Kellye Mazzoli (00:35)
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Unmuted. I'm Kellye Mazzoli, your host. And today we have a really interesting episode for you. I'm going to be interviewing Charisse Deschenes my co-host. And we're just going to learn a little bit more about Charisse's story and her journey to where she is today. She's got a really great background and I'm really excited that she has decided to share some of that with you. Welcome, Charisse.
Charisse Deschenes (01:04)
Thank you, Kellye. I'm excited to be the content of the conversation today. It makes me a little bit nervous, to be honest.
Kellye Mazzoli (01:05)
You
Excellent. Well,
thank you for sharing that. I am a really nice interviewer, so hopefully I don't throw you any curve balls or ask you any too tough, hard-hitting questions, but I think your journey and your story is so interesting, and I'm really glad that you're gonna share this with our audience. I know that they're really interested in hearing it, so with that, we'll get started.
Okay, so, well, we're gonna start with the obligatory. So, Charisse, tell me, where did you come from? Where do you hail from? Where did you grow up? Tell us a little bit about that.
Charisse Deschenes (01:34)
me some throw me some curveballs Kellye.
Well, that's a story, Kellye, I suppose. I kind of come from all over. My parents, my mom is from Florida and Kentucky, and I was born in Eastern Kentucky. And shortly after my birth, within two years, we moved on my second birthday to my father's home state in Kansas, in Northeast Kansas. And I remember that move very, like,
very clearly that you wouldn't probably remember on your second birthday moving, but we stopped in St. Louis at the arch. And I remember going up in the arch and looking down at all the people and wondering about what's happening down there, you know, coming from a really small place and only being two years old. was really kind of, I don't know, it made an impression in my life very young.
Kellye Mazzoli (02:33)
So moving from that, let's go into, I wanna hear a little bit about your grade school years, because nobody talks about that, I would just like to sort of understand like what was little Charisse like?
Charisse Deschenes (02:46)
You know, I grew up, like I said, I grew up growing up in Northeast Kansas in a really small town. I really took to athletics. There wasn't a lot of other opportunities in the town of 1200. I really liked softball and kickball and all the things. And I remember having this like attitude at the time where I wanted to be the best at everything.
everything had to be the best at. So from probably first or second grade, as young as I can remember, every single day I would play kickball every day from first to sixth grade. That was recess. just, you like, you know how you get an itch to do something really well and you just want to perfect it. I felt that very strongly in my youth. And so I remember a lot about, you know, playing sports and
just being that kind of kid that felt that drive to do something well. And I don't know if it was like, you know, my, felt like a type a personality at that point. I think I was quiet, but also sneaky. Yeah. ⁓ I just think that I was more like, I'm on the oldest sister. So.
Kellye Mazzoli (03:49)
Hmm. Okay, I have to ask you got to tell me a little something about this sneakiness. How so? How are you? How is little Charisse sneaky?
Charisse Deschenes (04:02)
I have two younger brothers and a younger sister and I just remember having these ideas of, I wonder if, well, if I tell my brothers, then maybe they'll do it and I can watch what happens. So poor little brothers and my sister is a lot younger than me. So she wasn't really the probably target for some of those things.
Kellye Mazzoli (04:15)
⁓ I like it.
Charisse Deschenes (04:26)
I remember telling them once, well, your bike would look really cool if it were green and it was blue. They got out this oil. They got out an oil-based paint, house paint, and they painted the bike. But I always felt bad about that because I'm sure I put them up to it by just saying, bike would look really cute green. Yeah. In the shed. Yeah. No.
Kellye Mazzoli (04:31)
⁓ no, no, did they paint their bike?
Interesting, we just happen to have green paint in the garage.
that's so good.
Charisse Deschenes (04:52)
But it was a fun time growing up. Honestly, I had a large support system in my family. My parents supported us very well. My mom was always a coach or involved in sports, and my dad was really supportive as well. So we had fun, and then we had a lot of cousins and surrounded by aunts and uncles and my grandma. So I felt really supported in Kansas, growing up in a small town. It was easy. You could...
Kellye Mazzoli (05:18)
I love
that.
Charisse Deschenes (05:18)
You could fail at things, but also you knew like your reputation was always, you were always being looked at as representative of them. Yeah, absolutely.
