Ryan loves to bring his passion for public service and his relentless drive for improvement together to help the government provide better services to its staff and citizens.

In 2022, he co-founded Partners in Public Innovation, whose mission is to transform public service by building a culture of continuous improvement.

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Before founding PPI, Ryan served as Innovation Director for Unleashing Leaders, leading teams of change agents to build the capacity of state and local public agencies to solve problems and improve customer service. 

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For five years, Ryan directed the City Performance Lean Program, San Francisco’s citywide program in process improvement. Under Ryan’s leadership, the Lean Program trained over 700 staff, coached dozens of leaders to independently plan and implement major improvement projects, produced hundreds of rapid improvements, and facilitated improvements in areas as diverse as park maintenance, benefits administration, and hiring.

During San Francisco’s COVID-19 response, Ryan used his process improvement expertise to stabilize the City’s COVID testing infrastructure, improve time-to-result, and efficiently allocate a limited supply of test kits.

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Ryan holds a Master’s degree in Sociology from Stanford University and a Master’s in Public Policy from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School. He is a Lean Black Belt, Certified Six Sigma Black Belt, Agile Scrum Master, and a Project Management Professional (PMP). He makes a mean mai tai.

Melanie Palacios, PPI Co-founder, Operations Director, and Project Manager, not only keeps PPI's administrative gears turning but also manages PPI project work in the social services sector, where she has extensive experience both as a direct service provider and a program manager. 

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Melanie brings over a decade of experience in community-based mental health and evaluation, 
to her work, with a specialty in early childhood and improving equitable access to mental health services. Her leadership roles have included clinical and administrative supervision, quality control, evaluation and reporting, and coordinating with stakeholders at the local and state levels. In 2021, Melanie launched and implemented California's statewide crisis hotline and mobile response network for foster youth and caregivers in close collaboration with the state Department of Social S

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She has worked with 

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focused on diverting youth in mental health crisis from hospitalization or law enforcement contact. Melanie provided clinical oversight and worked with partners to establish referral pathways to best serve clients in acute and sub-acute crisis. She was responsible for reporting on program outcomes to Sacramento County, utilizing data from Sacramento County’s AVATAR database, and representing the program to multiple external stakeholder groups.

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Additionally, she co-led the launch and implementation of the Cal-FURS hotline, a statewide crisis hotline for foster youth and their caregivers. Cal-FURS consists of a crisis hotline for intake and referrals, as well as localized FURS teams in each county to provide mobile crisis response with the goal of decreasing hospitalization and law enforcement contact for foster youth. Melanie worked in close collaboration with partners at the California Department of Social Services and each of California’s 58 counties. In both roles, Melanie engaged in program evaluation to ensure alignment with program outcomes. She also helped develop data structures for ongoing data management and reporting.

Tiffany Archuleta is a go-getter who drives recruitment and selection, cultural transformation, and employee development and performance through Lean methodology and data-backed initiatives.

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Prior to joining PPI, Tiffany worked in human resources across public sector agencies including the SF Public Utilities Commission, SF Muni, the SF Department of Public Health , and the City of Los Angeles.  Tiffany's work encompassed all aspects of recruitment, selection, and onboarding as well as data and strategy initiatives to drive overall agency improvement, measurement, and engagement across the employee life cycle.

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During her time at the SFPUC, Tiffany was the Lead Sr. Analyst for the SFPUC’s Lean Hiring Improvement Project, resulting in a 37% improvement in monthly hiring and a decrease of 2 months in time-to-hire; she also launched weekly hiring team huddles to increase engagement, visibility, and accountability for continuous improvement. She went on to lead projects in performance appraisal improvement that dramatically increased the amount of meaningful feedback given to staff agency-wide. Tiffany also served as the HR Lead for the SFPUC’s racial equity initiative and co-authored the agency's Racial Equity Action Plan.

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Tiffany holds a Master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and is certified in Strategic Workforce Planning from the Human Capital Institute. 

As an upstart and results oriented analyst, Cameron has over 3 years’ experience in solving critical and complex business challenges in the public sector, particularly those in process improvement and change management, contributing to the enhancement of organizational effectiveness.

He uses an agile, analytical, and data-driven approach to harmonious work environment while concurrently achieving key business objectives through the implementation of tangible strategies and
measures.

