People thought Rebecca Rhynhart was crazy when she decided to run for Philadelphia controller. At the time, the city never had a woman in the position. Rhynhart also did not have a traditional political background, working on Wall Street for seven years before transitioning to city government. In Philadelphia, she took on the role of city treasurer, budget director and chief administrative officer prior to jumping into the controller race. Despite the doubts, Rhynhart shocked thepolitical establ...
Aug 20, 2019•26 min
We live in a time of political division and public fear about the future. But one conversation with Dr. Crow might just make you optimistic. Dr. Crow has been the president of Arizona State since 2002. He previously served as Executive Vice Provost of Columbia University, where he also taught science and technology policy. In Crow’s years working with students of the digital age – the Sapiens [dot] net as he calls them – he has been comforted by their intelligence, their creativity, and their co...
Aug 06, 2019•26 min
Toi Hutchinson knows how to make a comeback. Her first foray into politics came when she challenged an incumbent to run for atownship supervisor seat in Illinois. She lost.The day after the election, an Illinois state senator asked Hutchinson to be her chief of staff. A few years later, when the senator won a seat in the U.S. House, Hutchinson took her place in 2009. But taking on a state legislator role as the mother of three young boys wasn’t all Hutchinson had going on. She was also in law sc...
Jul 23, 2019•41 min
U.S. mayors have a lot on their plates these days. From infrastructure to climate concerns, today’s rising class of local politicians are changing the way things are done and seeking out creative solutions to help their residents. Four of these promising leaders had the opportunity to speak on a panel at Governing’s Summit on Performance and Innovation last month. Mayors Melvin Carter of St. Paul, Minn., Jenn Daniels of Gilbert, Ariz., Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, Minn., and Francis Suarez of Miam...
Jul 09, 2019•1 hr 9 min
Chris Castro is full of big ideas, and he’s ready to shake up how local governments do business. Castro’s love for the environment grew on his parent’s palm tree farm in Miami. Now, he combines that passion with innovation as Orlando’s Director of Sustainability. His project includes the city’s Fleet Farming program, which provides nutrition to food insecure communities by turning front yards into small farms. But Castro has another ambitious effort underway: making Orlando carbon-free by the ye...
Jun 25, 2019•33 min
Kimberly Foxx is unapologetic for where she came from and what she believes in. Foxx grew up in the 1970s and ’80s in Chicago’s infamous Cabrini-Green public housing project, a development known for high crime rates and police neglect. Her family later moved to the more affluent Lincoln Park, but her background shaped her in meaningful ways. After moving, she started to notice the disparate opportunities available to her new neighbors versus those from her old housing project. That seed later gr...
Jun 11, 2019•28 min
Theodore Roosevelt doesn't have a presidential library. Yet. A nonprofit foundation in North Dakota, with the help of technologists, historians and Gov. Doug Burgum, is working to correct that oversight. When Burgum talks about public service, he sounds a lot like Roosevelt, who said, "It is not the critic who counts. ... The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood." Burgum says that "anybody with a phone and two thumbs can be a cr...
Aug 08, 2018•27 min
It is the way things have always been done in Dayton. Neighbors talk to each other over fences and on porches about what they are really thinking about. Tapping into that dynamic helped Nan Whaley become mayor in 2013. Even after she won, she still keeps in touch with the Ohio city’s 140,000 residents through "porch tours." Whaley says she listens fearlessly because she has learned that in public service, you cannot be afraid of failure. Before becoming mayor, she served as one of the city's you...
Aug 01, 2018•20 min
Mayor Steve Benjamin is no stranger to having difficult conversations on a public scale. He got his start in politics as a student activist seeking to bring the Confederate flag down from the South Carolina statehouse. In his new role as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, he speaks with and for 1,500 mayors about common challenges -- opioid addiction, homelessness, immigration and trade. In his town, Columbia, he is focused on the “three I's” of city life -- infrastructure, innovation a...
Jul 25, 2018•30 min
Kristen Cox knows about constraints. After the fiscal crisis, the Executive Director of the Utah Office of Management and Budget applied the same kind of fiscal stress tests the Federal Reserve uses on banks to do a reality check on the State of Utah’s books. It surfaced both the state’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Her life is really a story about strength and vulnerability. In coming terms with becoming blind, she hit bottom in a man hole. That’s not a metaphor. Nor is her solo skydiving. Bu...
Jul 18, 2018•25 min
Mayor Acquanetta Warren credits her father for her big dreams. "You've been to the moon," he used to say. There was some truth to that. Acquanetta Warren's election in 2010 was historic. She is Fontana, Calif.'s first female and first African-American mayor. Her inspiration for public service is actually rooted in watching history being made. “My parents would have [me] in front of the TV every morning and every evening watching the news," remembers Warren. “I was really afraid because of the ci...
Jul 11, 2018•22 min
On his Inauguration Day in 2011, Greg Fischer turned heads when he announced an experiment to make Louisville "the nation's first compassionate city." "Nobody disagrees with the concept of compassion. But the question is, how do you operationalize it in a city?" In the last seven years, the city has worked with local businesses and nonprofits to help answer that question. The Kentucky city's work has helped to forge a model that other cities are watching closely. On this episode of "In the Arena...
Jun 27, 2018•26 min
Themis Klarides has made a career of defying expectations. Earlier this year, the Connecticut House minority speaker resisted pressure to run for the open governor’s race in her state. Instead, she's making a play to form a Republican majority and become Speaker. Klarides, 52, the first woman leader of the House Republicans in Connecticut history, was first elected to the legislature two decades ago. Her path wasn't the most traditional route to public office: A former model and competitive body...
Jun 19, 2018•25 min
On the heals of the 86th annual meeting of the US Conference of Mayors in Boston over the weekend, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti says mayors have what America wants. Garcetti, 47, has been testing the waters for a potential presidential bid in 2020. Even if he doesn't run, he hopes other mayors will. As the chief executives of cities, Garcetti says mayors are "practical, results-oriented, inclusive and decent." In a veiled reference to the current administration, Garcetti laments the current c...
Jun 13, 2018•25 min
On April 23, 1910, Theodore Roosevelt gave what would become one of the most widely quoted speeches of his career. In it, the nation's 26th president used his hyperbolic oratory to bear on the themes of leadership and loneliness. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood," Roosevelt sai...
Jun 05, 2018•37 min
In a new podcast from Governing magazine, Cathiea Robinett interviews public officials who serve In The Arena today about courage, compassion and creativity in public leadership. The debut season features conversations with: Clay Jenkinson, Author, Educator, Roosevelt Scholar Greg Fischer, Mayor of Louisville, KY Acquanetta Warren, Mayor of Fontana, CA Themis Klarides, House Majority Leader (D), Connecticut Kristen Cox, Executive Director, OMB, State of Utah Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, ...
Jun 01, 2018•2 min
