Get to Know AAACE President Keisha Clark

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The County has 10 great Employee Resource Groups (ERG). They are each led by respective presidents who all demonstrate commitment and stewardship of its members to the various sectors of our community.

Get to know our African American Association of County Employees (AAACE) ERG President Dr. Keisha Clark, a staff development specialist with Human Resources:

Q: How long have you worked for the County and what departments have you worked for?

A: 8 years; Self Sufficiency Services, Child Welfare Services, Human Resources

Q: What do you do in your role/what are your job responsibilities?

A: Professional Development/Provide soft skills training for 6,500 employees.

Q: What are three words that best describe you?

A: Charismatic, Strategic Leader, Compassionate

Q: What do you do in your free time?

A: Community Service, Volunteer, Adjunct Faculty, Leadership Consultant, Mexico Tour Guide

Q: Tell us about your ERG.

A: AAACE recruits, promotes and inspires African American employees to connect and succeed through education and charitable causes to accomplish County initiatives and unifying goals that result in improved career opportunities.

Q: Why are ERGs important?

A: They provide human connection around common cultures and communities that aid in a sense of inclusion and belongingness through a welcoming environment.

Q: What is your favorite part of being a member of your ERG?

A: I get to lead county initiatives and drive organizational culture change.

Q: What are some resources that you find useful and recommend to others?

A: Insite, ERG’s, Community Leadership Teams

Q: Who can participate in your ERG and how can employees join?

A: Everyone is welcomed! Visit our website.

Discuss Your 'Minor Feelings'

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Join the County of San Diego Filipino American Employees Association (CSDFEA) for a discussion of “Minor Feelings” by Cathy Park Hong on Wednesday, April 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Register to attend via Eventbrite. Online event details will be provided to registrants.

Please note that registration is limited. See flyer here.

Book Synopsis (Penguin Random House):

Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialized consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative—and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world.

Binding these essays together is Hong’s theory of “minor feelings.” As the daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality—when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity. Minor feelings are not small, they’re dissonant—and in their tension Hong finds the key to the questions that haunt her.

With sly humor and a poet’s searching mind, Hong uses her own story as a portal into a deeper examination of racial consciousness in America today. This intimate and devastating book traces her relationship to the English language, to shame and depression, to poetry and female friendship. A radically honest work of art, Minor Feelings forms a portrait of one Asian American psyche—and of a writer’s search to both uncover and speak the truth.

Get to Know Your ERG Presidents

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The County has 10 great Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). They are each led by respective presidents who all demonstrate commitment and stewardship of its members to the various sectors of our community.

Meet the presidents:

Vargas to Speak on Ethics

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Ethics Awareness Month provides us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the importance of ethics in our public service! This year the Office of Ethics and Compliance is hosting a series of virtual ethics events.

Join the next virtual event with guest speaker Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Nora Vargas:

Mark your calendar for upcoming Ethics Awareness Month events.

Meet Your ERG Presidents

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Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are an important resource to the County. They help enhance cultural awareness; support workforce outreach, recruitment and retention; promote County initiatives through partnerships with departments and community-based organizations; and provide professional development and networking opportunities for their members. In addition, they offer an opportunity for employees to exchange ideas.

The County has 10 great ERGs: AAACE, APACE, CSDFEA, DiverseAbility, EWA, LGBTQ&A, MEERG, PISCE, SDCLA, and VALOR. They are each led by respective presidents who all demonstrate commitment and stewardship of its members to the various sectors of our community.

We invite you to meet the ERG presidents. Q&A profiles with all 10 ERG presidents will be posted to InSite over the next two weeks. Come back Monday to meet the first president.

Safeguarding Customers' Personal Information

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Ethics Awareness Month provides us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the importance of ethics in our public service! This year the Office of Ethics and Compliance is hosting a series of virtual ethics events.

Join the next virtual event on safeguarding our customers’ personal information from wherever you work.

  • Date: Thursday, March 11, noon

  • Link: On Zoom

Mark your calendar for upcoming Ethics Awareness Month events.

Fletcher to Speak on Ethics

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Ethics Awareness Month provides us an opportunity to pause and reflect on the importance of ethics in our public service! This year the Office of Ethics and Compliance is hosting a series of virtual ethics events.

Join the next virtual event with guest speaker Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher:

Mark your calendar for upcoming Ethics Awareness Month events.

CAO Message: Happy Employee Appreciation Day!

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Message from Helen Robbins-Meyer, Chief Administrative Officer

I try to take every opportunity I can to say thanks for all you do. I say it again here, but since it’s Appreciation Day, I also want to emphasize that fuller meaning of appreciate. That I’m really conscious of the value you bring to our organization and to the people we serve. I may not know the details of each individual job, but I can see the results of your collective efforts and appreciate – I do understand – what a ton of work it is.

And I know it’s been a very tough year. Again, I may not know everyone’s individual challenges, but I do appreciate that each of you has had challenges of some measure.

The need to adapt is going to continue. We have a new Board of Supervisors, and they are very actively moving the County in new directions. That could mean subtle changes for some of you, more dramatic for others.

I appreciate that, as you so often hear, change is hard. We’re a big ship, and rapidly putting it on a new course isn’t easy. All throughout the pandemic you’ve been asked to adapt and adapt again, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your tremendous flexibility and resourcefulness. Seeing those traits also gives me confidence that you’ll display them again as we bring new policies to life. Change is hard but also exciting, giving us new opportunities for growth and innovation.

I appreciate how hard it’s been acting in isolation so much of the time this past year. We’re social creatures, we feed off each other’s energy. Teams and Zoom are fine for what they are, but they can’t replace activities in person.

The good news is that the combination of growing vaccination numbers and dropping case numbers points to the possibility of resuming on-site work. It’s still too early to talk any kind of timeline. And everything won’t go back exactly how it once was. I also don’t expect it to happen overnight. Things will be phased in, and we’ll do it safely.

But we can start to think about it. I miss office camaraderie, and I know many of you do as well. More importantly, many of us miss the ability to work directly with the public. We’re in a people business. The feeling of connection that comes from real-life interactions helps us fulfill our mission. Our renewed commitment to equity means doing more to build relationships and being closer to our communities. Meeting people where they are – literally – will help make those efforts more successful.

Buuuuut – not quite yet. Let me add to things I appreciate: your patience. A few times it looked like we might be approaching an exit from pandemic mode, then have had to keep going. I get how frustrating it’s been. I appreciate you continuing to stretch that patience for what I hope won’t be too much longer.

You’ve had to help our residents through a crisis like none they’ve ever faced, all while living through it yourselves. I’ve always appreciated your work and felt so proud to be part of this organization, but that’s only grown this year. Unprecedented times means unprecedented appreciation on my part. Thank you, today and always, for everything you do.