Kellye Mazzoli (05:22)
Yeah, yeah, you have a whole lot of friends and family. Yeah, you have a whole lot of friends and family around you. But
at the same time, you have a whole lot of friends and family around you. Love it. So how many siblings do you have, Charisse?
Charisse Deschenes (05:32)
Yes, yes, it was like that very much so.
I have two brothers and a sister and that, yeah, so there's about, I'm the oldest. There's about eight years in between us and my sister's the youngest. So that was a really good time growing up. I'm, you know, I was ahead of them in school bit. They all three got to kind of be within two years in school of one another. So I felt like a little bit of disconnect from some of their formative years, but we always had a good time.
Kellye Mazzoli (05:42)
⁓ fabulous. And you're the oldest.
Charisse Deschenes (06:06)
It was a fun life growing up there.
Kellye Mazzoli (06:08)
That's fantastic. So tell me a little bit about how you went from this this little Charisse into, you know, I'm trying to understand, like, what's your path here into public service? Did it hit you in junior high? Did it hit you in high school? Was it more of a college thing? How'd you get there?
Charisse Deschenes (06:24)
Sure.
Yeah, I mean, I
think it was more of a college thing. Even when I was interested in journalism and print journalism and graphic design and a bunch of different things, probably through my sophomore year in college. And I did a lot of that type of stuff in high school too. And then I just realized, you know, I really have a desire to be kind of outdoors and I want to, I had the shift where I wanted to do environmental kind of
resource management and I shifted my focus there in my undergrad program, just walked out of one semester to the other out of journalism into this other role. And so I was gonna be a park ranger and give back that way. So it shifted a little bit. My father was a forest service ranger when I was really little. That's why we were in Eastern Kentucky where that's where my parents met. So I always had this like desire to be outdoors and
there was that pool. I thought, I'll be a ranger. And then, I kind of, I don't know, I, I got an internship in a, in a local government. I was kind of intrigued by that. And I ended up working, in a parks, like the parks administration office where they did planning as well. And I went back to grad school to do urban planning at the time. And it's just kind of, it was an iteration of interests that I discovered.
through my like late teens and early twenties that led me to public service. And I never was like one of those people that said city management is what I really, really want to do. But I've been a generalist. Well, my interest, I I found that I didn't really want to focus just on parks. I didn't really want to focus just on urban planning. And when I found this opportunity for, you know, like a do public administration, I could do
Kellye Mazzoli (08:02)
sure many of us do.
Charisse Deschenes (08:18)
the work of the entire city, my interests were like, I really like this project. I really, you know, I'm kind of one of those people that broadly likes to scope the work that I do. So I found that, you know, it took me a while to get to where I felt, boy, this is the comfortable space that I really enjoy in public service. But I've always felt that it's my kind of duty to serve and even looking back and, you know,
Kellye Mazzoli (08:22)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Charisse Deschenes (08:44)
being involved in a lot of different committees and things like that through my youth and seeing, you know, leadership through service, even though my mom wasn't, you know, serving on city council or anything like that. She always was involved in, the kids need this. Well, I'm going to be stepping up and I'm going to be on the parks board and I'm going to be a coach. And so really I saw that through her leadership that it's important to give back to your community in some way.
and had you know those people in my youth not stood up and said we're gonna do this we're gonna make these programs strong especially in a small town where you don't have a lot of money and funding for that it kind of led me to think well this is maybe my gift back to you know society and how I work because I want to I want to do service I want to I'm gonna get back to my community where the community that I serve so there's a little bit of background
Kellye Mazzoli (09:20)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
love that. Yeah,
yeah, no, I mean, just the the we always say lead by example. And so this is really case in point, where the example of your mother really helped show you this path even indirectly, like even at a very young age, and that's very important. So I love it. so tell
a little bit about when you first started in local government. Well first, did you end up graduating from college? Where were you at at that time in your life?
Charisse Deschenes (10:13)
Sure.
So I went to Kansas State in my undergrad and that was my program that I went through, Park and Resource Management program. so trying to choose, like I might give you a little bit of a different answer, but I was trying to choose where to do my internship after when my last, I had like three hours left and that was the internship for that following semester. So where to go?
