We’ve Pivoted: State & Local Government Roles
On October 10, 2025, Pivot with Purpose hosted its first “We’ve Pivoted!” seminar session. Rebecca Acuña (City of San Antonio in Texas), Siobhan Pangerl (Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity), Allyson Zeedrich (California Department of Public Health), and development practitioner Maggie Thompson (Energy Solutions: Illinois Shines Program) all shared their success stories, revealing their experiences, tips, and tricks that helped them find new employment in state and local government. Zaki Zakaria (Georgetown SFS) moderated this event, and Steve Radelet provided additional commentary.
This session was the first in our “We’ve Pivoted!” seminar series, designed to offer attendees insights and tangible advice concerning the experiences of those among us who have transitioned into new careers successfully.
As is the case for many of us, the speakers in this discussion all had to make difficult decisions and put themselves out there in order to find new employment over the past six to ten months. Indeed, as former attendees of these events, they are keenly aware of the challenges that lie ahead for us all.
Each of the panelists dedicated their careers to serving others, advocating for rights, and supporting inclusion. Likewise, they each had to reimagine what service can look like and where it can be. Luckily, they found their answers within state and local governments.
Drawing from the lessons learned in our previous session highlighting opportunities in this sector, our featured panelists provided the tangible tips and tricks, the nitty gritty many are curious about, and other lessons that they learned during their own process, so you can pivot too!
Whether they leaned on specific job boards to identify the best roles for them; leveraged their networks in hometown communities to find new opportunities to give back; or developed new skills to meet the challenges of these new responsibilities, our speakers all were able to pivot into new careers successfully.
Most important, they all agreed that we have the requisite skills and background needed to be competitive in this job market. Should we be able to bring and call upon our development toolkit (i.e., economics, monitoring and evaluation, and policy analysis, among other functions), there is no reason why we cannot find and thrive in these roles.
Of course, everyone acknowledged that much of this work is easier said than done. Once again, they were once in your shoes! Yet they implored us to keep pushing and to continue our efforts to upskill, network, and find new opportunities.
There are jobs out there–it will just take us to find them! Hopefully, this session serves as a needed reminder and source of inspiration for all of us as we continue our efforts to pivot into new careers.
Other Previous Sessions
Please feel free to browse our other previous sessions to access summaries, video content, and more information about our other events!