Liane Jollon, executive director of San Juan Basin Public Health, has been selected as a 2022 Gates Family Foundation Harvard Fellow.
The Gates Family Foundation announced Wednesday that Jollon was one of seven public officials from across Colorado chosen to attend a three-week intensive leadership program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government this summer.
“I’m thrilled to be a Gates Family Fellow,” she said. “I believe the investment the Gates Family Foundation makes in Colorado by affording public servants the opportunity to take advantage of this intensive and highly regarded learning opportunity pays tremendous dividends for the residents of Colorado.”
The Gates Family Foundation started its Harvard Fellows program in 1980 and since then has offered more than 270 Colorado public officials the opportunity to attend the Kennedy School’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government program.
The Senior Executives in State and Local Government program is a three-week intensive training for senior public officials in state and local governments across the country. Taught by Harvard professors, attendees analyze case studies and take interdisciplinary classes to improve their leadership and decision-making and better serve their communities.
“Every day is a full day of classes with assignments, group work and papers where we are working across disciplines together to examine the roles of public service and learn from other disciplines,” Jollon said.
Any senior official can apply for the program, drawing public servants from disciplines such as transportation, law enforcement and public health, she said.
The Gates Family Foundation, which has no relation to Bill Gates and was instead founded by the Gates family of Colorado’s Gates Rubber Co., invites state and local officials from Colorado to apply to the program each spring.
The foundation then pays for its fellows to attend the program, funding $16,000 of the $16,900 cost, including tuition, housing, program materials and most meals, according to the Gates Family Foundation’s website.
The fellowships are only available to Colorado’s public officials.
Jollon, who was encouraged to apply by previous fellows, said the program is an opportunity to examine public health’s role in Southwest Colorado on the heels of the coronavirus pandemic.
“After the experience of the last two years, where every aspect of local government was affected by the pandemic, there couldn’t be a more important time to work together as government officials to better understand how our jobs impact each other,” she said.
The other six Colorado public officials selected from a competitive pool of 28 applicants include:
- Ginger White Brunetti, executive director, Denver Arts & Venues.
- Shontel Lewis, director District B, Denver’s Regional Transportation District.
- Andrew Marsh, city administrator, city of Idaho Springs.
- Kristin Stephens, county commissioner, Larimer County.
- Anna Stout, mayor pro tem, city of Grand Junction.
- Sean Strode, city councilor, city of Rifle.
Jollon and the 42nd class of Gates Family Foundation Harvard Fellows will also join the 2020 class after the program was canceled in 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic.
Fellows can choose to attend sessions in June or July this year.
Jollon ultimately hopes to use her opportunity as a Gates Fellow to improve her own work and the efforts of San Juan Basin Public in La Plata and Archuleta counties.
“My goal in going is to work with other dedicated public servants who are interested in sharing ideas across disciplines to improve the services we can provide in our communities,” she said.
ahannon@durangoherald.com