So I put a map down on the floor and threw a coin in the air and it landed in Washington state. And this was 2000, 1999. And I, you know, didn't have the internet to look. So I just called everyone I could find in Washington state, all the numbers and looking for an internship. So, um, yeah. So I ended up working in a practice department for the city of Kent and met a lot of amazing people.
Kellye Mazzoli (10:56)
Yeah!
Charisse Deschenes (11:07)
So many of them are still working there. So anyway, it kind of gave me this sense of, I don't know about you, Kellye, but through my life growing up, like I said, I had a really large support system. And even through college, I grew up with friends that were like brothers and sisters that I graduated with 36 kids and we all grew up together. Some of us lived together in college all the way through.
Kellye Mazzoli (11:18)
Mm-hmm.
Charisse Deschenes (11:30)
I wanted to know I could do it myself, right? There was like, I need to do this adulting myself. And so I thought, this is my opportunity to really give it a go. So that was my early formative years. then I, yeah, yeah. And then I went back to, I started urban planning and studying a master's in urban planning over at Eastern Washington at EWU. And I went through about two years of the program.
Kellye Mazzoli (11:33)
Right.
Gotta go. Yeah, yeah. I really love that.
Charisse Deschenes (11:58)
And then I moved and got married and started doing planning and then went back later and did a MBA to kind of complete the cycle of the two years of work that I did that I didn't like complete that program while I needed an extra year. So three years of grad school and a MBA kind of thing.
Kellye Mazzoli (12:18)
⁓ It's a good time. wish
my grad school was longer. So I sort of envy you for taking three years. I wish I had.
Charisse Deschenes (12:28)
Yeah, yeah, in different times of my life and, you know, exploring what I love. I don't know. I've never been a person that probably follows the normal route of life. So it's just probably the way I do things.
Kellye Mazzoli (12:42)
just
have to reply. I'm learning stuff about you that I didn't know, which I didn't think was possible. But it is. ⁓ And we have some parallels that are interesting. So I also flipped a coin around that 1999 to 2000 timeframe, which we can talk about whenever we talk about my story. And then the other thing is, is I graduated in a class of about like 3234 as well. So just you having a small high school graduating class there. I mean, I also did so it's
Charisse Deschenes (12:48)
You
You
Yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (13:09)
pretty interesting. We have some parallels there that I wasn't exactly aware of.
Charisse Deschenes (13:16)
Yeah, yeah, we'll have to really dive deep into our small classes and what that means. And really when you get back together with those people, you feel like you're just touching base, like you've never left in some ways. So you have those intimate relationships that you wouldn't have in a really large school.
Kellye Mazzoli (13:32)
For sure, for sure. So I know you're shifting gears, Charisse, into a new, I don't wanna say line of work, but sort of a new line of work. But before we get into your entrepreneurship season, I really wanna know about, I mean, there has to have been some ups and downs through your 20 plus years career in public service. And so I'd really like to touch base on
on some of that. Did you have any favorite moments or projects or anything that you want to share?
Charisse Deschenes (14:04)
Sure.
Sure. mean, over the years, you know, like I said, I was working in urban planning for a while and I shifted gears in 2017 over to more of a public administration direction. But in all of my career, I'm talking like a parallel of the things that I've loved in the work that I do is like, you know, working on programs for innovation and facilitation and working with the community.
And in one of my jobs in Olathe, Kansas, I was on part of an innovation team and we had the opportunity, the six of us, to get together and just create whatever innovative thing we want. We got a budget and we got a room. And what is it you want to help the city do? Wow. That's like, really, you're giving us that much? That's such a fun project.
Kellye Mazzoli (14:51)
Yeah, what a good time. Such freedom.
Charisse Deschenes (14:55)
And the group of people, we were from different departments, so it was really nice to have that cross collaboration and you got to know people that you wouldn't normally get to interact with. And we came up with, like, this is, I don't know what year it was, 2010, 2009, something like that. We did like an idea sandbox where anyone from the organization could enter in ideas and the senior leadership team would vet and...
talk with that person about their idea and some of them move forward and some of them didn't. But I think they used it for some time after that. And then another project in the city of Sequim probably in 2018 when I was assistant city manager there, we did like a serviced fest was a collaboration with the Habitat for Humanity that was local in Clowne County and had these builders that came from Habitat.
