At the GPL, we help governments deliver better outcomes for their communities. This looks like rethinking who responds to certain 911 calls, identifying earlier opportunities to support children and families, and increasing resources to prevent people from losing their homes.
All my work prior to the GPL has been client-facing in child- and family-serving systems, making change in individuals’ lives. I came to the GPL because I wanted to tackle some systemic challenges that were causing the problems my clients were experiencing in the first place. At the GPL, there is a willingness to listen to the expertise you bring to help direct and shape the projects we’re working on.Sherraine Ashley
Government Innovation Fellow
1 / 4
Before the GPL, I was working in foster care with families who had very deep child-welfare involvement. Coming from a direct service background, oftentimes you don’t have opportunities to be in the same rooms as the people who are influencing high-level practices or policies. In my GPL project, I recently briefed the state commissioner and a division head on our work to prevent families’ involvement in the child welfare system by supporting them before they are in crisis.Kaitlin Tufts
Children & Families Project Leader
2 / 4
As a fellow on the Research & Writing team, I worked closely with the GPL’s Alternative 911 Emergency Response Initiative to identify tools and lessons learned from their projects and develop strategies to share those insights with other government practitioners. This included interviewing police chiefs, visiting a 911 call center, and organizing a learning series event about using data to improve alternative emergency response programs. Through this experience, I saw the unique role that the Research & Writing team plays in amplifying GPL insights and practices across the country.Analisa Sorrells
Research & Writing Project Leader
3 / 4
As a fellow, you get the opportunity early in your career to be exposed to how high-level decisions are made and to make an impact on them. One of the first projects I led was supporting the State of Connecticut to implement procurement strategies in 2020 to meet pandemic economic recovery needs. At the end of the three- to four-month procurement cycle, I was able to see how my work helped deliver $150 million in funds and resources to communities that really needed it.Lars Benson
Homelessness & Housing Project Leader
4 / 4
Roles at the GPL
Government Innovation Fellows collaborate with government leaders and staff to develop and test initiatives designed to create more just and effective service systems.
Research and Writing Fellows collaborate with GPL project leaders, policy directors, and GPL leadership to develop publications and resources that spread GPL insights to governments across the country.
GPL fellows employ the following core skills:
Research and Data Analysis: Identify what may be causing problems, where to focus energy, and how to generate insights that can improve service delivery.
Project Management: Move work forward in an efficient, adaptive, and entrepreneurial way to accomplish key goals.
Stakeholder Management: Work collaboratively with stakeholders to build trust, commitment, and capacity.
Communication: Communicate ideas clearly, efficiently, and with humility.
Many of our GPL fellows step into management roles over time. Management roles at the GPL include:
Project Leader – Lead GPL projects to drive impact and advance research goals. Contribute to the generation and communication of insights and solutions related to project work. May manage one or more GPL fellows on a specific project(s), including providing high-quality coaching to support the development of core GPL skills.
Assistant Director – Design and oversee portfolios of projects to drive impact and advance research goals. Lead the generation and communication of insights and solutions related to portfolio. Typically manage a team of fellows and/or project leaders to execute high-impact work and develop core GPL skills. Assistant Directors also spend substantial time on GPL enterprise activities, such as scoping new government engagements and training new fellows.
Initiative, Policy, and Managing Directors – For one or more policy areas or major initiatives, design and execute the GPL’s strategy, including leading the GPL’s technical assistance practice, and overseeing work with governments and other collaborators. Typically lead a larger team, including developing and unlocking talent at all levels. As issue experts, Directors advise senior leaders in government on reforms in specific policy areas and advance the creation and take-up of insights and solutions for producing better outcomes for people and communities.
I began at the GPL in the fellow position, which allowed me to roll up my sleeves and take ownership over exciting, meaningful projects early in my career. I could not have guessed that two years out of a master’s degree in social work, I’d be deeply entrenched in my home state’s efforts to reduce recidivism, digging into analyses around safety in youth prisons and employment outcomes post-release, leading efforts to improve programs in correctional facilities statewide, and meeting weekly with agency leadership to brainstorm and support department priorities. Through these opportunities, I learned how to effectively collaborate with decision-makers in government to drive change, and I rely on this experience daily in my current role managing the GPL’s work to bolster child and family wellbeing.Megan Toohey
Managing Director of Children & Families
1 / 2
I used to work at a drop-in center for unhoused folks, and sometimes, people would get into arguments that we didn’t have the capacity to handle. We didn’t need the police, but we needed someone to come help de-escalate the situation; we needed an extra option to call for help. At the GPL, I lead a team that’s supported dozens of jurisdictions to create this alternative option. We’ve helped governments send unarmed responder teams trained in de-escalation to tens of thousands of 911 calls.Gabriela Solis Torres
Assistant Director of Criminal Justice
2 / 2
The Hiring Process
The GPL application window typically opens in the late winter or early spring of each year. Follow us on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter to learn more.
Previous year’s applications have required that applicants submit a resume and short written answers to questions about the applicant’s interest in the GPL and relevant experience.
A core GPL goal is to train new public and social sector leaders through the GPL Fellowship. Our alumni put their GPL experience to work as they solve difficult societal problems across a range of government agencies and social sector organizations. See a list of our alumnihere.
