MSSR Degree helps OHIO graduate move to next level of public service

It’s not a stretch to say Deb Steele owes her life to OHIO.

In fact, the Master of Sustainability, Security and Resilience (MSSR) Program graduate said so herself.

“My parents went to OU. I exist because of that place,” she jokes. “So to me, it’s my origin story.”

In all seriousness, Steele’s origins trace to further north, where she grew up in Minnesota’s Twin Cities area. She moved to Ohio during her sophomore year in high school and eventually graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology degree.

Like a famous literary character, Steele’s professional journey would end up being “there and back again,” as she ended up with a job as the city administrator in Mora, Minnesota, some 70 miles north of Minneapolis. That move from the Columbus area was helped by her resume-building experience earning an MSSR through the online program at the George V. Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service.

By the time she took the online course at Ohio University, she had already parlayed a career as a union, community and environmental organizer into a post as fiscal officer for Clinton Township, where she worked for more than 12 years.

“The grad program helped me make it a career,” she said.

Steele’s professional career had taken several turns as an organizer, including work for the Service Employees International Union District 1199, where her focus was on helping gain bargaining status for home health care workers – one of her earlier jobs.

Her eventual opportunity to join Clinton Township came when she stepped into a challenging situation, but she was able take on the role successfully.

While the township position was originally called “clerk,” she noted that working for a small government entity comes with a lot of chores.

“It’s just a mountain of responsibilities for being an elected position,” she said. “I really saw behind the curtain of my local municipality. Anyone will learn when you go to work for local government, there are endless things to do. You’ll never be bored.”

Following her initial appointment, Steele would go on to win two competitive elections to retain the post.

With sustainability a lifelong interest, Steele decided to seek an MSSR degree through a scholarship program sponsored by the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission while maintaining her township job.

“It matched up well with the experience I already had. I really enjoyed public service and I wanted to keep doing it,” she said. The MSSR courses “complimented my community outreach and coordinator positions pretty well, giving me more in-depth tools on how to do community assessments in more measurable ways.”

“It gave me examples of not just government organizations but also non-profits and how planning commissions can help build out more robust planning,” Steele added. “So I think it took me from my clerk experience to help me see the bigger picture of where policy is coming from and how to influence it beyond what I had learned in the advocacy realm working with the nonprofits.”

Steele would eventually decide to “move back to the state of my childhood,” where residents of Mora, a city influenced by Swedish immigrants, were somewhat puzzled.

“People were like, ‘You moved here from somewhere warmer?’” she said.

She found the administrator opening through the League of Minnesota Cities jobs portal after building out a digital network.

“That was also something I learned from the online program – how to use LinkedIn,” Steele said.

Her landing spot proved to be a match in more ways than one. Among the seasonal festivities in Mora is an annual canoe race that she has participated in.

“I’m obsessed with canoeing,” she said.

Her other interests include being an animal lover – she has five cats and two dogs as pets, and is proud to be a Bobcat.