My First Year in Public Service — And Why It Still Shapes Me 

My first real year in public service wasn’t glamorous.

It was sobering.

 

I had just finished my master’s at Harvard and stepped into a presidential appointment at the U.S. Department of Justice. I was the youngest in the Office of Public Affairs.

My portfolio: the Civil Rights Division.

 

A few weeks later, Ferguson happened.

Then Eric Garner.

Then a wave of national grief and protest that reshaped the modern landscape of race, policing, and trust in government.

 

It was the kind of year that makes you grow up fast.

 

I watched communities beg for accountability.

I watched federal civil rights lawyers who had spent decades fighting for justice carry the weight of generations.

And I saw how fragile trust becomes when people feel unseen.

 

That experience has shaped everything since.

 

Years later, when I joined the Obama Foundation and led national mayoral outreach for the Reimagining Policing Pledge after George Floyd’s murder, it wasn’t abstract policy for me. We got over 300 mayors to commit to reviewing their use-of-force policies and I understood exactly what communities were asking for because I had listened at the source.

 

Now, running for Congress here in Indianapolis, those lessons feel even more immediate.

 

When people talk about public safety, they’re talking about lived fear.

When they talk about reform, they’re talking about lived experience.

And when they talk about losing faith in government, it’s because government lost faith in them first.

 

That first year taught me something I carry every day:

Public service is not about the job. It’s about proximity to the truth.

And the truth comes from people, not press releases.

 

As we close out November and reflect on growth, I am grateful for the toughest year of my early career because it taught me how to listen before it taught me how to lead.

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