When Laurie Dudgeon joined Kentucky’s Administrative Office of the Courts in 2007, she knew it was where she needed to be. “Once I found my spot here, it felt like home,” said Dudgeon, a 2012 CSG Toll Fellow who was named director of the AOC in 2009 after serving as deputy director of the agency for two years. “I think the job here definitely draws on my background as an attorney and draws on my background in the executive branch.”

Mike Thompson had set goals in his career as an Oklahoma state trooper and in the state’s National Guard. But he never dreamed they’d take him up the ladder to serve as Oklahoma Secretary of Safety and Security. He can, however, trace the course that got him there and it all goes back to education.

Bruce Fitzgerald seemed destined for a career in state government. From the age of 5, he spent a weekend each summer milling around the Maine state capitol learning about how a bill becomes a law. His mother Betsy, a high school history teacher, coordinated the YMCA Youth in Government program. In that program, high school students from around the state would elect a governor, fill the Maine House and Senate and carry out a model legislature.

Jackie Winters doesn’t subscribe to the word, “can’t.” She never has. In 1959, Winters was rejected in her attempts to enter business school. African-American women at that time rarely got employment opportunities outside being a nurse’s aid or a domestic. Then someone told her about an opening for a clerk at the Oregon Health Sciences University; so she applied. The supervisor—Laura P. Martin—told her she had to pass a civil service exam.

When Liz Bangerter was a child, one question would frequently come up at dinner. “What have you done to make the world a better place today?” Her parents were very active in community groups and her brothers were all involved in Boy Scouts. “Community service and civic duty were a huge deal in our family,” said Bangerter. “So that kind of tied into that—what have you done to make the world a better place? How have you served someone else? How have you done your duty to help somebody else?”

Be Respectful and Do Your Homework

Delaware House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf chairs several committees, including House Administration and Rules committees. He served in the minority party for years and learned lessons in that role. A former state police officer in Dover, Schwartzkopf believes the no-nonsense approach to police work also applies to chairing a legislative committee.

Mike Allen, Politico’s chief political correspondent, believes state leaders can learn a lot from the 2012 elections. Although the 2013 Congress is likely to be even more polarized, he offers some hope for states still trying to rebuild after the Great Recession.

In a recent conversation, Richard Sliwoski made a Virginia state delegate laugh—and he was being serious. The director of Virginia’s Department of General Services said he was trying to get his agency to have more of an entrepreneurial spirit. “He said, ‘that seems sort of incongruous: A bureaucrat saying you should be entrepreneurial,’” Sliwoski, a 2012 CSG Toll Fellow, recalled. But it’s simple, really. “For me, it’s not making a profit; it’s saving money,” Sliwoski said. “I am here to drive down the cost of government.” That’s the attitude he tries to instill in the 652 people he manages at the department, and he empowers them to find new ways to save money for the state.