Check out the below message from YGL President, Sheila Helke!
Message from YGL President Sheila Helke (PDF): Posted on 1/8/2022
Happy Fiscal New Year!
YGL is excited to unveil our new Fiscal Year 2022 Theme! Over the past year, YGL’s focus has been “Bridging the Gap to Government Leadership.” We concentrated on the Executive Core Qualifications, building training, events, and blog posts to develop and equip our members with the professional competencies required to be a successful leader in the federal, state, or local government.
Over this next fiscal year, we will continue to develop leadership skills, focusing on “Leading in Challenging Times.” We are shifting our focus to acknowledge the physical, mental, social, and emotional challenges many of us are still maneuvering in a pandemic world. YGL will focus our programming on developing professional core competencies, including standing out, maneuvering leadership opportunities, and addressing challenges that arise in a hybrid work environment.
Some examples of areas we plan to focus on in FY22 are personal development, managing change, leading difficult conversations, developing relationships in a hybrid environment, enforcing boundaries, and creating a safe and welcoming workspace in a hybrid environment. From our annual survey that went out last spring, we learned that these are some of the pressing issues our members across the country face. We are excited to bring helpful and exciting content through speakers, events, blogs, and podcasts over the next year to help you navigate this new hybrid work environment. Please feel free to reach out to me at shelke@younggov.org if you have any ideas on issues or content YGL should address in FY22!
Over this past year, YGL has also revamped our mission and vision statements and created new values statements for our organization. I am excited to share our new mission, vision, and values statements.
Mission
YGL’s mission is to provide early to mid-career public servants with the tools and support needed to lead from where you are and develop into leaders at the federal, state, local, and tribal levels, regardless of age, stage of career, or positional title.
Vision
YGL strives to be the premier organization for learning, leadership development, and advocacy for emerging government leaders and to create a platform where members and partners can collaborate to address emerging workforce issues.
Values
Service – United in the desire to serve community and country
Growth – Developing our members professionally and personally
Equity – Promoting fair access to opportunities for all government leaders
Diversity – Fostering a creative, diverse, and innovative workforce by embracing people of all backgrounds, regardless of race, gender, age, and other differences
Last, I want to thank our volunteers! Whether you volunteered to speak at an event, offered your spaces for us to use, or served on committees, I thank you for helping make our mission possible. YGL has an amazing leadership team powered 100% by volunteer YGL members. Each board member brings a diversity of thought, talent, and passion to the board, and I am so thankful to be serving with such a passionate group. I have listed our current board members below. If you have any ideas or questions, please feel free to contact me or any of YGL’s board members.
YGL National Leadership Team
Vice President Michael Bailey, mbailey@younggov.org
Chief Administrative Officer Yvette Ilechie, yilechie@younggov.org
Chief Diversity Officer Katiuska Tapia, ktapia@younggov.org
Chief Operations Officer Sydney Keenan, skeenan@younggov.org
Chief Events Officer Katelyn Bishop, kbishop@younggov.org
Chief Relationship Officer Sarah Debel, sdebel@younggov.org
Chief Communications Officer Kari Szakal, kszakal@younggov.org
Chief Human Capital Officer Champaine Addison, caddison@younggov.org
Chief Technology Officer Nakia Grayson, ngrayson@younggov.org
Social Media Director Ashley Geleta, ageleta@younggov.org
Membership Engagement Chair Victoria Cordova, vcordova@younggov.org
Leadership Development Fellowship Program Director Denise Joseph, djoseph@younggov.org
Mentoring Program Director Patrice Washington, patrice@younggov.org
YGL Chapter Leadership
YGL Atlanta Chapter President Ashley King, president@atlanta.younggov.org
YGL Los Angeles Chapter President Jason Russell, president@la.younggov.org
YGL Dallas Chapter President Jessica Cheeks, presidentygldallas@younggov.org
YGL Houston Chapter President Lillian Ihenetu, presidentyglhouston@younggov.org
YGL San Antonio/Alamo Chapter President Pete Arguello, alamo@younggov.org
*YGL currently has open board positions. If you are interested in serving, please contact Sheila Helke and Champaine Addison for more information.
We look forward to continuing to serve the evolving needs of our YGL membership and our government workforce community over the next year!
Yours in service,
Sheila Archambault Helke
YGL President
Shelke@younggov.org
Archive:
YGL President Introductory Letter (PDF): Posted on 1/6/2021