from all over the US and they stayed in one of our parks. There were 16 or 17 of them and we had worked with them with Habitat for a year to build in different projects throughout the community who needed help. Some of them were, you know, exterior projects on homes and things like that. And others were like projects within the parks or the public area. But wow, it was such a fun.
project that you don't, you you get to use all the skills you get to you work collaboratively within all departments of an organization and do something a little bit different. So those are probably the like highlights of like really fun projects that I've got to do. And they all kind of relate to that innovation and that connection piece that I really love throughout my career. And I've been lucky to be a part of the Alliance for Innovation in both locations there and serve on some
Kellye Mazzoli (16:32)
Highlights. Yeah. Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (16:48)
some boards and things like that that have given me that creative outlet. So those are probably my favorite projects that I've worked on.
Kellye Mazzoli (16:55)
that's cool.
This sounds like so much fun. Well, you mentioned, you mentioned Sequim. So I want to bring us into some of the the last years that you had there with the city. know personally, I know that there was a lot of really complicated and difficult times. So I was just curious.
Charisse Deschenes (17:02)
Yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (17:16)
What was that like for you? Because you served in some different capacities over those last few years and it's kind of a whirlwind of different things going on. you know, as you've you've stepped away and you've taken some time and you've had some time away, as you reflect back, what do you think about those those roles in those last few years that you had at the in Sequim?
Charisse Deschenes (17:24)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks for asking, Kellye. I know some people have asked me why I took my sabbatical and what's happened in my career that I shifted gears tremendously. I'd say, I, just giving you kind of a full higher level overview of my career in Sequim as I started there.
2014 in planning and then I moved into an assistant to city manager role in 2017 and then an assistant city manager role in 2018. And in 2019 we had a really tumultuous project that came in that kind of divided the community. And so I'd say in mid 2019 things got really heated in our world. And then in
Part of that, the city council went from elected to five appointeds somewhere in between like 2019, 2020, 2021, 2021 range. COVID hit, right? In 2020, we're also dealing with this really big project in our community. We had public meetings with.
Kellye Mazzoli (18:42)
Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (18:51)
1200 people in a town of 8,000 people. mean, and I'm not exaggerating, I'm trying to find the biggest room in our community for these public meetings. So there was a lot going on. And then the city manager resigned the position and I was asked to step up and be the interim city manager in February of 2021. And I mean, I would like to tell you like, this is a part of
point in time where we're having national media attention for the mayor and we have these five appointed council members and things are not in good place in our, you know, the electeds, there was, you know, there was some pushback on staff and our staff was feeling very, very stressed out and a lot of anxiety and there was just divide in the community. So
Kellye Mazzoli (19:25)
Right.
Well, yeah, so anytime you take on that interim role, it's not usually when everything's going great, right? Like, especially if it's unexpected. ⁓ So just to pause there, I think there are so many city managers and city management professionals that have experienced that where they've had to step into an interim role unexpectedly. it's, yeah, it's never an easy time.
Charisse Deschenes (19:51)
Right, right.
Yeah, know so many can relate. Yeah, so many
people can relate to that story. And I had to really think internally at that time because it was already stressed as well as the rest of the staff at that point in time with a really great manager leaving and what do we do? we feel every day is such a stressful day and overwhelmed in some way. But I really felt called to step up in that position because I felt like needed there. ⁓
Kellye Mazzoli (20:15)
Alright.
Yeah. Yeah, I was going to say you raised
your hand. so tell us a little bit about like, why did you raise your hand? What, you know, you said you you felt needed and you felt called. And I think those are important, important feelings and points to sort of reiterate. like.
Charisse Deschenes (20:32)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, we had a very strong leadership team and a very strong staff. mean, what a wonderful staff. Then and today, mean, those people I still think of on a regular basis and miss just having our conversations and our get togethers and meetings and things like that. they were there to serve and I wanted to support them in their service. And I felt that if I didn't
step up as interim who would, especially who knew the community more than we did. And I'd like to continue on that path. did, you know, under contract talk about potentially taking on that full-time management position. And they ended up going out and putting it out for, you know, for call. And I applied for that and didn't get it.
Kellye Mazzoli (21:32)
So there,
Charisse Deschenes (21:34)
So yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (21:34)
yeah. And I think importantly too is that you chose to stay after that. A lot of people, that's sort of a tough decision to make where you've been in the role, you apply for the role, and then you decide to stay. afterwards, and there were some, you took on some different roles even after the interim role as well.
