Can a City Department Be a Hub for Community Problem Solving, "Can a City Department Be a Hub for Community Problem Solving, Innovation and Social Change?

Commonwealth Club of California Podcast

Lessons learned from former community-oriented department heads, a civil rights attorney and a former controller who has ideas about making the city more flexible and responsive.

About the Speakers

Margaret Brodkin is one of the nation’s leading children’s advocates. She was the executive director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth for 26 years, leading systems change work in juvenile justice and social welfare, budget advocacy, and parent and youth organizing. In 2004, she was appointed by Mayor Newsom as the director of the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), where she developed innovative models for coordination, partnerships, service delivery, policy and civic engagement.

Sheryl Davis is a passionate advocate for equity, and educational opportunity. Davis is the creator of Everybody Reads, a summer learning, family literacy and reading development initiative centering BIPOC youth. Throughout her career and many roles, she has continued to design programs and curriculum centered around social justice, racial equity, student wellness and achievement. Davis is an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco and senior advisor at the Institute for Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School.

Ed Harrington was controller for the City and County of San Francisco from 1991 to 2008 and the general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission from 2008 to 2012. During that time he was also chair of the Water Utility Climate Alliance, president of the Government Finance Officers Association and a member of the Financial Accounting Foundation Board. Since his retirement Harrington has worked extensively with governmental and nonprofit organizations. He is on the boards of SPUR and the Children’s Funding Project and is an adviser to California’s Funding the Next Generation.

Saidah Leatutufu-Burch, Ed.D. (“Dr. Sai”) is a Black and Indigenous Samoan organizer, cultural orator, and a dedicated disruptor of anti-Black racism and systems rooted in white supremacist ideology. A daughter of San Francisco, Dr. Sai values racial equity, justice, and the power of the people. Most recently, Dr. Sai served as the director of the Dream Keeper Initiative at the San Francisco Human Rights Commission—a $60 million-annual effort aimed at advancing prosperity, equity and community well-being across San Francisco’s diverse Black communities.

Passionate, outspoken and insightful, Areva Martin is an award-winning civil rights attorney, national bestselling author and one of the country's leading influencers shaping public discourse on issues of race, politics and the law. She is the founder and managing partner of Martin & Martin, LLP, one of Los Angeles’ premier Black, female-owned law firms. She is one of the nation’s leading attorneys on reparations and restorative justice. Areva is an on-air legal commentator and host of the daily news and opinion streaming and radio talk show "Areva Martin in Real Time" on KBLA.

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This program contains EXPLICIT language.

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