Christy Pruitt-Haynes | Speaker 

Christy Pruitt-Haynes, SPHR, is a TEDx speaker, strategic HR executive, DEI strategist, and founder of Christy Pruitt-Haynes Consulting, bringing more than 25 years of C-suite-level expertise in human resources, organizational effectiveness, and culture transformation. She now serves as the Human Resources Manager for the Metro Nashville Department of Emergency Communications.  A sought-after keynote speaker and regular contributor to Forbes, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Business Insider, and CNN Business, Christy helps organizations build the kind of high-performing, inclusive cultures where people and profits thrive. Her signature approach: every situation can be improved with a lot of logic, a little humor, and a healthy dose of real-world expertise.

Session: You Answer for Everyone.  Who Anwers for You?

Dr. Mariya Leyderman | Speaker

Dr. Mariya Leyderman is the Executive Director of Behavioral Health for the City of Louisville and a licensed psychologist with expertise in behavioral health systems, trauma, resilience, crisis response, and organizational well-being. In her role with the Mayor's Office, she leads initiatives focused on improving community behavioral health outcomes while supporting collaborative solutions across healthcare, public safety, housing, and social service systems. Dr. Leyderman is a passionate advocate for helping professionals and believes that sustainable public service begins with caring for the well-being of the people who serve others every day. 

Every day, public service professionals answer calls from individuals experiencing frustration, fear, crisis, confusion, and loss. Whether serving in a 311 center, customer service office, utility department, or another public-facing role, these professionals often become the emotional first stop for community members seeking help. While organizations frequently focus on customer satisfaction and operational performance, far less attention is given to the cumulative impact these interactions can have on the people providing the service.

Dr. Mariya Leyderman, Executive Director of Behavioral Health for the City of Louisville and a licensed psychologist, will explore the psychological realities of caring professions and the unique challenges faced by public servants who spend their days helping others solve problems. Drawing from her expertise in behavioral health, trauma, resilience, and human behavior, Dr. Leyderman will discuss how chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma can develop gradually, often masquerading as normal workplace stress.

Session: Building Resilience in Public Service 

Participants will learn practical, evidence-informed strategies to strengthen resilience while maintaining the empathy and dedication that brought them into public service. Rather than focusing solely on self-care as another task on an already full to-do list, this session will encourage attendees to rethink resilience as a daily practice of boundaries, connection, purpose, and psychological well-being.
Attendees will leave with a renewed appreciation for the impact of their work, a deeper understanding of the importance of caring for themselves and their teams, and several actionable tools they can immediately apply to support both personal wellness and workplace culture.

Key Talking Points:
• Recognize the signs of chronic stress, burnout, compassion fatigue, and secondary trauma.
• Understand why helping professionals are particularly vulnerable to emotional exhaustion.
• Identify practical strategies for maintaining resilience without sacrificing compassion and service.
• Learn simple techniques to reset during difficult interactions and challenging workdays.
• Explore ways leaders and peers can foster psychologically healthy workplace cultures.

Billy Fields | Speaker

During his more than 35 year career with Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Billy Fields has covered a lot of territory through a variety of assignments.

Fields has served on the staff of the Nashville Mayors since 1987 beginning with Bill Boner, Phil Bredesen, Bill Purcell, Karl Dean, Megan Barry, David Briley and John Cooper.  The roles ranged from Special Assistant to the Mayor to Director of the Office Neighborhoods, to Coordinator of the Mayor’s New American Advisory Committee to director of disaster relief for tornadoes in 1998 and floods in 2010.

In Metropolitan Government Departmental roles, Fields served in Codes and Building Safety, Juvenile Court, Public Works and Transportation.  In addition, Fields served as the district administrator and press secretary in the Fifth District United States Congressional Office from 1986 until 1988.

Before joining government, Fields served as Director of News and Information for Kentucky Wesleyan College, as a writer for the Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle as well as editor of the Robertson Herald newspaper in Springfield, Tennessee.

