The impact of travel for Marvin Andrews Fellows
By Dorian Sánchez, Marvins Class of 2017
As a Marvin Andrews Fellow, I have had the opportunity to attend conferences nationwide. During my two years as Fellow, I visited St. Paul, Minn., to attend the Transforming Local Government Conference (TLG). In the fall of 2016, my cohort and I attended the International City Management Conference (ICMA) in Kansas City, Mo. More so, one of my favorite conferences is the Arizona City Management Association Conference hosted in Sedona each year.
While the TLG and ICMA conferences are unique and full of excitement because you get to meet a very diverse group of local government professionals nationwide; my favorite is the Arizona City/County Management Association (ACMA) conference in Sedona because this is the network of local government professionals that advocate, nurture, and mentor young professionals like myself.
Besides the people that attend these events, the content presented in each session is always interesting. Perhaps one of my most favorite sessions was the Intentional Practices for Building a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce presented by one of our very own Marvin Alumni, Nicole Lance, now Assistant City Manager in Surprise, Ariz. She presented along with Mae Sinclair, Organizational Development Consultant, with the City of Phoenix and Bob Wingenroth, City Manager of Surprise.
Local government is at a point in time where it needs to attract and cultivate a diverse and talented group of individuals dedicated to the highest ideals of public service.
—ACMA 2017 Winter Conference
More so, local government realizes that it needs to reflect the diversity of a community as a whole in its workforce. The other session that I found most helpful is the ICMA Leadership and Ethics session. This session was an interactive session where leaders discussed situations and responses that would be deemed ethical and unethical. Because local government professionals are held high to an ethical standard, I found this session valuable as it helps remind government administrators the importance of being responsible stewards of public funds and being transparent to the community.
I love the opportunities this fellowship has given me, and even more, I love the opportunity to work with people that genuinely care about the future of our communities.
