{"id":29227,"date":"2021-06-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/getting-ready-to-govern-at-the-epa\/"},"modified":"2024-09-25T12:19:36","modified_gmt":"2024-09-25T16:19:36","slug":"getting-ready-to-govern-at-the-epa","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ourpublicservice.org\/about\/impact\/getting-ready-to-govern-at-the-epa\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting \u201cready to govern\u201d at the EPA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/i>Back to Impact<\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n
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Getting \u201cready to govern\u201d at the EPA<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

How the Partnership prepared one political appointee for a new professional challenge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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New presidents are responsible for making roughly 4,000 political appointments across government. To work effectively, these appointees need to learn how to navigate a complex federal organization. Ready to Govern\u00ae<\/a> prepares them to tackle this challenge from the moment they enter office. Since 2013, the program has helped more than 1,500 political appointees better manage their agencies, understand federal rules and regulations, and build networks that enable collaboration and creative problem-solving.<\/em> Read more below to learn how Ready to Govern helped Gwen Keyes become an effective chief of staff for the Environmental Protection Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2013, Gwen Keyes embarked on the biggest challenge of her career. After working five years as a district attorney in DeKalb County, Georgia and another three as the regional administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, Keyes came to Washington, D.C. to  serve as the EPA\u2019s chief of staff\u2014a position that required her to oversee 15,000 employees working across the country and the world, several large teams and subcomponents, and an international office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ready to Govern helped Keyes manage these dizzying responsibilities, providing her with the skills, tools and professional networks to manage EPA staff and projects, and respond adeptly to unexpected crises like the 2013 government shutdown.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReady to Govern is the place\u2014and the Partnership for Public Service is the place\u2014where you learn how to manage competing priorities and also build the network of support that will help you further [your career],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Gwen Keyes, former chief of staff at the EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Inspired to public service <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Keyes came to Washington, D.C. with a deep background in public service. Her father was a Tuskegee Airman who served in government for 40 years as an engineer at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, New Jersey. He was also one of the first African Americans to run for elected office on the local school board in her hometown.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guided by this example, Keyes interned with a local prosecutor\u2019s office after earning her law degree at Emory University and soon thereafter became the first African American and first woman to serve as district attorney for the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit in DeKalb County, Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, she began applying her legal skills to federal work, overseeing environmental policy in eight southeastern states and six federally recognized tribes as the EPA\u2019s Region 4 regional administrator.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeing able to creatively think of ways to use the full power of the federal government to [help others] was something that was always appealing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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“Ready to Govern is the place\u2014and the Partnership for Public Service is the place\u2014where you learn how to manage competing priorities and also build the network of support that will help you further [your career].”<\/p>\n