In the Nashville community, Fields is active as the founding chair of the Board of the Neighborhoods Resource Center and is Chair Emeritus of the Nashville Neighborhood Alliance. He has served as a board member of several neighborhood associations. He is a community volunteer for the YMCA, Boy Scouts of America, the Community Foundation, the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce as well as other civic groups including the American Cancer Society, Rebuild Together Nashville. He is an alumnus of Leadership Nashville.

Politics has been a part his life since his youth Goodlettsville working on campaigns for all levels of office from city councils to Mayors to Governors and even Presidents.  Fields is Chairman Emeritus of the Davidson County Democratic Party.

Fields is a graduate of Goodlettsville High School, Volunteer State Community College and holds a bachelor’s degree from Austin Peay State University as well as master’s degree from Western Kentucky University.
 A native of Goodlettsville, Fields was a fixture in Historic East Nashville where he served in various leadership roles including Chair of the East Nashville Caucus, a neighborhood activist organization. He also was a founding member and later Chair of the East (Nashville) Area Business Council. 

In 2018, he and his wife Donna moved to Wilder Mountain on the Cumberland Plateau where she is raising thousands of pounds of vegetables for Meals on Wheels for their church.  The Fields, who were married in 1982, attend Connell Memorial United Methodist Church where he has taught Sunday School for more than 30 years. In addition, Fields serves on the Advisory Board and is a mission coordinator for Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, an agency of the United Methodist Church.

Fields stills finds time to enjoy his Sherlockian Friends as a member of the Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem and the Nashville Fresh Rashers.

Session: The One Thing That Never Changed: Four Decades of Building Trust One Citizen at a Time

Rikki Benjamin | Speaker

Rikki Benjamin serves as the Customer Relations Manager for 311 for the City of Aurora, Illinois, a vibrant and growing community of more than 200,000 residents. In her role, Rikki is dedicated to connecting residents with city services, helping address community concerns, and ensuring Aurora residents have a positive and responsive experience when engaging with their local government.

Rikki’s career with the City of Aurora began in 2013 shortly after she moved to Aurora from Knoxville. A graduate with a degree in Business with a focus in Sport Management, Rikki initially joined the City as a seasonal employee in the Property Standards division. What began as a seasonal position quickly developed into a long-term career dedicated to serving the Aurora community.

Over the course of her career, Rikki has gained extensive experience across several areas of municipal government. She has worked in Code Enforcement and Permitting as a clerk, served as a Property Standards Inspector, and later became an Office Manager overseeing permitting and licensing operations. These roles provided her with a broad understanding of city services, municipal processes, and the needs of residents and businesses.

Today, as Customer Relations Manager for 311, Rikki brings together her years of front-line municipal experience, knowledge of city operations, and commitment to customer service. Her background allows her to understand both the resident’s perspective and the behind-the-scenes processes necessary to effectively connect people with the right city resources.

Rikki is passionate about making local government more accessible, responsive, and customer-focused. Through 311, she works to strengthen the connection between the City of Aurora and the community it serves

Member-Led Breakout Session:  Problem Solving: Bring Your Challenge, Share Your Solution

Every organization has those problems that seem to have no easy answer—staffing challenges, difficult processes, technology issues, communication gaps, customer frustrations, competing priorities, and everything in between. This interactive session, led by Rikki Benjamin, Customer Relations Manager for the City of Aurora, is an opportunity to put those challenges on the table and learn from colleagues who may have faced something similar.

Come prepared to ask questions, share ideas, and offer practical advice based on your own experience.
No formal presentation and no one-size-fits-all answers—just AGCCP members helping AGCCP members solve real-world customer service challenges.

Come with a problem. Leave with possibilities.

