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melissapeakacademy

Melissa Wiley manages Denver Peak Academy. Prior to leading the team, she served as a lead analyst for Denver Animal Protection (Denver Animal Shelter) and the Department of Excise and Licenses. She has taught nearly 150 courses on process improvement and data to employees throughout the City and County of Denver, within the private sector, and in local nonprofit organizations. She has been with Denver Peak Academy since 2012. She previously worked for the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the United States Department of State. She holds a Master's Degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Fels Institute of Government. In her spare time, Melissa enjoys playing guitar, yoga, trail running, and leading the Denver Animal Shelter's Jog-a-Dog volunteer program. She lives in a suburb of Denver with her husband Craig. Her mission is to infuse joy into all areas of public service.

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What Government Needs Now is Performance Management, Sweet Performance Management

How do you know if you’re on track to achieve your goals? For most of us, when it comes to our personal lives, we need some type of data. You […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on April 28, 2020

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Reimagining Local Government: Our New Mission

I’ve spent most of my career pitching, selling, pleading, inspiring, and downright begging people to innovate and fundamentally change the way government works. And I’ve met a lot of resistance. […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on April 3, 2020

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Denver Peak Academy’s 2017 Summer Intern: Nate Bradley

My name is Nathaniel Bradley III (or Nate for short), and I am a new intern here at the Denver Peak Academy. Born and raised in Aurora, Colorado, I have […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on July 6, 2017

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Building New Peaks with Mt. Pyramid Peak

  Our first April Black Belt Class, Mt. Pyramid Peak, is ready to launch some spring innovations. The 20 participants of Cohort 62 represented 8 City and County of Denver agencies […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on April 18, 2017

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It’s 2017 and Life is Good

Recently, Tom Chase, a good friend and the director of the Denver Human Services process improvement team, recommended the book Life is Good: How to Live with Purpose and Enjoy […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on March 2, 2017

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Four Months of Focusing Within: Dalton Weisshaar and the Power of Changing What We Can Control

Dalton Weisshaar attended the Peak Academy Black Belt training in July of 2016 and in just four short months, he has already completed four innovations. Those innovations have saved the […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on December 15, 2016

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Q&A with a recent Governmental Entrepreneurial Leadership Accelerator graduate, Marla Trevor

There are accelerators for tech startups (Techstars, Boomtown), startups with female leadership (MergeLane), and global social entrepreneurship (Unreasonable Institute), but there’s an important area missing: an accelerator for entrepreneurs innovating […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on August 25, 2016

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Twin Peaks

Written by Inger Brinck, City Performance, Office of the Controller, City and County of San Francisco When I joined the City and County of San Francisco in 2013, I had […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on July 5, 2016

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No Time to Be a Mentor? Here’s Why Making Time for Another Might be the Most Important Contribution You Make

Last year Peak launched a mentorship program and the results amazed us. Employees with a mentor: Identified 20% more in savings Actualized 40% more in savings One thing Peak has […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on June 13, 2016

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DEN Peak Performance Goes on a Field Trip!

By Cassie Schoon, Performance Specialist, DEN Airport Part of continuous improvement is to reach outside of one’s own immediate experience and view processes from a slightly different perspective. For myself […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on June 6, 2016

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Colorado Love: Denver Peak Academy Teaches in Loveland

Last week, Denver Peak Academy traveled to Loveland, Colorado to teach a Black Belt class to employees from Larimer County and the City of Fort Collins. The 16 students came […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on May 17, 2016

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Parks Employees Give Denver Flower Power

I first met the Denver Parks crew at Southwest Ruby Hill/Barnum last summer. I spent the day with horticulturalists Haakon Sletten and Mike Cockrell as they tended to the already […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on March 15, 2016

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We Left Our Hearts in San Francisco

This week, Peak Academy traveled to San Francisco to train 30 employees from the City of San Francisco’s Controller’s Office, City Services Auditor team. The employees conducted gemba walks in […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on February 26, 2016

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Providence Innovation Department Staff Take Peak Back to the Ocean State

Building on momentum from attending last October’s Denver Peak Academy Black Belt Class, Chief Innovation Officer Nicole Pollock returned to Providence bursting with ideas to create meaningful impacts within its […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on February 18, 2016

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Making the Greenhouse Glow: Julie Lehman and Innovations in Plants

Julie Lehman has a great job. Instead of going to an office every day, she goes to a greenhouse. Julie and her staff work to order, grow, and distribute all […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on February 3, 2016

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From DePop-a-lu-la to DePop-a-boo-ya: Changing the Library’s Circulation Process for New Books

Lisa Faliano is a senior library clerk for the books. In 2015, she saved the Denver Public Library $184,280 in soft costs through three innovations. The largest of the three […]

By melissapeakacademy Posted on February 1, 2016

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