WLCE: Coffee With My Girlfriends

Rachel Patterson is a Code Enforcement Officer III from Erie, CO . Rachel's passion is customer service. The ability to bring communities and individuals together for "creating, enhancing and maintaining the quality of life and safe standards within the community.” is what she stands for. Rachel's approach to customer service reminds us that a human element and touch is what makes you love our job every day. Having a positive outlook and having a servant leadership mentality makes all the difference in the world when seeking swift and voluntary compliance.

Rachel was selected to be a board shadow for the International Code Council where she had the opportunity to shadow an ICC Board of Directors at the Annual Business Meeting in Pittsburg, PA in 2021. Rachel is also the co-host of "Code Concepts with Rachel Patterson and Pete Roque" where they interview industry professionals and give viewers information about relevant topics that may benefit code officials. Industry professionals which have been interviewed include prosecutors, police chiefs, tv personalities, association presidents, attorneys, and more. The show is streamed live on LinkedIn and Facebook as well as on codeenforcementeducators.com which is a free code enforcement resource page where she is a contributor.

Currently, Rachel is collaborating on developing a children's animation series to promote early education on code enforcement. Rachel would like to see more of an interest in the industry from a young age similar to public safety professions. The first segment of the series featured "Fiona the Fox" teaching kids about snow removal. Rachel believes educating our future leaders on the benefits of a career in the Code Enforcement and Building industry is necessary and our duty to grow our industry. Her project creates a different approach to bringing the topic of Code Enforcement front and center and would further like to see additional youth discussions, activities, and involvement in primary and secondary schools not just at the technical high school level. Rachel was also currently elected to the 2021 ICC Colorado Chapter Board of Directors and will be teaching a course at the Women Leaders in Code Enforcement Symposium in 2022 as well as creating training opportunities for her fellow code officials.

When she is not living code enforcement she is spending time with her children and thinking of ways to better serve our profession.