Charisse Deschenes (21:41)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yes.
Kellye,
like my titles have been in Sequim was senior planner, assistant to the city manager, assistant city manager, manager, interim city manager, assistant city manager, city clerk, like slash city clerk acting kind of thing. And then deputy city manager, community and economic development director. And there was always a time where, you know, can you shift over here? Can you shift over there? Yeah, I'm happy to do so.
I did feel though, like after going through all that stress and anxiety, you know, through 2021, they brought in a new manager in November of 2021. And, know, my, my role shifted back. city clerk left. I stood in for that. But what I will say for all of this is I would, I would always say, yes, I'll do that. Yes, I'll do that. You know, I was accepting responsibilities where needed.
But also I felt like my mental and physical health started to decline with maybe just a separation from where I needed to go in my career. Or I neglected the part of me that needed that growth and expansion in order to try to stay and serve. And I found myself in a situation where my health wasn't aligning with values and
Kellye Mazzoli (23:08)
Mm-hmm.
Charisse Deschenes (23:17)
things that were going on in that organization. it was April of 2024 when I stepped away to do sabbatical. And I really thought hard and long about or long and hard about what that meant to me and who would I be if I weren't in this role right now? I thought about, well,
should I just go ahead and take another role in city management and just move on like that? And I felt like overwhelmed that I couldn't give back to communities until I really looked inward and started to heal because I didn't want to go somewhere with no energy and nothing to give and a lot of healing to do. So I thought, well, take this time.
Kellye Mazzoli (24:02)
Right?
Charisse Deschenes (24:08)
and reconnect to those important people in my life, like the family that I just talked about, and really try to redirect, you know, what is it that I wanna do in my life and how do I get my health back?
Kellye Mazzoli (24:19)
mentioned that you took a sabbatical and I say that because it's sort of a term that is tossed around a little bit here and there. I'm starting to hear it more and more. I'm starting to hear that it is written into city manager contracts more and more. ⁓ But it was very intentional for you.
Charisse Deschenes (24:34)
All
Kellye Mazzoli (24:38)
Can I get you to dive in a little bit more and tell us like, I mean, what is a sabbatical, at least in your mind? How long was it? Like, how did you do it? Like, people wanna know, like, how did you do it? Because it's so hard to step away. And you made a very intentional choice, so.
Charisse Deschenes (24:48)
Yeah.
that. Well, I,
well, I, you know, I said I'm going to give myself a year and really take the time to craft what I want to do and where I want to be my life. And at the time, I thought I would want to roll right back into city management. But what that looks like is just, you know, it's taking a mid career break. It's taking some time for yourself.
you you realize and what we went through in COVID, how for me, that was part of my decision is like so many people, you know, you think that life may be guaranteed in some way, you know, it's not, but when you see that, you know, terrible things that can happen and right in front of you, you really, you say, I got to take care of myself. And I gave myself a year so that I could be with family, take the time to
dive deep into my values and direction that I want to go in my career. And I also, you know, took the time to, to do a little hiking and get out and about. So all the fun things, all the healing things and the reconnection, that was kind of my goal. And I'm sure everyone will have a different goal in their sabbatical, but yeah, I think a lot more people doing that career, sabbatical move.
Kellye Mazzoli (26:11)
So you took, yeah, it's just fascinating. I mean, I've just, I've been hearing it more and more. I think we really ought to probably do another episode just on sabbaticals to understand if there are others out there who are taking them and what that looks like and what does it mean if it's written into your contract and has any city manager actually successfully taken one? ⁓
Charisse Deschenes (26:12)
Yeah, what other questions do you have about that?
Yeah.
Sure. Yeah, yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (26:35)
right,
and still stayed within that same organization if it's written in the contract. But for you, I mean, you took a real intentional, a whole year, and you traveled and you reconnected with family and friends and you reconnected with yourself. So what I'd like to talk about now is this shift into what you're doing today and how that still connects back to your public service roots and to all the people that you love and care about in the profession.
Charisse Deschenes (26:42)
Right.
Kellye Mazzoli (27:00)
And the name of the company that you've started is Lead from Center. And I just, I love the name. And so just wanna know, and I think our audience would like to know, like, so where are you today? So you've had your year and now what? Now where do we go?