Cody Ashbaugh | Speaker

With 16 years of experience in emergency services, Cody Ashbaugh brings a strong operational background to the field of Public Safety Information Technology. Beginning a career as a dispatcher and now specializing in system architecture, integration, and implementation, he combines real-world public safety experience with technical expertise to support mission-critical operations. A certified Emergency Number Professional (ENP), Cody has participated in multiple emergency management deployments, including response efforts for the Mayfield tornado and Eastern Kentucky flooding. In addition, he has spoken at several national conferences, sharing insights on public safety technology and emergency communications.

Jeni Richard | Speaker

Jeni Richard has been proud to call Nashville home since 2005 and has built her career around a deep commitment to public service and supporting her community. Her passion for helping others began with five years in the field of early childhood intervention, followed by nearly a decade with Metro Nashville Public Schools where she gained a firsthand understanding of the needs of community members.
Before joining hubNashville as its Community Liaison, Jeni was an enthusiastic user of the system herself, giving her a unique perspective on the resident experience. Today, she enjoys bringing that perspective to her work, collaborating with call center agents, partner departments, and community members to help make government services more accessible and responsive.
 
At the heart of Jeni’s work is a simple belief: every interaction is an opportunity to make a difference—one person, one phone call, and one request at a time. That same commitment extends to her belief in helping the helper. As a strong advocate for self-care and wellness, Jeni believes taking care of yourself is an essential part of being able to care for others. Her approach to wellness is to keep it practical and approachable.  It doesn't have to be intimidating or difficult; rather it should be about finding simple, meaningful ways to make self-care fit into a busy day so we can show up as the best versions of ourselves, both at work and in life.

Member-Led Breakout Session: Wellness in the Workday: Helping the Helper

Wellness doesn't have to be complicated, expensive or time-consuming. Small moments of self-care throughout the workday can help us reset, refocus, and be at our best when helping others. 

Chris Seidt | Speaker 

Chris Seidt serves as Chief Information Officer for Louisville Metro Government, where he leads the technology strategy and operations supporting more than 40 Metro agencies and the residents they serve. Since assuming the CIO role in 2018, he has guided Louisville through a broad modernization of its technology environment, strengthened its cybersecurity posture, expanded cloud adoption, and built a nationally recognized technology organization grounded in a “People First” mission.
Throughout his 24-year city career, Chris has focused on using technology to make government more effective, resilient, and responsive while building strong teams capable of sustaining change. His leadership approach combines long-term strategy with practical execution, emphasizing investments that solve real operational problems, improve the experience of employees and residents, and deliver lasting public value.

Chris is leading Louisville’s practical adoption of artificial intelligence, including the hiring of a Chief AI Officer, the establishment of enterprise governance and responsible-use standards, workforce education, and targeted AI projects designed to improve government services and employee productivity. He advocates for an approach to AI that balances innovation with human oversight, security, privacy, accountability, and public trust.

Chris also serves as Past President of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA), which advances the interests of local governments in broadband, telecommunications, cable, and communications policy. He is also President of the Board for the Metropolitan Information Exchange (MIX), a national peer network through which technology executives from major metropolitan governments share strategies, address common challenges, and advance the use of technology in public service.

Chris has been married to his wife Shannon for 24 years, and has two kids, Mason and Finn.

Session: The Tools Have Changed.  The Mission Hasn't.

From the dispatch center to the age of artificial intelligence, the tools of public service have changed dramatically and are accelerating at a rapid pace, but the mission remains the same: Helping people feel heard and supported. Drawing on two plus decades in government technology and service delivery, this keynote explores what has changed, what has not, and how AI can improve the customer experience of government without losing the human connection at its center.

Kennedy Hayes | Polimorphic | Speaker 

Kennedy Hayes is a Senior Solutions Consultant at Polimorphic, where she helps state and local governments put AI to work for their communities. Before moving into technology, Kennedy worked inside government itself, planning projects for the Chicago Department of Transportation and supporting the City of Chicago's Department of Planning and Development, giving her a firsthand understanding of the operational challenges public agencies face.

