Susan Brooks - A Representative
I
f all you knew about Susan
Brooks was that she was a
cheerleader in high school,
plays tennis, does yoga, has been a
lawyer since 1984 and a member of
Congress since 2013, you could be
forgiven for thinking that she is all
about winning cases and elections,
and couldn't possibly understand
the plight of ordinary Hoosiers. But
of course you would be so wrong.
This becomes clear when you know
the rest of the story, principally that
her family tradition of public
service and middle class values has
forged a career that is centered on
making a difference in the world
around her. Her father, mother,
sister, aunt and uncles served as
public school teachers, coaches,
administrators and generally
dedicated public servants. It is a
tradition that she continues, along
with the belief that it is possible to
make a difference by caring.
Many of us assume that most
successful people have moved
through their careers by having in
mind a specific series of job
assignments with ever-increasing
levels of responsibility and skill.
But Susan Brooks did not have a
set plan for climbing the career
ladder, nor did she map out what
each step should look like. Instead
she always kept her options open,
and chanced it when she was asked
to take on a potentially more
influential role. She began her
professional life in criminal law,
helping individuals who found
themselves in the court system for
the first time, charged with crimes
that fell into the drugs-alcohol-sex
categories, and who were at a loss
on how to proceed. Many of those
clients were middle class family
types, and Brooks was not only able
to help them, but ultimately found
it to be a nurturing kind of law
practice.
She was then asked to serve as
Deputy Mayor of Indianapolis by
Mayor Goldsmith administration
with a special focus on public safety
issues. The city had recorded 162
homicides the year prior to her
taking office, and looking back on
that time, she is very proud of the
programs that she helped to
develop to reduce violent crime in
the city – in particular, the
Indianapolis Violence Reduction
Partnership, a multi-agency
collaboration designed to curb
homicide, gun assaults, and armed
robberies. When in 2005 she saw
that the IPD police district
recorded only 88 homicides, it
made her feel great to have been a
part of helping that happen.
As General Counsel for Ivy Tech
Community College from 20072011, and Senior VP of the Work
Force and Economic Development
initiative, she was instrumental in
coordinating with unemployment
offices throughout the state to
focus on getting folks back to work.
Many Indiana residents had been
laid off during the recession of
2007, including especially auto
workers and those in the RV
industry in the Elkhart area. A large
number of those - already in their
forties or fifties - were alarmingly
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