What I Am with Kristen Elderson, Founder of Work City Smart

Link: ELGL Spreads Across the Country

“Cross between The Atlantic magazine and Buzzfeed”

Welcome to our new member feature. We’ve all heard the excuse “I’m too busy” so we’ve simplified our feature to illicit short, meaningful responses for our new members. As a side note, ELGL is adamantly opposed to the excuse, “I’m too busy.”

Kristen Elderson (LinkedIn and Twitter) is a local government professional, art lover and curious mind. Kristen started Work City Smart as a way to do work she loves, more effectively.

Kristen has a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from California State University Fullerton and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Southern California (USC). In addition to her formal education, Kristen has held positions in the City Manager’s Office, Public Works and Human Resources. She has worked in both Northern and Southern California- exposing her to a variety of different projects, work cultures and best practices for local governments.

Kristen is passionate about local government and implementing best practices to get awesome things accomplished! As a self-motivated worker, Kristen recognized that there were times when local governments needed to increase their workload capacity without bringing on new employee. With this idea in mind, Kristen started Work City Smart as a way to do the work she loves and help cities get their work done more efficiently and effectively.

What I Am Watching:
Mad Men
What I Am Reading:
A cookbook — Truly Mexican by Roberto Santibanez.
What I Want From ELGL:
To connect with like-minded people who like to have fun, work hard and serve the greater good.
What I Wish Local Government Did Better:
That they connected more with different fields to get new ideas!
What I Am Afraid Of:
Birds
What I Wish I Was Doing (Instead of Completing This Questionnaire):
Out on a long walk, flaneuring in San Francisco.
What I Consider As My Career Accomplishments:
Taking the leap and starting my own company, Work City Smart. It’s been a way for me to integrate the things that I love about local government, do them in a way that feels authentic and challenge myself on the regular.
What I Am Listening To:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ls_Za-iv4o

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. Awkward silence…
What I Wish People Knew About Me:
That I’m really creative. When I started school, I was planning to be an art major. I took the next logical step and changed to Public Administration.
What I Wish Would Go Away:

The bongo drums that my downstairs neighbor plays and articles that are lists.
What I Think of Professional Associations:
Beneficial, but sometimes boring.
What I Wished You Asked Me:
Q. If you could do any job in the world, what would it be? A: Professional ballet dancer.