Charisse Deschenes (27:08)
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, so at kind of the end of that year, probably not even a year, probably about nine or 10 months in, I really started thinking about how do I help person I once was. And some of the things that I was dealing with in my career at the time before I decided to leave, I really felt alone and isolated. And I was looking for someone to connect with or to help me through. And luckily, I found you for like executive coaching for sure.
Kellye Mazzoli (27:40)
Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (27:42)
But
I also felt like there was a part of me that I really needed to address that was more health centered. And I said, well, I don't know anyone out there that is trying to help serve local government employees, especially the people that are sitting in those director and leadership roles that they don't feel like there's anyone else that they can turn to, not within the organization, not externally. And you just hold a lot of things. so I thought,
I really need to serve her. I need to serve that person I once was. And so I started studying in a health coaching program through a company called MindBody Green and their foundational program helps you apply for the national board exams, which I plan to take in March, but I'm a full on coach. I've passed my exams. It was a 20 week program. Really amazing.
experience. I've met a lot of new people through that program and it focuses on health for sure but you also you know I want to connect that with health and leadership and connect back to the people that matter the most to me in my career that I wanted to serve. So the plan with Lead From Center is to do the health coaching, health coaching for leaders that kind of thing and really get that off the ground here in the next couple months.
and building the foundational pieces of that. But also there's some work obviously with you and your in City Boss coaching and creating this podcast together. We wanted to try new things. So hey, why not try to podcast? That's something that kind of inspired me. And I thought that we both have stories that we can share with others and hopefully it relates to them and that they will also.
Kellye Mazzoli (29:15)
Yeah.
Charisse Deschenes (29:26)
give us feedback and tell us, we want to hear more about this or can you cover this topic? That's what I'm hoping to gather from this experience is just also meeting new people in the field and things like that. And then, you know, roll with other partnerships with you and other people. But yeah, foundationally, that's what the goal is with Lead From Center and more to come as I get farther along with it. And I've always said, I don't know.
maybe I'll return to public service, I'll be called back to that profession. But for right now, sometimes you feel like this is where I'm supposed to be in this moment. And that's what I'm feeling is this is where I'm needed right now. And even like hearing themes from conferences that I've attended or hearing from others, things like trauma and dealing with
your health and all of the things coming out of the COVID years, I think we're still reacting to that and what opportunities or what gaps are there in service to people so that they can really function and do their work in a way that you have your health and you're supported. That's where I want to go with this.
Kellye Mazzoli (30:44)
I think that is very cool. Because I mean, with my 16 year career working in the city manager's office, I've always been on the leadership team my whole career. So I've seen firsthand all the directors, all the city managers, all the assistant city managers, and how they do over the years. And I have to say, it's sort of like when we have a budget shortfall, they always say kind of like the first thing that gets cut is training.
Charisse Deschenes (30:45)
You
Yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (31:11)
What I want
to say about like, it's like for people in leadership, especially in city management and local government, what I saw when there was a time or resource shortfall, the first thing that gets cut is the health. Like they stop doing the things that they need to do the most, you know, taking care of themselves. So I see.
Charisse Deschenes (31:34)
Yeah, yeah that's so important
too. It's taking care of yourself first, putting on your parachute. How can you serve others if you don't have the energy and it's so important. Yes.
Kellye Mazzoli (31:40)
Great.
Absolutely.
So I think this is just a really great place for you to be going. I know that there are so many executive level city leaders out there that need this sort of support. And the cool thing about it is that you understand literally where they're coming from. So you're not just another health coach. You are a health coach who really gets what's going on behind the scenes.
Charisse Deschenes (32:07)
Yeah, yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (32:09)
Like they can tell you, my goodness, my Council da da da da da. And you're gonna understand it because you've sat there, you sat in that seat. I think it's really, really neat how you're taking your experience through all of this and applying it back to the person you once were. I think that's very beautiful.
Charisse Deschenes (32:26)
Thank you, Kellye I appreciate that.
Kellye Mazzoli (32:27)
Very excited for you. Yeah.
So what I'd like to do now is start to sort of wrap up. I've got a few more questions for you. What I wanna know is in this profession, you've been in the profession for over 20 years. What gives you hope?
Charisse Deschenes (32:45)
Wow, yeah, I mean, so many things give me hope because local government professionals will.