Session: From the Other Side of the Counter: What Government Actually Needs from AI  

Spoiler: It's not to replace teams. Every contact center runs on knowledge that lives in people's heads, and it walks out the door with every retirement. Kennedy has sat on both sides of the table: former public sector employee and now helping agencies put AI to work. This session covers how agencies capture what their best agents know, connect it to the systems they already use, and give staff AI that backs them up instead of pushing them out.

Amanda Cyr | Just Appraised | Speaker 

Amanda partners with public sector leaders to drive community impact through better tools and processes. At AchieveIt, she helped agencies improve organizational accountability and visibility. Her time at OpenGov focused on cloud-based solutions for Southeast communities in budgeting, permitting, and procurement. At Just Appraised, she helps modernize property assessment workflows to ensure fairness for local jurisdictions. Amanda remains committed to supporting the public servants who keep our communities running. In her spare time, she enjoys following Auburn football

Session: Five tools, one resident: fixing government's channel overload

Residents now expect to reach government via phone, text, web form, social media, chatbot, and walk-in — and staff can't keep up with fragmented systems. We will discuss the operational and morale cost of context-switching between five tools to answer one resident.

Travis Noll | Just Appraised | Speaker 

Travis graduated from Stanford with degrees in Management Science and Engineering and an MBA. During his time at Stanford, he served as captain of the water polo team and COO of Stanford Student Enterprises, managing a $2M P&L. After graduation, he worked in strategy consulting focused on healthcare and pharmaceuticals. Travis is co-founder of Just Appraised and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, having previously called San Francisco, Seattle, New York City, and Buenos Aires home. He enjoys reading science fiction and fantasy novels and spending time outdoors

Session: Five tools, one resident: fixing government's channel overload

Residents now expect to reach government via phone, text, web form, social media, chatbot, and walk-in — and staff can't keep up with fragmented systems. We will discuss the operational and morale cost of context-switching between five tools to answer one resident.

Robert Bailey | UpZoid | Speaker 

Robert Bailey is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform consultant with over 15 years of experience in technical development, functional design, and solution architecture. As Functional Practice Lead at Upzoids, he has led the delivery of complex municipal solutions, including 311 and citizen engagement projects for cities across North America.

Session: Modernizing citizen services with Microsoft - 311/City Services

What if your 311 system could do more than simply manage requests? See how UpCITY 365 uses Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power Platform, automation, and AI to connect citizens, staff, and services in one modern platform. We’ll showcase how municipalities can simplify service requests, improve staff visibility, automate everyday processes, and create better experiences from first contact to resolution.

Anesh Mistry | MuniPaaS | Speaker 

Anesh Mistry is the Managing Director of MuniPaaS Corporation, a Salesforce consulting firm focused exclusively on local government. Before founding MuniPaaS in 2020, he developed customer experience strategy at the City of Toronto and the Region of Peel, work that shaped how MuniPaaS approaches municipal service delivery from day one. Since founding the company, he has led implementations of 311, citizen engagement, and case management systems for more than 50 municipal and county clients across Canada and the United States. Anesh remains hands-on in delivery, design, configuration, and building strong client relationships rather than managing from a distance, and he speaks regularly on how municipalities can modernize service delivery.

Session: AI That Works: Practical Wins for Municipal Customer Service

Where AI can save staff time, improve service-request handling, and help residents get answers faster in municipal customer service and 311 operations.

AI promises a lot. Which capabilities actually deserve a place in your municipality’s customer service operation? 

This practical session cuts through the hype to explore three high-value applications: turning calls into transcripts and clear case summaries, helping route service requests to the right department, and answering routine resident questions before they become calls. The focus is not on replacing staff, it is on reducing repetitive work so they can spend more time helping residents.

Drawing on experience working with more than 50 municipal clients, Anesh Mistry will explain what is ready for a government environment today, where human oversight remains essential, and what a municipality needs in place before getting started.

Attendees will leave knowing where to start, what to measure, and which AI promises to question.