Throughout the Summer of 2020, the Office of Sustainability was fortunate enough to work with 3 Fellows–Jessica Flynn, Bryan Thomson, and Favour Okhuevbie–and YouthWorks Intern Zaniya Williams. The rest of the Planning Department also had 3 additional fellows–Tiaira Robinson, Jeremy Hoffner, and Mercy Iyere. Though the vast majority of their time ended up being virtual, all of fellows and interns were incredible assets to the office and added so much to our Planning and Sustainability communities!
Below are brief descriptions of some of the fellows’ experiences working with the Office of Sustainability over the past few months:
Jessica Flynn was a 2020 Mayoral Fellow documenting the Community-Based Food Distribution and Recovery efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic in order to inform policy and practice changes within the Office of Sustainability and Baltimore City. She spoke to Community groups, City Employees and representatives from other cities to gather over 200 pieces of feedback and then offered more than 30 recommendations for change. A Baltimore resident since 2004, Jessica was excited to be part of the 2020 Mayoral Fellow cohort and a positive force for change.
Bryan Thomson worked to create a roadmap to update Baltimore’s Climate Action Plan, focusing on community engagement and equity in climate action. He also researched cities’ responses to combatting extreme heat during the pandemic, summarized the city’s disaster preparedness plan, and interviewed Resiliency Hub leaders about distributing food to their communities in response to COVID-19.
Favour Okhuevbie worked on the Equity and Workforce Inclusion Project this summer, to analyze past and current hiring/retention practices and to research how it can be made better. She was able to apply an equity lens to hiring, retention, and promotion at the department. Among other research that Favour carried out, she was also able to study how nine other city planning departments handled diversity and inclusion in their workforce. Favour was successful in recommending best practices that the DOP can adopt to ensure a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
Thank you to all our interns and fellows for spending the summer with us!