by brandirichardthompson | May 22, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Federal Service & Public Policy
Every year, on the last Monday of May, we pause. We fire up grills and set out lawn chairs. We drive to lakes and gather in backyards. We say “Happy Memorial Day” to each other in ways that would have confused the people who created it, because there is...
by brandirichardthompson | May 5, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Federal Service & Public Policy
On April 29, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that effectively gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In plain language: the legal tool that has protected the voting power of communities of color for six...
by brandirichardthompson | Apr 7, 2026 | Crisis Leadership, Federal Service & Public Policy
I want to tell you something that took me 20 years in federal service to fully understand, and a front-row seat to what’s happening in Washington right now to finally say out loud. Most Americans are operating with a dangerous assumption about emergency...
by brandirichardthompson | Mar 9, 2026 | Crisis Leadership, Federal Service & Public Policy
What Crisis Response Reveals About Who You Actually Are There’s a principle in emergency management that doesn’t get taught in leadership books. It’s called the 72-hour window — the period after a disaster when outside help cannot be assumed and when...
by brandirichardthompson | Feb 16, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Federal Service & Public Policy
In 1863, a man named William Cooper Nell walked into the Boston Custom House and sat down at a clerk’s desk. It doesn’t sound revolutionary. But Nell was Black. He was the first known Black civilian federal employee. And that quiet, unremarkable act — a...
by brandirichardthompson | Feb 9, 2026 | Courage & Culture, Federal Service & Public Policy
600,000 Jobs Lost. A 7.5% Unemployment Peak. And a Pattern America Has Seen Before. A crisis doesn’t always announce itself with a headline. Sometimes it shows up quietly — in data tables, in unemployment duration charts, in the slow disappearance of women who...
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