By Hilary Morefield

For his fifth con­sec­u­tive year, San Diego Interim Mayor Todd Glo­ria spoke to our Insti­tute Fel­lows on Feb­ru­ary 8th, shar­ing his advice and enthusiasm with the class. Glo­ria has returned every year to speak with the Fel­lows at the Insti­tute since its found­ing in 2010.

In the past, Glo­ria has spo­ken about his work as a Dis­trict 3 coun­cil­man and City Coun­cil pres­i­dent. At this ses­sion, he shared his involve­ment in pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics and a num­ber of prac­ti­cal strate­gies to bet­ter pro­mote pol­icy and civic engagement.

Through his time with SDLA, Glo­ria has remained enthu­si­as­tic about the bud­ding pro­gres­sive poten­tial from the Institute’s Fel­lows. After his visit to the Insti­tute last Feb­ru­ary, Glo­ria blogged that the Fel­lows “give me con­fi­dence that the future of the pro­gres­sive move­ment in our region is bright.”

This past year, Glo­ria has begun to see an even greater increase in the influ­ence and involve­ment of the Institute’s alumni within the San Diego community.

“[The Insti­tute] is really pro­duc­ing results… The non-​progressives have a num­ber of sim­i­lar pro­grams, so it’s great to see the pro­gres­sive side mak­ing real changes.”

He pointed out that sev­eral Insti­tute alumni have received appoint­ments within San Diego in the last year. Jes­sica Lawrence, a 2013 Insti­tute alumni, was appointed as a Bud­get and Finance Com­mit­tee Con­sul­tant for the City of San Diego and as a pol­icy advi­sor on Gloria’s own staff.

Lawrence said the Insti­tute helped her tran­si­tion from her pre­vi­ous posi­tion to her cur­rent work on Gloria’s staff. “It really is a mat­ter of the right place and right time…I was ready to step into a lead­er­ship role, and [The Insti­tute] gave me cer­tain skills and con­nec­tions that helped jump the gap.”

Check our blog later this week to hear an update regard­ing our most recent session!