Check Out Jennifer Phillips’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Phillips

Hi Jennifer, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
In college, I discovered I had a passion for public service and graduated with a Master’s in Public Administration degree. After working for a few different public agencies, I found my calling as a city manager. Early in my career, I never imagined I would become a strong and successful leader, especially since I had low self-esteem and no conflict management skills. Yet, with each setback and accomplishment, I was committed to growing my leadership skills to become a compassionate and humble leader that empowered staff and achieved results. Being a city manager was deeply rewarding, as I led communities through significant challenges and worked every day to improve the quality of life for our community members.

As I progressed in my career, I began to lead workshops and became an adjunct professor, sharing my passion for local government and how I overcame challenges and setbacks in my career. I took this approach because I wished that someone had shared their struggles with me as I was growing as a leader, I kept thinking “do others struggle with these same issues?” I wanted others to know that, yes, we do!

Throughout my city management career, I worked on increasing affordable housing units and sought innovative solutions to better support our underserved and unhoused populations. This became a very important part of my work as I better understood the decades of policy and political decisions that negatively impacted our underserved and unhoused populations. After retiring from city management, I sought out opportunities to give back and continue to serve, which led me to becoming the Executive Director of Family Promise of Colorado Springs.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
When I chose a career in city management, I quickly realized there were very few female city managers to look to for advice. Nationally, only 13% of city managers today are female. As a result, I had no female mentors and my male mentors could offer practical advice but could not offer relational advice. To support women in the profession, I was a founding board member of Women Leading Government, which was started in California and was emulated in states across America. We proudly offered female focused programs and events and connected women leaders to each other and to serve as mentors for women in the profession. It is critical that regardless of the profession, women leaders support each other; this makes tackling obstacles and challenges a bit easier and less lonely.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My career as a city manager was incredibly challenging and rewarding. It is a unique career; many people don’t even know what a city manager does. Basically, a city manager is the CEO of a city, overseeing all the operations of the city often including police and fire services, public works, parks and recreation, community planning and development, water and wastewater, and administrative services. The elected officials, who the community votes for, set the policy and direction for each community. City managers implement their policies.

I am most proud of the teams I built in the organizations I led. Bringing together a talented team of professionals and leading them with core values so they can thrive is my greatest strength. My focus was always on the success of my team so they could deliver for our community. I was always honest with my staff, put them above all else because I truly cared, and had the courage to say no to elected officials when I believed that was right thing to do.

I believe what sets me apart, is that I authentically value all people. I get to know my staff and community; value them, care about them, appreciate them and “see” them. It is the part of the job I love the most – the people.

Which is why after I retired in 2021 and moved to Colorado in 2022, I quickly realized I missed serving people and giving back to my community. In 2023, I joined Family Promise of Colorado Springs and have the privilege of working with a small, highly talented and dedicated team of professionals who are committed to supporting underserved children and their families in our community who are situationally unhoused. I believe I have much to contribute to my community and hope that I can continue to do so for many years to come.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
The US COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Washington state, in a city neighboring the city where I was the city manager. Based on what was occurring, I was one of the first city managers in America to activate the Emergency Operations Center and begin preparing a response to the pandemic. I made this decision based on one of my five core leadership values – safety. My other four leadership values, teamwork, innovation, customer service and ethics, also played key roles in our decision making processes. Our team was bonded and working at a high level prior to the pandemic, which laid a strong foundation as we managed our response together. We stayed strong as a team, respected each other’s opinions, and made decisions together. We focused on the safety of our staff and community and how to still deliver excellent customer service while pivoting how we conducted our daily business. Innovative ideas and solutions were encouraged and we delivered effective solutions to daily problems and challenges. Finally, we never wavered from our ethical standards, always being honest, accountable for our actions, respecting each other, and being good stewards of the city’s assets and finances. This experience solidified for me, how important it is a for a leader to establish core values and live by them everyday, because when a crisis happens, your organizational foundation and team are already strong and connected.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.familypromisecos.org
• Instagram: familypromisecos
• Facebook: family promise – colorado springs