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Defining Your Path to Public Service
Navigating opportunities, overcoming roadblocks and
the public service career dangers of tweeting just about anything!
Study Group Led by former Tulsa Mayor and Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce-Kathy Taylor
Wednesdays, 4:15-5:45pm
FDR
Serving the public is an elected position, right? Wrong. Public service comes in many shapes and forms, from elected positions to appointed to just being active as a private sector citizen. The path to a career in public service is unpredictable and driven by opportunity, money, politics and winds of change – to name a few. Elected public service at all levels has increasingly lost the confidence of the public, a fact that has likely discouraged many good people from seeking office. Gallup’s annual poll (2010) of Confidence in Institutions listed Congress dead last at 11 percent, down from 17 percent (its previous low) in two years.

So, you know you want to make a public policy difference but how? Do you understand that as a public servant an embarrassing picture from someone’s cell phone could go viral in newspapers and on Facebook and  can get you divorced or force  you to resign your elected or appointed position (at a minimum)? Are you independently wealthy so that the donors who support you understand that they do not own you, not to mention that the salary of a public servant is unlikely to easily pay off   student debt? It is ego or a higher calling that has led you to envision your name on a ballot?
Serving the public in any capacity is an honorable undertaking, but it is also a contact sport. You need to be well prepared to maneuver in the terrain –no matter how rocky it gets AND you need to understand the motivations and roadblocks faced by those who have chosen other paths to public service. 
Public policy implementation is a team sport made up of elected officials, appointed government staff, corporate leaders, issue advocates, non-profit leaders and generous philanthropic donors whom all have roles to play.  Your impact on public policy will be most successful if you understand the viewpoints of each person who plays in the field and where your strengths allow you to make the greatest impact when you get in the game. 
Each week the study group will build upon the lessons learned from public policy entry points examined in the previous week. 
WEEK ONE: FEBRUARY 15 I DID IT MY WAY: ADVICE FROM THE TRENCHES-OR THE CURVES ON THE ROAD OF PUBLIC SERVICE.  I will discuss my personal path to public service as a basis for a dialogue on how you might travel the road.    I began as a high school student putting up yard signs for our Republican United States Senators and later served a Democrat governor in two different cabinet positions and was elected in a strong mayor form of government as a Democrat against a Republican incumbent.  We will discuss the public policy impact of various pathways to pubic service  vs. the cost (both financial and personal).  (Tulsa’s 2006 Mayor’s race was the most expensive in our city’s history -costing more than six times what Speaker Gingrich  reported spending in South Carolina).  We will also discuss the positive and negative aspects of “being a business person not a politician”. 
Week Two: February 22 CONNECTING THE DOTS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND PHILANTHROPY FOR A SUSTAINABLE OUTCOME.  Philanthropy and government have to work together but their styles and timelines are often at opposite ends of the spectrum.  Ken Levit, executive director of a significant private charitable foundation, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, knows how it works and why it sometimes doesn’t.  From early childhood education to education reform to  positive alternatives for  female incarceration issues, Ken will talk about how the interests of government and philanthropy best work together to increase sustainable public policy impacts.
SPEAKER: Ken Levit,  a Yale educated lawyer, and now Executive Director of the George Kaiser Family Foundation.  Prior to taking on this role, Ken served as President of The University of Oklahoma- Tulsa from 2001-2006.  From 1998 to 2000, he served as Special Counsel to George Tenet, director of the CIA.  He also served as press secretary for University of Oklahoma President David Boren during his time in the US Senate. 
Week 3- February 29 The Person Behind the Curtain. —The elected official gets the press but the staff behind the curtain develops and implements the strategy and plan to execute the vision.  What does it take to be staff to elected officials? How does the style and personality of the elected official make a difference in the policy impact of staff?  Peek behind the curtain and find out what it is like to work to make sure the person in front of the curtain is  making an impact—and what strengths it takes. 
Speakers:  IOP Fellows- Steven Schrage, who worked with Gingrich and Romney and most recently Chief of Staff to Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and Margaret McKenna, whose amazing career started with President Carter. 
(No class March 7 or 14)
Week Four March 21 PUBLIC SERVICE WITH NON-PROFITS THAT FIX THE HOLES IN THE SAFETY NET.  Elected officials may allocate budgets to social programs but it is the people on the ground with social service agencies, those that are being creative with limited resources and provide accountability to their funders that deliver services to those that fall through the safety net.  What is their role in public policy and how do they work with the other players at the table? Our speaker runs the Community Action Project whose mission is to help families and individuals in economic need achieve long-term economic self-sufficiency.  Through the efforts of over 600 employees and hundreds of active volunteers, CAP serves more than 50,000 clients and their families annually.  Their volunteer tax project has helped over 12,000 low-income families benefit from the earned income tax credit and receive free tax preparation.  The nonprofit agency has received national attention for programming quality.  Learn how he works with the other public policy players to make systemic change. 
SPEAKER: Steven Dow has served as Executive Director of Community Action Project of Tulsa (CAP) since 1992. CAP's anti-poverty strategy focuses on providing high-quality early childhood education and comprehensive family economic support through both direct services and public policy efforts.  In the 20 years he has been leading the agency, it has grown from a small agency with a staff of 2 and budget of $165,000 to one with an annual operating budget of $53 Million and a staff of nearly 600.  CAP currently serves 2,100 young children in its early education program, and its economic support programs reach more than 18,000 Tulsa households annually.  CAP has received national recognition for its innovative and effective approaches, having been honored in the initial class of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Family Counts National Honors program, a member of the Fannie Mae Foundation Alliance, named as a National Head Start Center of Excellence, and the recipient of both Choice And Promise Neighborhoods planning grants.  A graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, Dow worked as an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and practiced law prior to joining CAP.  In addition to his work at CAP, he serves on numerous national boards, including Reach Out and Read, the Center for Financial Services Innovation, and Avodah: The Jewish Service Corps.  He also serves as one of nine Commissioners overseeing the Oklahoma Department of Human Services.  He and his wife Stacy have three daughters.

