Hasta La Gadget!

President Obama meets with the first class of Presidential Innovation Fellows in the White House, Jan. 25, 2013. The redhead is me. Credit.

TL;DR: I left my tech job in Silicon Valley to work for the government, joining 18F.

“The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word “we.” We The People. We Shall Overcome. Yes We Can. It is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.”  —  President Obama in Selma

Improvement can be sweeping, or incremental. In my case, it started with a nibble in 2012 when former U.S. CTO Todd Park tweeted he was “looking for a few good women and men to serve their country” as part of a new program called the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIFs). What an honor to be part of the inaugural class of technologists coming to gov to tackle really important things. My team worked on Project MyGov (now MyUSA), where we’d been tasked with reimagining the relationship between the government and the people from a technology perspective.

Announcing the Presidential Innovation Fellows program – we’re looking 4 a few good women & men to serve their country http://t.co/ScaYXXFw

— Todd Park (@todd_park) May 23, 2012

When I returned to Intuit after that ended, there was a nagging feeling that something was missing. Sure, I loved my job working on TurboTax (and then the corporate PR team) and the people (so very much the people), and ended up being executive producer for Intuit’s first major conference last fall. #ItRocked

Yet.

Something was missing. My friend Jake Wood, co-founder and CEO of Team Rubicon, talks often about “the mission.” It’s sacred, and at the heart of what TR does: provides a mission to vets once they return to civilian life.

Some of my favorite badasses in gov: Haley Van Dyck, Todd Park, Hillary Hartley and Mikey Dickerson. #GoTeamGo U-S-A Credit.

Cut to December 2014, as I watched Todd and the gang talk about the relatively-new government startup called US Digital Services (USDS) at the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco. I couldn’t stop grinning because: 1. They were remarkable up there; and 2. I realized we PIFs had been human MVPs for this blueprint of bringing outside technologists into government. And our little lean experiment was working like gangbusters. Later that day, Todd asked me to return to gov, and I said yes on the spot, without hesitation.

Yes.

Because the mission. Which is a long way of saying that after six fantastic years at Intuit (minus the PIF six-month leave of absence) I resigned in January 2015. I left the private sector to serve my country again. Where I can do the most good for the most people. To infuse design thinking across federal government. To make the digital services the people interact with more usable, and useful. To make it easier for people to connect with their government. To influence experiences that yes, maybe even make the interactions delightful. #AspirationalFTW

In April I was thrilled to join the USDS umbrella as Deputy Director of 18F’s consulting team. During my downtime, I moved back to San Diego from San Francisco, took a mini-sabbatical, and enjoyed reconnecting with my community and friends in San Diego  –  which was great for the soul  –  as well as do some pro-bono work (also awesome for the spirit).

I’m so proud to be back in gov. As the head of USDS Mikey Dickerson said: “We have found the problems. We need the human beings. We are calling on America’s talented technologists to be part of the solution.”

Happy to be one of the human beings. And honored to be able to work on improving this great nation of ours.

Want to help? Learn more about USDS or join us at 18F, a group within the U.S. General Services Administration that builds digital services for government.

Kara DeFrias served in the first class of White House Presidential Innovation Fellows and now works at 18F Consulting. She spent years as a UX strategist, technologist, and creative working in entertainment, professional sports, and TEDx. According to her 2nd grade report card, “Kara likes to talk. A lot.” You can follow her on Twitter: @CaliforniaKara.

This article originally appeared on Medium.

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If you have turned on the news or scrolled through social media at all in the past few days, you have surely viewed the images of devastation from the earthquake in Nepal and the scenes of violence and chaos from the riots in Baltimore. It is sad and scary to know that such things are happening in our world, some of them a lot closer to home than others. Unfortunately, though, this is our reality and we cannot simply close our eyes to make it disappear.

Try as we may, it is impossible to completely shield our children from exposure to stories like these. Kids will see it as they flip through TV channels or, if they are older, as they scroll through their own social media. They may hear about it from friends or perhaps their church or school will encourage them to make a donation to help. My children came home today with a note informing parents that the school would be collecting “Nickels for Nepal” to send to the Red Cross because a teacher in the school has family in the area. We simply cannot insulate them from it entirely.

So, the question then becomes, how do we help children cope with these harsh realities?

1. Listen. When kids ask questions about what’s happening or share with you their feelings about difficult events, the most important thing we can do is listen to them and give them the opportunity to express themselves openly.

2. Remember to talk to them on an age appropriate level. We all know we can’t talk to our toddlers the same way we talk to our teenagers. When you are discussing these events with your children, keep in mind their developmental ability to understand abstract concepts, geography, and even numbers.

3. Keep it simple and follow their lead. Answer their questions, but don’t go overboard. Some children might be satisfied to just hear, “Something bad happened and some people were hurt.” Others, obviously, will ask more questions. There is no need to give kids more information than they ask for. They may come searching for more details later or they may be content with just the minimum facts.

4. Validate their feelings and reassure them. When Sandy Hook happened, one of my daughters had real anxiety about her own safety at school. I had to acknowledge that she was afraid and give her the opportunity voice her feelings rather than just casually saying,”Don’t worry. It won’t happen here.” Then, I had to reassure her that her school was doing everything it could to make sure students were safe and that the school staff would always do their best to protect her.

5. Show them how to help. Sometimes, kids struggle in these situations because they feel helpless. Empower them to take action. Help them host a lemonade stand to collect donations or go shopping with them to purchase needed relief supplies. It could even be as simple as writing a letter to someone or including the event in family prayers.

6. Finally, know when to seek professional help for your children. If you notice any of the following symptoms, it may be time to have your child talk to someone who is trained in helping them deal with anxiety and stress: unusual clinginess (i.e. never wanting to leave your side), problems with sleeping such as nightmares or bedwetting, acting out, aggression, withdrawal from normal activities, seeming to be obsessed with the event by constantly watching news clips or reading about it.

No parent wants to have to discuss events like this with their children. We all wish we lived in a world where it would never be necessary. We know, however, that is not the case, so hopefully we can utilize these strategies to prepare ourselves and help our children cope when the things we don’t want to think about become reality.

Lisa Witherspoon is a mother of three, a former teacher, and a blogger at The Golden Spoons. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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