Thanks to a $3.1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed has established an “Innovation Delivery Team” to work on improving customer service for city residents as well as to help reduce chronic homelessness.
Kristin Canavan Wilson has been tapped to serve as the new director of Atlanta’s Innovation Delivery Team. When Reed has spoken about establishing this initiative, he said he wanted to hire a “super star.”
Wilson has been serving as vice president of market planning at LexisNexis in Alpharetta. Her responsibilities included the management of overall strategy, implementation, product marketing and management for small-to-medium sized businesses and consumer segments.
She has been managing about $50 million in revenue for LexisNexis Risk Solutions division. She also helped coordinate the overall integration of the $4.1 billion acquisition of ChoicePoint by LexisNexis in 2008.
In her new role at the City of Atlanta, Wilson will work on improving the customer service experience of residents and business owners who interact with the city.
She also will work on seeking housing and employment solutions for the city’s homeless population, many of whom suffer from substance abuse as well as physical and mental illnesses. She will work with the community and across city government departments to help the city execute those priorities.
“Ms. Wilson’s experience managing multi-million dollar acquisitions and strategic projects make her an ideal candidate to lead the City of Atlanta’s new Innovation Delivery Team,” Reed said in a statement. “Her strong corporate background will be an asset to the city as we seek to improve business functions and efficiency across the city and make real progress on the issue of chronic homelessness.”
Wilson said that the new Innovation Delivery Team approach “will have a positive impact on our city for years to come.” She added that she is honored to be working with the mayor and the City of Atlanta on these efforts.
Before joining LexisNexis, Wilson was a senior project leader at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman) in strategy and strategy implementation.
She holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA in Engineering from Dartmouth College. She also is a high school graduate of Marist School in Atlanta, GA, and active in the Atlanta community, most recently serving on the board of Atlanta Women’s Foundation, whose mission is to end the generational cycle of poverty in metro-Atlanta.
Joining Wilson on the team will be Susan Lampley, who will serve as Innovation Project Officer for the homelessness priority. Lampley had been serving as president of Providence Consulting, and she helped lead many non-profit and community organizations in developing and implementing strategies for delivering community services.
Lampley co-chaired Responsible Relocation Task Force with Atlanta Housing Authority that relocated 420 households as part of a Hope VI redevelopment grant. Prior to Providence Consulting, Lampley also was vice president of Community Investment and vice president of Area Development with United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta.
She holds an MBA from Northwestern University and is a graduate of the University of Maryland. Lampley is a strong member of the Atlanta community, including roles as treasurer of Impact United Methodist Church and serves on the board of the youth organization ‑ Raising Expectations.
Atlanta was one of five cities selected by Bloomberg Philanthropies in July to receive Innovation Delivery Team grants. The other grant recipients were: Chicago, Louisville, Memphis and New Orleans.
The Innovation Delivery Team grants are part of the Mayors Project at Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Mayors Project aims to spread proven or promising ideas between cities, replicating innovative programs, policies, and leadership strategies that solve pressing challenges and position municipal government to create greater impact.
The City of Atlanta’s Innovation Delivery Team is being established as the situation on the Peachtree-Pine homeless shelter operated by the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless is coming to a head.
The shelter, which has been housing between 500 and 800 men each night, could soon face a change of management depending on upcoming court decisions.
The Regional Commission on Homelessness, which was established by previous Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and is a collaborative effort done in partnership with the United Way of Metro Atlanta, has put together a plan to help in the transition of management at the shelter.
