As Strategic Planning & Performance Manager for the City of Aurora, Colorado, Leticia Callanen has been the driving force behind the city’s strategy and performance management system, building it from the ground up and cultivating a culture of strategic thinking, and measurable impact. Through retreats and hands-on workshops, Leticia encouraged staff to think beyond work effort and focus on driving meaningful, data-driven change. Her efforts have established a strong foundation for strategic alignment, embedding a mindset of innovation and transparency across the city.

Beyond her work in local government, Leticia is deeply committed to her community. She serves on the board of the Don’t Look Back Center, where she supports marginalized women as they rebuild their lives after addiction, trauma, PTSD, and domestic violence.

Here is a little bit of what Leticia’s nominator had to say:

“Leticia has engrained strategic and innovative thinking at Aurora and done so with a strong resolve and professionalism, always with the end goal of seeing through the vision promised by the Strategy Map. Leticia is deeply involved in her community and cares about improving the lives of residents in Aurora.”

This is the second profile in our 2025 Inspirational Women in Local Government series. Stay tuned each Thursday this month as we highlight more extraordinary leaders.

Q. What are you reading right now? 

Right now, I’m reading Leading Change by John P. Kotter. It was recommended by a colleague who serves as a deputy city manager. I’m really enjoying it. Even though it’s an older book, everything in it is still so relevant today. Another one is Trying Hard Is Not Good Enough by Mark Friedman; a life-changing book for me. 

Q. Would you tell us a little about your community and your role?

What enticed me about the city was the diverse nature of the community. Our vision statement is that Aurora is a world in a city, and I believe that there’s over 100 languages spoken in Aurora. It’s the third largest city in Colorado, and we’re right next to Denver. 

Our land mass is huge, and the city is growing. Like any city, we have to find ways to improve our economic position so we can afford to do what’s needed with limited resources.

My role was newly created, which made it even more interesting. Coming in as an outsider, my goal wasn’t just to implement a plan and walk away. It was to integrate into the organization, build relationships, and facilitate this important work. I didn’t want to be another consultant handing over a report and moving on. It’s been great to try to get integrated into the organization and build trust among my colleagues and higher-ups. I’m not working from the top down; I’m kind of working up.

Transparency is one of our main citywide goals and we’re doing a lot across the city to improve. Part of my work is helping the organization shift toward a learning mindset. We’re also aligning with the Baldrige framework.

I think my experience working in local government for over 20 years has been a big factor in building trust. I’ve worked with multiple city councils and understand the competing priorities at play. I also have a lot of experience in creating new governance processes to help manage that push and pull of priorities. But mostly, I try to meet people where they are, understanding their priorities, their patience levels, their capacity, and whether they believe in this kind of work that I am doing.

Q. What was the path that led you to this role?

I started in local government in San Antonio, working as an election assistant in the clerk’s office. From there, I moved up to the city manager’s office, worked on performance metrics at the library, and eventually became part of a performance improvement team. Over the years, I gained experience in so many different areas. The opportunity to utilize that for a city as diverse as Aurora—while also getting to live in such a beautiful place… I was like, why not?

When I was working in San Antonio, we partnered with United Way, which had adopted the Results-Based Accountability framework. I trained alongside their practitioners and experts in RBA, and then applied the framework in my role, aligning performance measures with the department’s strategic plan. 

That’s where I learned to start with the end goal and work backward, rather than spending years developing long logic models that may never be actionable. It’s a more common-sense approach to being able to make changes and get those strategic action plans in place.

In Aurora, we first started to figure out the results we wanted to see for the city.  If you look at Aurora in 10 years, what would you want anybody to say about it?” Instead of framing it as we strive to be, we frame it as we are, and that’s going to be the outcome that we’ll work towards. From there, we identify our strategic initiatives and departmental action plans that contribute to those outcomes.

Q. Outside of your government work, you also serve on the board of the Don’t Look Back Center. Tell us about that.

When I moved to Aurora, I attended a Women’s History Month event where Don’t Look Back was presenting. I was so impressed. They were calling for people who were interested in sitting on the board, and the president said, “We’re really looking for people who can represent the people we serve. We need to be more diverse.” And I said, “Here I am!” 

The person who founded it has so much lived experience. At one point, she was homeless and incarcerated, but has since pursued education in Applied Behavioral Science and has become a Certified Addiction Specialist, which has allowed her to begin working as a counselor. She’s overcome so much and wants to give back to other women. The Don’t Look Back Center supports women of color, trans women, and LGBTQIA+ individuals, especially those overcoming addiction and homelessness. I felt it was really important to step up and help that work.

Q. What are you most proud of professionally?

Honestly, taking this role. Originally, it actually came across my husband’s desk. He was looking for a city manager role at the time and this position came up, and he’s like, “This is you. This is all you.” I was ready to follow him wherever he wanted to go, and I said “Okay, but if I get this, you’re following me, right?” “That’s what happened. I moved and he joined me with our teenage kids six months later.”

Q. What advice would you give to other women in local government looking to grow their careers?

The first thing I would say is find a mentor! It doesn’t have to be another woman. It could be a man. But having someone who supports you is invaluable. The other thing is, build a network of women who aren’t necessarily in your same industry. I have a really good group of friends I can always count on for support, or to call on when things aren’t going well. 

(In San Antonio, I was involved in a formal women’s mentoring program.) My mentor was the assistant city attorney, and it was a great experience. She helped me figure out how I wanted to get involved with boards and other leadership opportunities.

There’s always some nervousness about asking someone to be your mentor, so San Antonio addressed it directly. It was led by a very strong city manager at the time, who knew how important This was. And it’s still going strong today! 

Q. Who in your career has had a particularly big impact on you?

The first person was one of my first bosses, Norma Rodriguez. She was the city clerk in 1994, and her deputy clerk was Richard Porter. I loved working for them, they were so encouraging. Mr. Porter was a retired radio announcer, and he also worked as a color commentator at our baseball stadium. He had that classic radio voice! He was a great communicator, and I think that’s why he appreciated how I took minutes and documented meetings. He taught me how to do it properly, and I still use those skills today.

I still lean on another influential city manager, Rebecca Waldman. She’s a retired city manager from Alamo Heights, and she’s been a great mentor to me. I’d say she, along with Norma Rodriguez and Richard Porter, were the most influential people in my career.

I’ve also had some great colleagues, and I try to support them too. For example, I served as a reference for a friend I met through a women’s leadership workshop. When a promotion opportunity came up, I wanted to advocate for her. I told the hiring manager, You already have someone here who knows the organization and can hit the ground running. She ended up getting the job! She does the same for me. If she gets the opportunity in front of somebody to say, Have you heard of the strategic planning process? My friend Leticia is working on that. 

Q. Are there any amazing women in public service you’d like to shout out?

Yes! Krystal Strong, Deputy HR Director for San Antonio; Julie Sandoval, Assistant Director of Finance in Corpus Christi; and Ashley Stuebing, a passionate contract manager for San Antonio’s Metro Health District. They’re all incredible women making a real impact.

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