New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang visited Buffalo to moderate a panel discussion Tuesday centered on 250 years of public service in honor of America’s semiquincentennial.
Lang told BTPM News she wanted the panel, in large part, to encourage the next wave of public servants and leaders while commemorating the work New York’s Office of the Inspector General has done for four decades.
"One of the things that my office is really doubling down on this year ... is educating the next generation of public servants and leaders," she said.
The discussion featured three senior state officials — Workers’ Compensation Board Chair Freda Foster, Division of Human Rights Commissioner Denise Miranda and Dormitory Authority President and CEO Robert Rodriguez — who reflected on their paths into public service and how New York can cultivate a more inclusive, merit-based government workforce.
Lang said the panel’s composition demonstrated how state leadership has evolved over time.
"The panel that we were sitting on never would have looked that way in the past, and how remarkable it is that New York has built a service that does, in many ways, in leadership, reflect the diversity of the state," Lang said.
She added that her office plans to continue traveling the state and speaking with students as it works to build the next generation of public servants and strengthen what she calls the often unseen but vital work of government oversight.
