Fish Fellowship in Civic Leadership

Established in 2016, The Fish Fellowship in Civic Leadership is presented annually to a Teach For America alum interested in exploring civil service. The Fish Fellowship provides a full-time position with a competitive salary (including benefits) with a department in the City and County of San Francisco.

The Fish Fellowship provides the unprecedented opportunity for an alumnus in the Bay to directly immerse themselves in civil service. The yearlong fellowship will enable an aspiring civic leader to make high-impact change through in San Francisco — specific governmental department to be determined in the spring. The Fish Fellowship salary is approximately $92k annualized.

Abilities and Skills

• Conduct Surveys and perform routine research
• Collect, research and analyze data
• Interact with departmental personnel to obtain and furnish information on budget/grants, contracts, legislative and procedural matters
• Prepare and write reports and proposals
• Utilize computers for word-processing, databases, Internet, e-mail and various spreadsheet software

Knowledge 

• Principles and processes of finance, accounting, budgeting, contracts and the legislative process
• Practices and principles of administrative and management techniques

Past Experiences

• Experience in budget analysis, financial analysis and reporting, legislative/policy analysis, data analysis or contract/grant administration

Application Process/Timeline

• March 15 – Application Opens
• April 5 – Application Closes
• April 11 – April 25 – First Round Video Interviews
• Early May – Early June – Final round Interviews
• June – Early July – Finalists interview with the City of San Francisco
• Mid July – Late July – Fellow selected
• Aug – City pre-enrollment paperwork and appointment process
• Sept – New Fellow Starts

The 2020 Fish Fellow Daniel Fuchs leads at the Public Utilities Commission. As the Fish Fellow, Daniel has a unique opportunity to think about equitable, sustainable environmental efforts in city of San Francisco that involve public bonds.

Daniel helps influence what will happen at the cross-section of finance and environment to ensure a safe, long-term place for kids and families to learn, live, and work all over the city.

The 2019 Fish Fellow Divya Gopal leads at the Human Rights Commission, a department that works in conjunction with Mayor London Breed’s office. As the Fish Fellow, Divya has a unique opportunity to execute on the mayor’s vision for what human rights should look like in city of San Francisco.

Divya currently oversees Opportunities for All – the mayor’s youth workforce initiative launching summer 2019. She influences employers as they think about what it means to work with kids from our communities and prepare to take on interns from all over the city.

The 2017 Fish Fellow Christopher Maldonado led through addressing the challenge of homelessness in the San Francisco community through the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). HSH has the mission of making homelessness rare, brief, and onetime in San Francisco. Created in the summer of 2016, HSH brings the full spectrum of City services for individuals, veterans and families experiencing homelessness – from street outreach to shelter to permanent supportive housing- into a single, unified department.

These services are primarily provided through the allocation of $180 million a year in contracts to non-profit direct service providers across the City. HSH is tasked with creating a coordinated system of care so that every client is matched with the resources and interventions that best support them in exiting homelessness. HSH’s goal is to move 8,000 individuals out of homelessness in the next four years by being smart, strategic, and creative.

Jason Fish led the Teach For America Bay Area Board as its chairman for ten years, from 2006 to 2016. In that time period, the board composition changed and more than doubled in size. It is now more diverse and more effective than it has ever been, having expanded its oversight role with dramatically positive effect on our organization.

During Jason’s tenure, we more than tripled the size of our network of corps members, local alumni and regional staff. We increased the effectiveness of our teachers in the classroom and expanded our impact in schools and districts through our alumni activities. Jason brought an understanding of – and passion for – what it takes both to increase the opportunity for educational equity in the Bay Area, and to build Teach For America Bay Area into a strong, self-sustaining organization.