Mark Achen served more than 25 years as chief executive of cities in Minnesota (Mounds View), Missouri (Gladstone) and Colorado (Grand Junction). He retired in 2000 after leading Grand Junction through the devastating energy bust of the 1980’s and its subsequent economic revival. His tenure was the longest in that city’s history. He began his career in 1972 as an assistant to the city manager of Ferguson, Missouri.

Since retiring, his services have been sought to address difficult and sensitive management assignments. These include lengthy stints in interim executive positions in two cities, Centennial and Winter Park, Colorado, and at Mesa State College. Mark consults with public and private sector clients and continues to serve as a volunteer mentor and advisor to local government managers.

His innovation, leadership and financial management skills earned him recognition by Colorado Business Magazine, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the West and the American Society of Public Administration. A University of Georgia national survey on productivity identified him as one of the fifty most highly regarded local government managers.

He is an ICMA Life Member, founding Credentialing Advisory Board member and a Senior Advisor for Colorado & Utah. He is a former President of the Colorado City & County Management Association and a past Director of the Innovation Groups. Mark is a Colorado Supreme Court appointee to the Attorney Regulation Board and has served as an officer and director of numerous professional & community boards.

He has served as a course developer, adjunct faculty, occasional speaker, panelist and seminar leader for the National Fire Academy, the FBI National Academy, University of Missouri at Kansas City, Park College, Mesa State College, the Government Finance Officers Association, National Parks & Recreation Association, ICMA, state leagues and several other organizations.

He holds political science degrees from the Universities of Washington at Seattle (BA) and Missouri at Columbia (MA). Mark is a graduate of the Program for Senior Executives in State & Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He is an ICMA Credentialed Manager.

James Bennett has been actively involved with the administration or policy making for several Maine municipalities for over the last two decades. He has served as an elected Selectman and managed five municipalities, from a small community of 2,500 to his current position in the 2^nd largest city in the state. Mr. Bennett has spent most of his entire municipal career in communities with varying degrees of financial distress. In several of the communities, he wrote and successfully implemented financial recovery plans. In the most distressed, he assumed the administration of a community with a ($850,000.00) deficit undesignated fund balance (1/8^th of the annual budget). In that case, the financial stability of the community occurred within one year.

Mr. Bennett has also been involved with several noteworthy undertakings during his career, including the development of several restructuring plans, facilitating and implementation of community vision and goal setting sessions, development of strategic plans and downtown revitalization efforts. He has been recognized several times in the past decade by the International City/County Management Association; for the community’s strategic plan in 2002 and in 2006 and 2008 with a Program Excellence Awards. He was award the Public Service Leadership Award in 2006 by the Androscoggin Chamber of Commerce. He was also selected by the Maine Town and City Management Association as the 2003 Manager of the Year. In addition, the City of Lewiston was selected as an All America City in 2007 by the National Civic League. Mr. Bennett has served in numerous leadership capacities, including on the Executive Board of the Maine Municipal Association; the Governor’s Municipal Advisory Board, and several regional solid waste boards and strategic planning processes. He is a Past President of the Maine Town and City Management Association. He is also a Vice-President-Elect for the International City/County Management Association (September 2008 to September 2011).

Besides his current service as the City Administrator for the City of Lewiston, ME (pop. 35,690), Mr. Bennett has served as the Town Manager for the communities of Dixfield, ME (1986-1988, pop. 2,510), New Gloucester, ME (1988-1990, pop. 4,336), and Old Orchard Beach, ME (1990-1996, pop. 7,663). He most recently served as the City Administrator for the City of Westbrook. ME (1996-2002, pop. 16,142). His tenure has included serving four years as Selectmen in his hometown of Lisbon (1982-1986, pop. 9,608).

Mr. Bennett earned his MBA from the University of Southern Maine. He also has undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Southern Maine and Bentley College, respectfully. Mr. Bennett developed and instructs Cash Management for Municipalities and co-developed and instructs MMA Basic Budgeting, as well as a number of other presentations. Mr. Bennett has also served as an Adjunct Professor at Andover College in the Business Department.

Barbara S. Blumenfield, Ph.D., has been a resident of the Milwaukee area all of her life and has worked with different levels of government and educational entities throughout her professional career. Dr. Blumenfield currently holds the position of Regional Vice President-Government Segment (Midwest) for Cigna Health Care. She has served as a Consultant for both public and private clients and has held the positions of Oak Creek (WI) City Administrator, the Director of Administrative Services for the Village of Menomonee Falls (WI), and the Director of Human Resources (Et Al!) for the City of Greenfield (WI).

Prior to that, Dr. Blumenfield served in a variety of other governmental positions, which included Administrator for the Town of Caledonia (WI), Legislative Liaison for the Racine County Executive and Racine County Board of Supervisors; Senior Legislative Research Analyst for the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee; Field Representative for Congressman Henry S. Reuss; and Aldermanic Administrative Assistant for the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee.

