Krista Canellakis has been with her "tight-knit team" at San Francisco's Office of Innovation for about five years, making her part of the original team in Mayor Ed Lee's Innovation Fellowship Program.
Canellakis worked at the federal level soon after she graduated from college but felt too far from the people she wanted to serve.
"City government is really so pivotal in the way we improve the experience of cities," Canellakis told Techwire in a phone interview. "It felt like the right size, cities are small enough to act quickly and be these laboratories of invention, but they're big enough ... to be a model. On my commute to work, I get to experience projects that I know the context of."
She went on to lead a startup that built a crowdfunding platform for community projects before working at the city level.
Canellakis looked to Jay Nath, the city's previous innovation officer, as a mentor. As Nath left to expand the Startup In Residence program nationally, which the office launched in 2014, Canellakis stepped up to take his place.
"As Jay transitioned to his new role ... our leadership here were supportive of continuing the momentum that our team built, and continuing the legacy of Mayor Lee," Canellakis said.
The office looks for tech solutions as well as "fresh approaches to solving civic challenges." One program, Civic Bridge, includes private-sector crossover where leaders can volunteer in the public sector for 16 weeks "on critical issues." Most of the office's work focuses on allowing for collaboration between the private and public sectors to solve problems. Often, this reinforces those relationships across the city.
"How do we bring user-centered design and strategy and data expertise to solve some of the city's biggest challenges?" she said.
Some of the collaboration models have been replicated internationally, according to Canellakis.
"How do we institutionalize the work that we're doing, into the practices and the mindset, into the DNA of city government?" Canellakis said.
In her spare time, Canellakis listens to Pod Save America and reads books by Rebecca Solnit.