Week Five: March 28: BUSINESS SUCCESS MAKING AN OPPORTUNITY FOR POLICY IMPACT.  This week’s session will focus on successful business leaders who have moved from focusing on winning deals to giving  financial support and time  to make a difference in people’s lives.  What you do with your financial resources can make all the difference.   Corporate success brings the opportunity to have a seat at the public policy table and influence it as well.  Our speaker will discuss how he developed his charitable work from his business success and the impact of party politics on his charitable work.
SPEAKER:  Reggie Whitten, powerhouse trial lawyer for over 30 years who won a $130 million verdict and turned his passion for winning lawsuits to leadership in giving.  He founded several non-profits including Pros4Africa, an international non-profit relief organization that provides food, water, clothing, medicine and other necessities to the children of war, poverty, and natural disasters in Africa.  When public school science programs were cut, Whitten developed Explorology with nationally recognized professionals in the science field to provide hands on life science experiences for Oklahoma school children in grades pre-k through 12.  His program has received special recognition for best practice by the White House.

Week Six:  April 5  SERVING YOUR COUNTRY—CONGRESS OR MILITARY OR POLICY THINK TANK?  As evidenced by this year’s presidential primaries, the personal and financial impact of being an elected official is high. The respect in many cases is low.  This week’s speaker will discuss his view of the policy impact of being a congressional representative versus his subsequent service in active duty military service, his leadership role in the National Energy Policy Institute and in his current position as General Counsel to the United States Army. 
SPEAKER:  Rhodes scholar, former IOP fellow and Oklahoma Congressman, currently General Counsel to the US Army, Brad Carson.  Carson was a 1997 White House fellow, where he was assigned to the Pentagon as a Special assistant to the Secretary of Defense.  He has also served as Director of the National Energy Policy Institute, a non-profit policy organization located at the University of Tulsa.
Week Seven:  April 11 Case Study- A Public/Private partnership in Healthcare that REALLY worked and reignited HOPE in a community.  In this session, we will examine an actual project, where all the public policy players came together in an area of great need and controversy-healthcare.  Dr. Gerry Clancy will talk about how the pieces of the puzzle came together to begin to solve a serious problem in Tulsa.  The problem was first outlined a decade ago in a study that showed people living in certain Tulsa zip codes were dying 14 years earlier than the national average.  The primary culprit was access to healthcare.  He developed a coalition and fought to locate and fund a healthcare facility to serve this population and begin to eliminate healthcare disparities.  He was supported and fought by unlikely parties. Dr. Clancy’s passion and leadership and the marriage of public and private interests helped move towards the elimination of health care disparities but also built back trust, economic development and community reengagement in a part of the community that was disengaged.  Dr. Clancy’s study session will be a dialogue about  the roles each party played in successfully impacting public policy.  Speaker:   Dr. Gerry Clancy, President University of Oklahoma-Tulsa, Dean of the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine, (dedicated to insuring medical students and resident physicians have the additional skills necessary to improve the health of communities as well as individuals).  Dr. Clancy, a distinguished psychiatrist, has received certificates from Harvard Health and Policy Management and Harvard School of Public Health and Non-Profit Stewardship.
Week Eight: April 18 It is time for you to vote! …What is the most effective entry point for public policy impact? The final session will include an “Iowa” style caucus and  debate to promote which role you believe makes the greatest impact and what personal strengths and background are important for each role. We will discuss ways you can be well prepared for the public policy entry point of your choice.