BLOOMINGTON- Scott Shackelford has filed candidacy paperwork and provided a statement in support of his candidacy to fill the office of Monroe County Councilperson at Large.
Eligible Precinct Committeepersons will gather at the Nat U. Hill Room of the Monroe County Courthouse on Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 1 PM to vote in caucus to appoint pro tempore a candidate for this vacancy.
MCDP will only share statements by those candidates who have filed their paperwork with the Party Secretary.
For more information, visit https://www.monroedems.org/vacancy-caucus-mccal
Happy New Year!
My name is Scott Shackelford, and today I am announcing my candidacy for the Monroe County Council. I’m a cybersecurity expert, attorney, IU professor, author, proud Rotarian, husband, and father of three beautiful girls ranging from first to sixth grade enrolled in MCCSC. I’m also a firm believer in Monroe County, both its incredible past and unbounded future, having lived here as a kid in the 90s, attended IU for undergrad, and served on the IU faculty since 2010.
First, I want to honor the tremendously impactful life of Cheryl Munson. Her legacy in our community is profound, having served for a quarter century in a variety of both prominent and unsung positions from the Ambulance Advisory Board to the Monroe County Council Presidency. This is her seat. It’s up to us to honor her service, tell her story as an inspiration to other community leaders, and continue making progress on the issues she was so effective at championing including public health and safety.
Fortunately, I know something about doing my best to build on the legacy of amazing and impactful leaders, having co-authored a children’s book entitled “Lin’s Uncommon Life” that chronicles the journey of Elinor (Lin) Ostrom from her childhood to becoming the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009. We created lesson plans for the book about civics and sharing that are now being used in classrooms throughout Monroe County. Today, I’m the executive director of IU’s Ostrom Workshop that Lin co-founded with her husband Vincent, which is known for its work on community self-governance and studying how we can break down barriers and build bridges to tackle the big issues we face from climate change to political polarization.
I also direct IU’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research (CACR), which has helped dozens of communities across the state mitigate a range of cyber risks through our CyberTrack Program. Relatedly, I’m the lead author on the 2024 State of Hoosier Cybersecurity Report prepared for the Indiana Executive Council on Cybersecurity, which features a statewide survey showing how cybersecurity attitudes and practices have changed since the onset of the pandemic. I plan on leveraging this expertise around the security of critical infrastructure to help Monroe County proactively prepare for both the range of technological threats we face, and opportunities that beckon. In all, across both Research Centers, I manage a staff of twenty people responsible for shepherding more than $15 million in resources and have extensive experience with HR including hiring and job reclassification issues that I think would resonate with the County Council.
Here in Monroe County, I’ve served on the board of directors of the Hoosier Hills Food Bank for more than a decade. I have been a Commissioner on the Bloomington Environmental Commission and previously worked while I was still a student for the Area 10 Agency on Aging. As the creator of the IU Cybersecurity Clinic, I’ve also worked with our outstanding director, Isak Nti Asare, to directly help local governments, nonprofits, and utilities around Monroe County, across the state, and beyond manage a range of cyber risks. These experiences have shown me firsthand the challenges faced by cities and counties grappling with a range of demands on limited budgets.
As someone who has spent more than half my life in Bloomington, but who has also had the good fortune to travel the world, I both appreciate all we have in this unique community and what it could be by working with our dedicated leaders. My priorities are frankly very much in line with Cheryl’s, that is to conduct rigorous fiscal oversight and serve on community boards that permit us to make progress on:
1) Kitchen Table Issues: Making Monroe County a great place to work, raise kids, and retire with dignity by ensuring that we maintain fiscal responsibility, public safety, quality schools, affordable housing and healthcare.
2) Workforce Development: Deepening partnerships between Monroe County and both Ivy Tech and IU so that residents can affordably learn new skills, hire employees who are ready to succeed on day one, and launch small businesses.
3) Resilience: Ensuring that Monroe County has the tools to not only survive but thrive in a fast-changing world while preserving all the natural, cultural, and community elements that make it the best place to live in the state. This includes protecting Lake Monroe and its watershed and investing in needed infrastructure improvements from climate readiness to the new county jail and convention center.
My leadership style is based on regular and close communication, consensus building, coordination across multiple stakeholders including between the county and city and supporting those who have dedicated their professional lives to community service such as our firefighters and sheriff’s department. As a business law and ethics scholar focusing on topics like human rights, sustainable development, privacy, and cybersecurity, I’ve been able to study linkages across diverse disciplines. One of those common threads is trust, which Lin Ostrom famously said is “the most important resource.” It can be fostered through communication and coordination, but sadly it’s a resource in short supply today. I pledge to be an ally and friend to all those in Monroe County who need a voice, whether they be long-time residents, Bloomerangs, or new transplants.
I’d welcome your support and would be happy to answer any questions that you may have, and to learn more about what you think are the most pressing issues facing Monroe County. I also recognize there are other outstanding candidates running, and you may have already pledged your support at this stage. Regardless, I hope you’ll give me an opportunity to speak with you in the coming days to make my case. Please feel free to either call, text (812-369-1612), or email me as you prefer as well.
Thank you!
Best wishes,
-Scott
