Building a Smarter City: How UC San Diego and the City of San Diego Are Partnering to Strengthen Workforce Skills

Running a city is a lot of work. There’s trash to be picked up, roads to maintain, neighborhoods to keep safe, codes to enforce, economic prosperity to promote… And this is just the tip of the iceberg!

All the different needs and responsibilities of keeping a city’s light on (literally) takes a diverse set of employees with an ever-evolving skillset to keep things smooth and efficient. From that perspective, it makes sense that a City government would prioritize the continuous learning and development of its employees. 

“For us, professional development isn’t a perk—it’s a commitment,” said Jon Terwilliger, Deputy Director of Human Resources for the City of San Diego. “When people join the City they should know they’ll grow personally and professionally.”

With this commitment in mind, the City of San Diego launched a new workforce-training partnership with UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies and Rady School of Management in early 2024. The partnership provides City employees with access to a catalog of courses, certificate programs, and graduate-level learning opportunities, all aimed at helping employees develop their skills, modernize city operations, and deliver better service to residents.

What's taken shape is a perfect example of how university and industry collaboration can transform both people and institutions towards a culture of continuous improvement.

A City/University Partnership for Workforce Development

The training partnership provides City employees with access to hundreds of courses, certificates, and professional programs that directly support their work. For UC San Diego, the partnership brings increased enrollment in programs, while also serving the larger community-driven mission of the university. 

"Public-sector partnerships like this one are central to our mission,” explained Brandon Chavez, Associate Director of Industry Engagement & Partnership Development with Extended Studies. “We want to make university-level learning accessible to working professionals who are making an impact in San Diego right now.”

Another impetus for the initiative was an internal survey of more than 12,000 City of San Diego employees, in which 48% indicated interest in earning a professional certification or college degree. Some of the most popular subjects for City employees include project management, customer experience, process improvement (such as the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, and environmental compliance (CEQA). What makes Extended Studies an ideal partner for the City is the variety, expanse, and flexibility of subjects offered that can meet City employees where they are. 

“We’re a huge employer—upwards of 13,000 employees,” Terwilliger said. “You’ve got this big umbrella of ‘the city’ but under that are so many different lines of business, and they’re all unique. UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies hits a sweet spot—it offers short, focused programs on a variety of topics that all deliver immediate ‘on-the-job’ value for City employees.”

"When employees choose courses that relate to their work, the return on investment is immediate,” Chavez added. "They take those tools back to their departments and start improving systems the next day.”

Lean Six Sigma: Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement

One of the most popular areas of study for City employees through DES has been process improvement; specifically, the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, which focuses on data-driven techniques for process improvement, waste reduction, and quality control.

“Government isn’t always equated with efficiency, but we’re trying to change that narrative,” Terwilliger said. “Lean Six Sigma gives employees the awareness and tools to look at their work through a lens of innovation, stewardship, and continuous improvement."

The City had previously used Lean Six Sigma for targeted projects, but the UC San Diego partnership allowed departments to send full cohorts of managers through the program, embedding the popular process improvement mindset into the way City work is done. “When managers from different departments go through the same training, they start speaking the same language,” Terwilliger said. “That creates a network of problem-solvers who can collaborate across the organization.”

From Compliance to Collaboration: A City Employee’s Experience

One such manager who enrolled in the program was Savanah Quon, a management analyst who oversees the City’s Development Services Department's payroll team. 

For Quon, Lean Six Sigma turned a familiar payroll process into an area of new discovery. For her class project, she used the Lean Six Sigma “DMAIC” framework (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) to re-evaluate how payroll data was being tracked and communicated between departments.

“We'd always followed the procedure correctly, but small communication gaps were slowing things down,” said Quon.

Opportunities for improvement emerged right away. "We brought everyone together for what's called a Kaizen event to analyze the current workflow and look for ways to improve,” said Quon. “It only took one meeting for us to find new opportunities. It was exciting for all of us.”

The fix involved using tracking templates and communication "receipts" to create more shared visibility in the payroll process. The result has been fewer redundant steps, faster turnaround times, and stronger collaboration across departments—all achieved without the need for new software or additional budgets.

“Lean Six Sigma gave us a way to assign metrics to our work so we could measure improvements and validate results,” Quon continued. “We clarified responsibilities, built a more detailed workflow chart, and made the process more transparent. It helped us see that it’s not just about getting the process right. It’s also about trust, teamwork, and communication."

Measurable Results—and Growing Momentum

Although the City of San Diego and UC San Diego partnership initiative is still in its early phases, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. 

"We're seeing employees get excited about learning," Terwilliger said. "They finish one program and immediately ask, ‘What's next?’ That's how we know we're hitting the mark."

To wit, Quon's team has already begun exploring how to apply Lean Six Sigma principles to other internal processes. "It gave us a framework we can use for anything—measure problems, test solutions, and sustain improvements over time,” she said. "It helps us approach challenges more objectively and collaboratively."

For Extended Studies, success has validated a broader vision of corporate training partnerships that drive innovation in both the public and private sectors. "Every organization faces process challenges," Chavez said. "What's unique about government is the scale and the impact on people's lives. Seeing City employees use these tools to serve residents more effectively—that's the ultimate outcome.”

Shared Missions: Service, Learning, and Innovation

In addition to improving the way City employees work, both organizations view the collaboration as a valuable extension of their core missions. For the City of San Diego, workforce development ties directly to its Strategic Plan, which commits to "fostering regional prosperity" and being the employer of choice in the region.

"We want people to come to work for the City because they know we'll reinvest in them,” Terwilliger said. "If employees have a great experience here, they'll provide a great customer experience to our residents."

For Extended Studies, the partnership reflects the dedication to lifelong learning and regional impact. "Our programs are designed to meet the evolving needs of the workforce," Chavez said. "Whether that's through Lean Six Sigma, project management, or leadership development, we're helping organizations and the people within them thrive in a changing world."

A Model for the Future of Training

Stakeholders at the City of San Diego and UC San Diego see this collaboration as just the beginning. The next phase will focus on improving awareness, creating new cohorts, and expanding the reach of additional valuable skillsets amongst the City's workforce such as leadership, data analytics, and change management. "Continuous improvement is contagious," Chavez said. "Once people see results, they want to learn more. That's how you build a culture of innovation.”

Quon agrees. "It’s not about fixing problems—it’s about building better communication, trust, and collaboration,” she said. “Lean Six Sigma gave us the tools to do that. Now we can keep improving, one process at a time.”

To learn more about available corporate education programs, including the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certificate, visit extendedstudies.ucsd.edu