They rally around one another and provide that support, which I think that's really important. And I was recently, I've mentioned this in other episodes, but at the Washington City County Management Association Conference, and there was a lot of talk around health and trauma and taking care of people. And they get it, they get it, they understand. Knowing what they're going through.
going, you know, what's going on in their lives, what's going on in their cities and counties. And it's getting tougher out there that there's still resilience and they're still strong. And I have hope that people will always want to serve their community and always want to get back and take that risk of helping because it's needed and because it's important work to do because it's part of their value system.
So I think that that's really, that gives me hope.
Kellye Mazzoli (33:45)
100%.
So focusing a little more on you now, what is the lasting legacy that you sort of see yourself creating or what's the impact that you want to have moving forward?
Charisse Deschenes (33:55)
you
So I want to be a support system for people, whether it be in a leadership role, in a health coaching role. You know, you hear one of the themes that I experienced in a recent at the Northwest Women's Leadership Academy Summit here again, a couple of weeks ago. was a conversation on soft skills and how important it is to connect with people and
I want to be the person that helps connect people. I want to be that person that's there to support people through the good times and the bad times and just make others stronger. And so I don't have a legacy that's a building or anything like that. I just want to be a hopeful person and support for those in our profession and elsewhere in my life. So that, you know, that next generation can be better or, you know, even if it's just a little
Kellye Mazzoli (34:43)
Yeah
Charisse Deschenes (34:56)
little nudge, know, nudge forward for someone in their career, I hope to help be that person that is a positive impact in their life.
Kellye Mazzoli (35:05)
Love it. Love it. it. Love it. ⁓ Okay, so I want to give you an opportunity. Like, let's think about this as sort of the last few pages of the book of the journey, the story of Charisse. If up to this point, you wanted to give any acknowledgments out, right? Any thank yous or anything along those lines that you want to share with the audience because, you you talk a lot about support.
Charisse Deschenes (35:07)
Thank you.
Kellye Mazzoli (35:31)
We don't get here alone, and so I bet you have a few.
Charisse Deschenes (35:34)
Yeah. I mean, there's so many people, the point case in point, like how do we get where we are today? And it isn't without the help of others to support you. And there are so many people throughout my career that have been supportive and helped me, you know, into a role or just build, you know, developing my skills and even confidence building from, you know,
my early, early days with people like Susan Sherman and Kyle Maris and just, you those people that really big supporters. And, you know, recently Charlie Bush was a city manager that I worked with. It really helped give me a lot of support through, you know, doing leadership by ICMA and the Women's Leadership Academy and supporting that growth.
And then the people in the Women's Leadership Academy that created it. you know, there's just so many people that I feel like I'm not saying names, but you know who you are. You've made an impact on my life. And I really appreciate all of that support throughout my career. And I really give a shout out to those people that have worked with me as staff as well, because they help you grow. They give you, you know, if you're, you're trying to connect and
have honest feedback. I've had some really honest conversations with people over the years that I really appreciate that honesty because it's not always easy to give your boss feedback. So anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kellye Mazzoli (36:57)
So, so that's great. No, no, no, no, that's really, really great.
Yeah, let's bring it full circle here. If there is one thing that you want the audience to walk away with from today, from your journey, from your story, from where you're going, anything from your past, your present, your future, what is the one thing that you hope somebody walks away with?
Charisse Deschenes (37:19)
support one another, build each other up. And I say, like personally, one thing that helps you stand tall in your own career is establishing your values and knowing what those are and knowing what you're willing to do and what you're willing not to do and understanding that about yourself. Because when things get really hard in your career and you know, hey,
this is who I am, this isn't in alignment with me, that makes it easier for you to make a decision on what your next role might be or your next step. So yeah, really know who you are. Get to know you, get to know what you value and what you want to be and who you want to be.
Kellye Mazzoli (37:55)
them.
Yes. And I can say because I know you so well personally that you are a living, breathing example of being that person who knows who you are and coming back to that person. So I just want to say, Charisse, thank you for being willing to be unmuted today to share your journey with everyone out there. I think that they'll learn so much. And I'm looking forward to seeing all the things that we get to put together. Thank you.
Charisse Deschenes (38:26)
Thanks, Kellye. Thanks for being such an amazing host/co-host today.
