Last August, eager to gain hands-on experience in local policymaking, I moved to San Francisco to join the San Francisco Fellows 2023-24 cohort. The Fellowship offers young professionals a 12-month, full-time opportunity to work in a City department while attending weekly professional development workshops.

I was excited to be placed in the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's (SFPUC) External Affairs division after learning about its impact on the City’s environmental and social landscape. However, as I spent my first week navigating a three-page list of acronyms like “SIP” and “NEM”, I quickly recognized the complexity of SFPUC operations and the challenge of making these services understandable to the public.

With the mentorship of my supervisors and teams, I learned effective strategies for communicating SFPUC’s operations, policies, and practices to diverse audiences. My first project was creating a project plan and internal memo for an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report ­­— a framework used to disclose an organization’s ESG practices. Despite my initial unfamiliarity with the content, I successfully synthesized complex information into a clear, high-level proposal that was presented to SFPUC leadership.

That is when a lightbulb went off: my novel understanding of our services could be an asset when interacting with customers and the public. I went on to help develop website content, create graphics, draft slide decks and talking points for webinars, and write internal and public-facing stories about our services, including SFPUC’s community gardens. I also presented to community organizations and tabled at outreach events. At San Francisco’s annual Carnaval celebration, I walked a Net Energy Metering (NEM) customer through a one-pager I updated called “Understanding Your NEM Bill”. I saw firsthand how bridging the gap between technical, utility-centric language and personable communication empowers individuals and builds community trust.

As my communication skills grew, I created materials for the Southeast Community Center (SECC), a SFPUC operated center established in response to local environmental justice advocacy. To raise awareness of the SECC and its relationship to the Bayview community, I designed a guided tour, one-pager, and detailed plan for K-12 field trips. These 2-hour field trips will focus on the SECC’s connection to environmental stewardship, social justice, and art, with a pilot expected this fall. While creating this curriculum, I found innovative ways to convey the direct impact of local government policy and the SECC’s significance to various age groups. I even uncovered my personal family ties to Bayview, where my family moved to find work during World War II.

As my Fellowship concludes, I am preparing to start a Master of Public Health in Food, Nutrition, & Population Health at UC Berkeley. The experiences I gained at SFPUC have laid a strong foundation for a future in public health advocacy and influenced my approach to research. I have learned how to make policy discourse insightful and approachable to all audiences, while centering community needs.

I am deeply grateful for the opportunities I have had in research, policy implementation, community engagement, and, of course, acronym analysis at SFPUC.