An ICMA member since 2005, Dustin Anderson was a member of the ICMA Emerging Leaders Development Program fall 2012 class. As a project manager for Greenwich Connecticut, Anderson has taken on such projects as purchasing the town’s street light system, preparing over $14 million dollars in FEMA reimbursement applications, starting a government-wide corporate wellness initiative, and implementing a customer relationship management system.

Anderson graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor of arts degree in political science and criminal justice in 2002. After serving as an Americorps VISTA member for two years in New Hampshire and Vermont, Anderson returned to Indiana University to earn an MPA in local government administration from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

He joined ICMA as a second-year graduate student and attended his first conference in Minneapolis-St. Paul in 2005. He has also attended ICMA Annual Conferences in San Antonio, Texas, and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was a presenter.

After graduating in 2006, Anderson left his internship with the city of Bloomington, Indiana, for a position as an ICMA Local Government Management Fellow with the city of Loveland, Ohio. “I had an incredible experience working with Tom Carroll as an ICMA Fellow. It was really a unique opportunity to be able to learn so much in just that one year.”

From 2007 to 2010, Anderson worked in the private sector as a management advisor at the Cincinnati office of Management Partners, Inc., a municipal consulting firm, where he conducted organizational analysis, executive recruitments, process improvement reviews, and strategic planning studies for a variety of public and nonprofit clients.

When asked which issues facing ICMA members matter most to him, Anderson replied, “From my community’s perspective, we will continue to wrestle with the adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Because of the cost of living where we are, the town is looking down the barrel of a $17 million dollar excise tax on premiums over threshold in calendar year 2018. That’s just one of many unintended operational challenges this Act has created for us and other communities.” 

“Another issue that I think applies to all members – but particularly those identified as the ‘next generation’ by ICMA – is the ever-escalating cost of higher education in conjunction with the fiscal environment wrought by a sluggish economy and general distrust of government. How many people will continue to take the two years and the accompanying debt to get an MPA, just for the opportunity to work as a management analyst with an entry level municipal salary? In this economy, how many managers can afford to retire and create a vacancy for the ‘next generation’ to move up to? It’s an interesting time we are working in. Thankfully, ICMA is on the case,” commented Anderson.