By admin 
The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com.
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Jenny Tan didn’t realize she had attained local fame until the pandemic began to wane.
As the world reopened and she ventured out on normal errands again, strangers approached her in coffee shops and grocery stores. At first she asked herself, “Do I know these people from somewhere?”
She didn’t. Those enthusiastic folk were loyal, daily viewers of the videos she had produced for Yolo County, for months, informing the public about caseloads, deaths, vaccines and the latest health restrictions.
“I just didn’t realize that so many people were depending on these videos and that information,” Tan said. “It was just the right thing to do.”
Tan’s job was demanding. She estimated that she gave 10 interviews a day for a year and sent out news releases every other day. She worked on producing informational graphics in a smattering of different languages. After four years with the county, Tan needed a change.
After a brief stint with the California State Association of Counties, she took a public affairs job with the city of Davis, where she had attended college, met her husband and had always wanted to live long-term.
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There are challenges still. It’s tough to correct misinformation and when state or even global issues take over the local conversation, it’s difficult for the city to provide answers that offer residents resolution. The community “may butt heads” from time to time, Tan acknowledged, but it’s only out of a desire to collectively achieve the best for Davis.
“I really want people to know that there are people that work in government that are doing it for the right reasons, who really are committed to the service, the work, the transparency,” Tan said.
Tan is a board member for the Yolo Community Foundation. She volunteers on a committee for the Sacramento Region Community Foundation. She does free graphic design work for Empower Yolo.
Her penchant for public service came in part, she said, from her own mother, who was a “foundation” for her family, and worked seven days a week as a hairstylist while Tan was growing up.
Tan is still informing the public — sometimes, still, in video form, in a web series called “What Do You Do,” where she interviews city workers about their day-to-day responsibilities. But the mission, now, is to lend transparency to the work of local government.
“Sometimes people come to me from the community, and they’re really upset about something. I tell them, ‘This is a process, this is what happened, this is how we got here,’” Tan said. “If you don’t like it, here are the ways in which you can change it. Go talk to the council member, go write a letter.”
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