Katie Babits graduated in 2012 with an MPA focused in Local Government Management. She recently joined the City of Eugene Oregon’s City Manager’s Office as a Human Rights and Equity Analyst. A large piece of this work entails supporting the City’s Human Rights Commission by coordinating their meetings, managing their budget, and facilitating work group meetings, among other things.
The Office of Human Rights and Neighborhood Involvement offers a Rights Assistance Program to residents of Eugene, which provides people with information, resources and referrals to community members. Specifically, the office helps people who have experienced discrimination or harassment based on a protected class in the areas of housing, employment, or public accommodation. The analyst work collaborates with similar roles in public agencies throughout the metro area to plan events to discuss topics affecting underserved and underrepresented populations and remove barriers in navigating public processes.
Katie also tracks hate and bias incidents in the city which do not escalate to the level of official crimes. Annually, Katie works with the Eugene Police Department to create a report combining the hate and bias crimes and incidents and presents the information compared to previous years to City Council and the community.
Previously, Katie has worked in the human resources sector of public agencies, managed professional development programs, dabbled in communication and public engagement, and risk management.
She also is on the management team for Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL) a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect professionals throughout the local government profession, communicating information to empower smarter creativity, and educate people on trends and proactive solutions.