Throughout her career, both as a professional manager and an academic instructor, Dr. Blumenfield has gained a vast range of administrative, management and human resource experience. She has developed multi-million dollar budgets; worked on major planning developments; developed strategic plans; successfully negotiated (without arbitration) dozens of union labor contracts; analyzed, streamlined and improved administrative and organizational operations; assessed, revised and implemented management compensation plans; developed employee policies and manuals and provided instruction to others, both locally and nationally, individually and in groups, small to large, written and verbal, on a variety of management and human resource issues.

Dr. Blumenfield, is a member of a number of professional organizations, including the International City/County Management Association, where she has earned the coveted designation of Certified Municipal Manager and is currently a Regional Vice-President on the ICMA Executive Board; the Wisconsin City/County Management Association; the Wisconsin Public Employers Labor Relations Association, where she is a former Board member and Secretary; and the Milwaukee Area Municipal Employees Association, which she serves as Treasurer. Dr. Blumenfield is also a member of the Board of Appeals for the City of Muskego.

In her spare time, Dr. Blumenfield teaches a Political Science/MPA class at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Municipal Management), graduate and undergraduate classes at Concordia University, including a Distance Learning class that she has taught for 10 years as well as other courses for Cardinal Stritch University in Mequon (WI). She has also written a number of courses for CSU that are currently part of the College of Business curriculum.

Ms. Elizabeth Kellar is the Executive Director for the Center for State and Local Government Excellence. She also serves as Deputy Executive Director for ICMA and represents the Association on public policy matters. She has 25 years of experience as an ICMA ethics advisor and trainer and launched ICMA’s ethics advice column in Public Management magazine. She speaks on ethics at state, national, and international meetings.

She is a Fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration and has served as chair for NAPA’s Standing Panel on the Federal System. She serves on the Advisory Council, American University School of Public Affairs, and is on the Editorial Board, Public Administration Review. Her publications include Managing with Less, Ethical Insight, Ethical Action, and Ethos.

Previously, Ms. Kellar served as ICMA’s Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the preparation of ICMA’s annual budget, three-year financial plan, performance results, and human resources programs. Ms. Kellar launched ICMA’s international programs, which help support local democratic efforts and municipal development programs around the world.

Ms. Kellar served two terms on the Montgomery County Maryland Ethics Commission and was the chair of the Commission for three years. Prior to joining ICMA, she was responsible for community relations for the City of Sunnyvale, California. She has a master's degree in journalism and political science from Ohio State University.

Dr. Roger L. Kemp has been the Chief Executive Officer of cities on both the West and East Coasts for over two decades. He has served as municipal CEO in California, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Roger is presently a Fellow, The Academy of Political Science, New York City, New York.

Roger has also been a Visiting Scholar, Senior Adjunct Professor, and Professorial Lecturer at leading universities during his career. Roger holds BS & MPA degrees (from San Diego State University), MBA and PhD degrees (from Golden Gate University), and is a graduate of the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Contemporary American Authors, and the International Who’s Who Registry of Outstanding Professionals. Roger has been an author, editor, and contributing author to nearly 50 books dealing with America’s cities, and their future. He is past-president of the CT City and Town Management Association, the Monterey Bay Area Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and the CT Chapter of the ASPA. Roger was recently re-elected to the CT ASPA’s Executive Council.

Most recently, Roger was honored by receiving the “Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award” for 2007 from the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University. This award is presented annually to an “outstanding graduate” of SDSU’s MAP Program based on his/her “career achievements,” and is voted upon by the faculty of the School of Public Affairs.

Felicia Logan is the director of leadership development at ICMA. In that capacity, she is the ICMA University team leader providing such management development activities for ICMA members as the Voluntary Credentialing Program, Senior Executive Series, Leadership ICMA, and the Emerging Leaders series. Passionate about leadership development and coaching, Logan is a regular at the Weldon Cooper Center's leadership and management activities. A member of the first class of women to be admitted to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Logan received both her B.A. and M.A. from that institution. She graduated from the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1987; from the Covey Leadership Institute in Sundance, Utah, in 1990; and from the Senior Executive Institute in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Innovation Group-sponsored School for Leadership and Change in 2003.

Charldean Newell is regents professor emerita of public administration at the University of North Texas, where her teaching, research, and numerous publications focused on local government management and Texas politics. She held four administrative positions. A fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and an honorary member of ICMA, Newell serves on the Credentialing Advisory Board and teaches in the Emerging Leaders Program. She has chaired a charter revision committee, the Fire and Police Civil Service Board, and the Public Utilities Board in her community and served on the city council ethics committee.