Kate Parmelee
City of Port St Lucie
Director of Strategic Initiatives & Innovations
Innovator, Advocator, Kind
Kate is Traeger come to life. Not to brag, but she’s kind of a big deal. She has only been here for four years and has accomplished so much.
She’s formalized the City’s Strategic Plan process. Every project the city has now ties back to the city’s strategic plan. Her next step: better utilizing our budget process to also connect more with our strategic plan.
We are working to be a more data-driven organization, in part because of her. The City now consistently issues the National Community Survey to our residents to collect scientifically valid data and feedback. We have a dashboard that shows said data and tracks our performance for our residents.
She has led innovations in the city. We now have InnovationPSL, a multi-departmental team focused on creating innovations and process improvements in our city. With her help, we can offer innovation training to all city employees. From her connections, we’ve hired behavioral scientists to look at city issues regarding solid waste. Her creativity knows no bounds and she’s always willing to help a department find a solution.
I would say her biggest accomplishment to date are the improvements she has made to the city’s grants process. The City went from an informal grant process, to having a grants and advocacy team where we strategically think about which grants we should apply for and how to get our legislation better involved. She is already working on her next step: inputting and managing grants in one area for the City rather than differing by departments.
Finally, Kate is the kindest person I know. She does so much not only for the City, but for her community. She volunteers her expertise to other organizations on her rare off time. She’s dedicated to her family and always encouraging her son to make the world a better place. She’s a wonderful mentor and the best hype person for her mentees. The City of Port St. Lucie is grateful to have her and her dedicated commitment to improving our local government.
Being jealous that you haven’t worked with Kate is a completely normal feeling. The only way to overcome the jealousy is to meet her — reach out on her LinkedIn. She’s the best!
The 2021 Top 100 Influencers List is made possible by ELGL’s partnership with CivicPlus.