My three years at the GPL were such a time of development and learning for me. I feel incredibly grateful every single day in my new work as I reflect back on the experiences I had and the projects I was part of at the GPL. I’m currently serving as a policy advisor at the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children, a newly reinstated office designed to alleviate child poverty in the state. In real time, I’m working on some first-of-their-kind, state-based, local initiatives that really connect to my work on the Criminal Justice team. The work I did at the GPL and the skills I gained – I'm now actively applying them every day in a new office with a new team that is trying to make history in real time. So I feel both unprepared, but also very prepared because of the GPL.Andrea Barnes
Policy Advisor, Governor’s Office for Children, State of Maryland
1 / 4
I get to work on functions inside of the department that are aiming to help DFSS stay focused on bigger picture and longer-term strategic goals, rather than just being caught up in the day-to-day firefighting that often occupies so much time. Focusing on strategic goals was a skill I was able to sharpen during my time at the GPL.Silvie Senauke
Senior Director of Strategy, Policy and Equity, City of Chicago Department of Family and Support Services
2 / 4
People are used to looking at hiring data in the same way they’ve always seen it. We’re trying to change the culture around data sharing to help drive innovation and performance around our time to hire. My time at GPL reinforced the power of using data to make strategic changes in government. In Massachusetts, we think that sharing the time to hire so that departments can see what other departments are doing can spur a little healthy competition in that regard. Which makes government better for not only candidates and employees, but ultimately, the residents of Massachusetts.Jean-Louis Rochet
Director of Strategy, Applications & Research | Human Resources Division at Commonwealth of Massachusetts
3 / 4
There are situations where you aren’t in charge, but you’re really influencing, you’re giving information, you’re coaching people, and you’re arming the whole team with the information that they need. That is something that the GPL knows how to do really well.Shylah Duchicela
Program Impact Strategist for the City of Durham, North Carolina’s alternative response program, Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Team (HEART)
All my work prior to the GPL has been client-facing in child- and family-serving systems, making change in individuals’ lives. I came to the GPL because I wanted to tackle some systemic challenges that were causing the problems my clients were experiencing in the first place. At the GPL, there is a willingness to listen to the expertise you bring to help direct and shape the projects we’re working on.Sherraine Ashley
Before the GPL, I was working in foster care with families who had very deep child-welfare involvement. Coming from a direct service background, oftentimes you don’t have opportunities to be in the same rooms as the people who are influencing high-level practices or policies. In my GPL project, I recently briefed the state commissioner and a division head on our work to prevent families’ involvement in the child welfare system by supporting them before they are in crisis.Kaitlin Tufts
As a fellow on the Research & Writing team, I worked closely with the GPL’s Alternative 911 Emergency Response Initiative to identify tools and lessons learned from their projects and develop strategies to share those insights with other government practitioners. This included interviewing police chiefs, visiting a 911 call center, and organizing a learning series event about using data to improve alternative emergency response programs. Through this experience, I saw the unique role that the Research & Writing team plays in amplifying GPL insights and practices across the country.Analisa Sorrells
As a fellow, you get the opportunity early in your career to be exposed to how high-level decisions are made and to make an impact on them. One of the first projects I led was supporting the State of Connecticut to implement procurement strategies in 2020 to meet pandemic economic recovery needs. At the end of the three- to four-month procurement cycle, I was able to see how my work helped deliver $150 million in funds and resources to communities that really needed it.Lars Benson
I began at the GPL in the fellow position, which allowed me to roll up my sleeves and take ownership over exciting, meaningful projects early in my career. I could not have guessed that two years out of a master’s degree in social work, I’d be deeply entrenched in my home state’s efforts to reduce recidivism, digging into analyses around safety in youth prisons and employment outcomes post-release, leading efforts to improve programs in correctional facilities statewide, and meeting weekly with agency leadership to brainstorm and support department priorities. Through these opportunities, I learned how to effectively collaborate with decision-makers in government to drive change, and I rely on this experience daily in my current role managing the GPL’s work to bolster child and family wellbeing.Megan Toohey
I used to work at a drop-in center for unhoused folks, and sometimes, people would get into arguments that we didn’t have the capacity to handle. We didn’t need the police, but we needed someone to come help de-escalate the situation; we needed an extra option to call for help. At the GPL, I lead a team that’s supported dozens of jurisdictions to create this alternative option. We’ve helped governments send unarmed responder teams trained in de-escalation to tens of thousands of 911 calls.Gabriela Solis Torres
My three years at the GPL were such a time of development and learning for me. I feel incredibly grateful every single day in my new work as I reflect back on the experiences I had and the projects I was part of at the GPL. I’m currently serving as a policy advisor at the Maryland Governor’s Office for Children, a newly reinstated office designed to alleviate child poverty in the state. In real time, I’m working on some first-of-their-kind, state-based, local initiatives that really connect to my work on the Criminal Justice team. The work I did at the GPL and the skills I gained – I'm now actively applying them every day in a new office with a new team that is trying to make history in real time. So I feel both unprepared, but also very prepared because of the GPL.Andrea Barnes
I get to work on functions inside of the department that are aiming to help DFSS stay focused on bigger picture and longer-term strategic goals, rather than just being caught up in the day-to-day firefighting that often occupies so much time. Focusing on strategic goals was a skill I was able to sharpen during my time at the GPL.Silvie Senauke
People are used to looking at hiring data in the same way they’ve always seen it. We’re trying to change the culture around data sharing to help drive innovation and performance around our time to hire. My time at GPL reinforced the power of using data to make strategic changes in government. In Massachusetts, we think that sharing the time to hire so that departments can see what other departments are doing can spur a little healthy competition in that regard. Which makes government better for not only candidates and employees, but ultimately, the residents of Massachusetts.Jean-Louis Rochet
There are situations where you aren’t in charge, but you’re really influencing, you’re giving information, you’re coaching people, and you’re arming the whole team with the information that they need. That is something that the GPL knows how to do really well.Shylah Duchicela