Today I will begin a new chapter – and I’m looking forward to it.

It has been rewarding to serve as the City of Houston’s Chief Recovery and Resilience Officer. And to work on important projects aimed at making Houston safer for everyone. The task of enhancing the resilience of this region is not an easy one and I’m handing it off to a good team. Today is my last day in the job but the work of my life continues. I will be consulting again, going where I am invited – to all the troubled and devastated places – the places where we often painfully rediscover our shared humanity.

I’m proud and happy to have been able to set up the Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resilience to focus in a grounded way on the practical aspects of resilience that matter most to Houston residents.

Scoping and scaling the effort to procure and install generators at crucial city locations and prioritizing places of refuge was a central focus after years of seeing that responsibility overlooked. It’s a tough project and a costly one. But real progress can only be made when directly facing the true size and scope of a challenge. There are more battles to fight on that front but there are dedicated professionals at the city who will do that.

Creating a roundtable of partners – those people and institutions crucial for response and recovery and making sure we understood one another and the best ways to work together was deeply rewarding. Allowing community to set our agenda and priorities is always an excellent starting place for improving any system. Thank you to everyone who stepped up to the challenges of meaningful collaboration. You’re my forever peeps.

I’m very grateful to all my coworkers at the city who patiently explained all manner of basic things to me in order to help me be of service. I appreciate the Mayor and his team for letting me help Houston.

To all my friends and family –

I’ll be answering your calls and texts promptly again. Thanks for loving me even when I’m monumentally distracted and somewhat neglectful. 

                        Love –

                        Angela

PS: Oh, my goodness y’all. No, I didn’t get fired. It was just time to go.