a leading innovator at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, heading up a team that spearheads groundbreaking technological advancements related to asylum filing and overseas refugee cases. In this episode, he is joined by Arianna Miller and Kimberly Odom, two asylum officers working for USCIS who discuss their core responsibilities, the new innovations that are transform...

Since November 2021, public servants have collaborated across state, local and federal government to implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—a once-in-a-generation investment of $1.2 trillion to repair, renew and reinvigorate the country’s aging infrastructure. Asma Mirza joins "Profiles in Public Service” as a deputy for implementation management at the White House, where she su...

Jason Broughton and Dominick Spinelli are “living a librarian’s dream” at the Library of Congress’ National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled . Broughton is the director of the NLS after a long career in librarianship, education and workforce development. Spinelli serves as the head of the NLS’ Collection Development Section, where he leads a team of librarians to build a catalog of...

Serving in the U.S. House of Representatives involves much more than debating policy and voting on legislation on Capitol Hill. It also requires a great deal of listening to and engaging the constituents living in local districts.   Rep. Sylvia Garcia joins this episode of “Profiles in Public Service” alongside Enrique Garcia , a constituent services representative from her district office in Hous...

Civic technology is critical to addressing some of the nation’s toughest challenges, from the opioid crisis to disaster relief and more. Today’s “Profiles in Public Service” guest, Drew Zachary from U.S. Census Bureau, describes how the federal initiative she co-founded, The Opportunity Project, uses cross-sector collaboration and open federal data to design technology that supports communities ac...

Two leaders committed to ensuring equity in both federal and local environmental justice initiatives join “Profiles in Public Service” to speak about their collaborative efforts to address public health issues for communities on the West Coast and beyond. Laura Ebbert works in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9 office based in San Francisco, where she leads environmental justice, equit...

The third season of “Profiles in Public Service” is off to an exciting start as we highlight all that our federal government does to strengthen local communities across America.  In our first episode, Craig Buerstatte, a program and policy leader at the Economic Development Administration, shares how he and his team managed to equitably distribute $3 billion in American Rescue Plan funding to 780...

“Profiles in Public Service” is honored to have Rep. Andy Kim from New Jersey’s 3rd District join us as the final guest of our second season. Congressman Kim is committed to empowering a greater belief in service, democracy, and a more mission-driven government. In 2018, Kim chose to apply his unique combination of experiences working as a career public servant at the U.S. Agency for International...

Paloma Adams-Allen, the deputy administrator for management and resources at the U.S. Agency for International Development, is responsible for ensuring that the agency has the technological, financial, and human resources to deliver on its mission—in other words, for advancing the success of USAID’s people, partnerships, and processes. Working in support of Administrator Samantha Power, Adams-Alle...

The government is filled with public servants leading in technology, innovation, and improving government customer experiences for the public. On this episode we hear from Brian Whittaker and Amber Chaudhry, who are not only two such leaders, but also share a passion for creating support networks for emerging public servants from a diversity of backgrounds. Whittaker is the founder of Humans...

Samantha Sutton , a 2022 Service to America Medals® Emerging Leader finalist and current Political Advisor for the United States Mission to the United Nations, shares her story of working in diplomacy as a career civil servant who started as an intern with the State Department. Sutton has worked on Middle East peace issues across three different presidential administrations and has provided import...

The peaceful transfer of power from one presidential administration to another, or from a first to second term, is the cornerstone of American democracy. In this episode of “Profiles in Public Service,” Rachel Klein-Kircher and Loren DeJonge Schulman are joined by three practitioners and experts on presidential transitions who discuss the major challenges the Biden-Harris team had to overcome duri...

Hear from one of our incredible 2022 Service to America Medals® finalists , Craig McLean, who spent four decades at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration transforming our nation's ocean exploration efforts to better understand how changes in ocean activity relate to global warming, severe weather and marine life. McLean is also joined by Benjamin Friedman, the agency’s longest servin...

As we honor the 21st anniversary of September 11th, we will be hearing from Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals® finalist Rupa Bhattacharyya, who revitalized the federal program responsible for awarding claims to victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks, including the families of those who were on site or responded that day, as well as people who lived, worked or went to school near the attack...

Today’s “Profiles in Public Service” guests have provided care to communities across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Service to America Medals® finalist Suma Nair launched a major federal initiative to ensure that community-based health centers could access lifesaving resources to adequately respond to COVID-19. Ian Munar from International Community Health Services in Seattle,...

Co-hosts Loren DeJonge Schulman and Rachel Klein-Kircher speak with two experts about how agencies are working to improve their performance and transform their customer experience efforts as outlined in the President’s Management Agenda —the Biden administration’s overarching vision for building a more effective federal government. Our guests include Robin Carnahan, the current administrator of th...

Stuart Ishimaru and Jacinta Ma, two longtime civil servants, join “Profiles in Public Service” to discuss their careers advocating for a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce both inside and outside of government. Ishimaru and Ma worked together at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to uphold civil rights and enforce federal laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplac...

"Profiles in Public Service" takes a comedic turn with guests Jon Wolf and Jon Cohen, partners at Fair Point Productions, who discuss their work as the executive producers of “The G Word with Adam Conover,” a new comedy docuseries on Netflix. “The G Word” explores the many ways our government works behind the scenes— from monitoring our food production and predicting the weather to treating seriou...

Most young people do not understand the full breadth of government jobs available—or that there are public service careers for nearly every academic major and course of study. In this episode, Partnership for Public Service President and CEO Max Stier moderates a conversation at the 2022 SXSW EDU conference on the federal government’s talent ecosystem and how to recruit and retain the next generat...

Partnership Vice President of Leadership Development Andrew Marshall joins co-hosts Loren DeJonge Schulman and Elda Auxiliaire, to discuss the Partnership’s new Public Service Leadership Institute. Marshall discusses the institute’s goals to amplify public service leadership through policy recommendations, research and commentary, to create a shared standard of effective federal leadership around...

Our co-hosts Loren DeJonge Schulman and Rachel Klein-Kircher speak with Carrie Stokes and Sawyer McCarley about how digital mapping tools and technologies shape decisions about providing humanitarian assistance in developing countries, and why mentoring and investing in young people is critical to public service. Stokes is the chief geographer at the U.S. Agency for International Development...

Washington Post journalist Lillian Cunningham joins co-hosts Loren DeJonge Schulman and Rachel Klein-Kircher for a conversation on how to lead in government during normal times and times of crisis, as well as why the study of public service leadership is critical for our nation’s public servants. Cunningham is the creator and host of The Post’s “Presidential,” “Constitutional” and “Moonrise” podca...

The first episode of our second season features a panel discussion headlined by several of our 2022 Service to America Medals finalists, a group of exceptional public servants who have dedicated their careers to improving the health, safety, and security of our country. Event speakers shared their insights on why public trust in government matters, what agencies are doing to bridge the trust gap a...

Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Center for Presidential Transition, joins co-hosts Loren DeJonge Schulman and Rachel Klein-Kircher to provide context on our new report analyzing the Trump-to-Biden handoff.