Milwaukee Public Schools recently approved Annie Kubes as the new senior director of Milwaukee Recreation. She succeeds Brian Litzsey, who was promoted to MPS’ chief family, community and partnerships officer last August.
Kubes has worked for the department since she was 16 years old. Throughout her career, she’s overseen various Milwaukee Rec programs — from Special Olympics to driver education and aquatics. She was most recently working part-time as Milwaukee Rec’s special projects coordinator.
Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez spoke with Kubes about her experience with Milwaukee Rec and the goals she has in this role.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
I understand that Milwaukee Rec is something that you grew up with. Tell me how it's played a role in your personal life.
I grew up [in Milwaukee] and graduated from Milwaukee Public Schools, so I spent time in sports camp and arts camp when I was growing up. My sisters and I were all involved in various rec classes. Then, when I turned 16, I started working for a therapeutic recreation program in the summer called Club Rec and Camp Congress in the afternoons during the school year until the end of high school. So I had both the experience of participating in recreation and also working part-time. And then I started my full-time job with [Milwaukee Recreation] in 2005, managing the adaptive athletics and Special Olympics programs. And then I worked full-time until 2018, and during that time, I also moved into a management role, coordinating and overseeing our citywide programs. My kids also participate now in various sports offerings and other classes, from tumbling teddy bears when my oldest son was three, to now he's playing basketball with his school. So [Milwaukee Rec] is very much a part of my life, and something that I really place a lot of value on.
What's something you want to improve or address at Milwaukee Rec during your first year on the job?
There's a lot of amazing work that's already happening. So I think in the first year, it's really familiarizing myself with where we have maybe some gaps in service, where the things that we're doing really, really well, maybe we can expand on those, but also building partnerships and relationships with members of our community. Whether it's anchor organizations in specific neighborhoods or nonprofits where folks are doing similar work, because we are so much stronger when we collaborate instead of duplicating services. So really getting out there and hearing from folks what it is that they need and want, and figuring out ways to incorporate that into our programming.
How will you make sure that you accomplish that goal and connect with Milwaukeeans? Especially since Milwaukee is made up of many different communities, and each neighborhood has its own values and needs.
One of the things that I'm pretty passionate about is providing a seat at the table. So instead of saying “At this community center, we're going to offer X, Y and Z,” I want to make sure we are involving community members in the decision-making process, so that we know we're offering what people actually want to participate in. Same thing with engaging our teens in wondering, “What programming do you want to see in our late-night programs at our Twilight centers?” So we’re not assuming that we know, but actually engaging community members and other stakeholders in some of that decision-making. And a lot of that is based on relationship building — so where I may not have connections or a previous established relationship, contacting some folks and setting up meetings and really trying to engage in an authentic way so that we truly are capturing the needs and desires of the community that we serve and that many of us live in. I think that's a huge piece of our puzzle.
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