His diverse areas of expertise include business process improvement efforts, organizational change management, crisis management, assessing and
improving operating models, division and program wide communications, enhance operational efficiency, streamline processes, and ensure a smooth transition to modernized systems.

Justine Hinderliter, PPI Principal and Co-founder, lives to empower teams to solve their problems and transform their daily work lives for the better.  She develops and delivers dynamic workshops and coaching to state and local public servants to equip them to succeed in any change initiative—big or small. 

Before founding PPI, Justine served as the Chief People Officer for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) where she led all People functions, strategy, and agency-wide initiatives. After years of working in the City’s needlessly confusing and bureaucratic processes, she knew that to achieve better results within these processes, her teams needed to break away from “how things were always done.”  Through a comprehensive Lean process improvement initiative, she transformed her 100+ person team into a goal-achieving, data-driven, and problem-solving powerhouse.  By embracing a continuous improvement mindset, the hiring teams improved the time-to-hire by 2 months and increased the agency’s monthly hires by nearly 40%.  

After leaving San Francisco, Justine joined a Sacramento-based consulting firm as Associate Director of Innovation, supporting transformation efforts at the Marin Superior Court, the California Department of Real Estate, and a variety of local governments and school districts.

Justine holds a JD degree from University of San Francisco School of Law and is a member of the California and Minnesota State Bars.  She is a certified PROSCI Change Practitioner and holds a certificate in Strategic Workforce Planning with the Human Capital Institute.  When she’s not coaching her fantastic clients on their road to becoming impactful change agents and leaders, you can find her on her farm and regenerating the earth—one goat, sheep, and chicken at a time.

Jenessa brings her passion for team building, coaching, and facilitating to empower and drive workers at all levels to make innovative change. Having 7 years of training and experience in Lean, Six Sigma, Agile & Scrum, Jenessa brings her variety of experience in both the public and private sector to meet folks where they are. Leading with her empathy for others, she is energized by working closely with those who do the work every day in order to improve processes and encourage a culture where innovation thrives.   

As a core member of San Francisco's City Performance Lean Team, Jenessa helped to build a robust program teaching City and County workers Lean Process Improvement tools while simultaneously working on projects with agencies.

For 5 years, she led hundreds of staff through introductory and advanced process improvement training, built strong partnerships, and facilitated improvement efforts across a variety of functions including park maintenance and hiring processes.

Outside of the public sector, Jenessa has worked in the biotech industry, improving Environment, Health, & Safety processes, tracking regulations, and developing a mature culture of process improvement in her organizations. 

Jenessa holds a background in Business Administration and Management, and is a Lean Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and Agile Scrum Master certifications.

Erin Todoki has over twelve years of process improvement and professional development experience with various University of California campuses.  By acting as a liaison between Senior Leadership and the frontlines Erin has led forums for stakeholders to discuss organizational challenges, identify smaller groups to implement new tactics and measure any improvement.  She has also co-taught Lean classes and helps attendees to apply their new tools to address needs within their own areas.  She most recently served as a Project Manager for the Center for Nursing Education and Innovation (CNEI) -University of California, San Francisco focusing on nursing continuous improvement needs such as prevention of hospital acquired conditions and patient falls by using A3 Lean methodology. 

Erin has a BA in English from the University of California, Berkeley and a Masters in Public Health Administration from University of San Francisco.  In her spare time she enjoys crafts, gardening, baking and fostering kittens.

Devta Kidd is a seasoned professional with a passion for fostering collaboration and innovation across various sectors including IT, healthcare, higher education, local government, public safety, and federal government.

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She has a strong background in positive organization development and change management, leading teams through continuous improvement and transformative endeavors with empathy and excellence.

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Devta notably established the City of Bloomington Indiana’s inaugural Innovation Program, leveraging Lean process improvement, human-centered design, and change management to drive significant efficiencies and cost savings. Her strategic initiatives in healthcare and IT have enhanced operational efficiency and fostered a culture of continuous improvement.

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Devta holds a Masters in Positive Organization Development and Change from Case Western Reserve University, alongside multiple certifications in change management, innovation, and Lean Process Improvement. She is committed to personal and organizational growth, with a focus on developing inclusive and effective strategies for change.