DeSheila “Nikki” Mixon is the senior integrated pest management specialist for Public Works. A problem-solver, Mixon is the first person to ever hold the position in the City.She highlights the barriers to female leadership, explains how she uses her accomplishments as a leadership tool to show others what’s possible and talks about her love for the urban outdoors.

Nicole De La Garza is a supervisor for Public Works’ street cleaning team. Proud of her San Francisco roots, De La Garza talks about her winding journey through Public Works, her leadership style and navigating loss.

Robynn Takayama is a grants administrator with the contract admin team at Public Works. Throughout her career, Takayama has sought out justice and followed her gut instinct to identify and solve problems. She talks about the definition of success, why she thinks of leadership as “people math" and how leadership is within each of us -- no matter what role we play. Listen here.

Patty Solis is a senior architect and acting section manager at the Bureau of Architecture. Having spent time both in the private and public sectors, she recounts what drew her to architecture, talks about the impact of seeing women in upper management and reflects on her early career days – sticking up for herself in a work environment that could be a “guys’ club.”

Women Leaders in Public Service - Nicole Cook by sfpublicworks

Fara Perez is an architect with the public utilities section at Public Works’ Bureau of Architecture. Perez reflects on the hurdles and barriers she had to overcome throughout her career as a woman in architecture: Dealing with men who don’t want to take directions from women, tapping on the glass ceiling and raising kids while working long hours. Through it all she drew encouragement from her mother and grew stronger because of the challenges.

Cristina Olea is the Better Market Street project manager for Public Works. With nearly all of her career as an engineer spent with the City, Olea talks about how she picked civil engineering because of her 5th-grade teacher, explains why parents with young kids often face barriers to leadership and details why she often feels like a conductor at work – making beautiful music (in her case infrastructure-improvement projects) with an amazing orchestra of colleagues.

Diana Homsey is the director of resilience and emergency management at Public Works. From her days flying to work in a helicopter as a guide and EMT in Alaska to returning to her deep Bay Area roots as a leader in emergency management, Homsey’s adventurous spirit has been a throughline in her life. She talks about the importance of having female mentors, the crucial role Public Works plays after an emergency and why you can’t always be “Disaster Diana."

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Tessa Jones is a supervisor with the Street Environmental Services team. Almost 30 years ago she started with Public Works, cleaning the streets of San Francisco and rising up through the ranks. Through it all, she has harnessed her compassion for others to make an impact in people’s lives and leaned on her work ethic to continually raise the bar for herself. Listen here.

Lourdes Garcia is a senior architect section manager at the Bureau of Architecture. After 35 years as an architect, Garcia reflects on the impact her parents and mentors had on her, the barriers women face – from pay inequity to family planning – and the importance of finding your voice. Listen here.