Davenport Institute Announces 2015 City Manager in Residence

The Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at the School of Public Policy (SPP) has announced David Childs, city manager of the City of Palmdale, California, as the 2015 City Manager in Residence. Childs will be speaking to SPP students about his experience in local government leadership on Monday, March 9, 2015, at noon in the Executive Center Dining room.

Childs is an International City Manager Association (ICMA) credentialed manager has been the city manager of the City of Palmdale, California, since April 2012. Palmdale is a city of 155,000 in northern Los Angeles County and is home to Lockheed, Boeing and Northrop-Grumman and Edwards Air Force Base. Prior to his time in Palmdale, Childs served as assistant county manager for Washoe County, Nevada; the Western U.S. director of ICMA; city manager in the Cities of Blue Earth, St. Anthony, New Brighton and Minnetonka in Minnesota, and the City of South Lake Tahoe in California; and served in city, county and regional planning agencies in Minnesota and Arizona including as planning director in Casa Grande, Arizona, and director of physical and human resources planning for the Central Arizona Association of Governments.

Childs received a BS and MA from Minnesota State University and completed the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

The Davenport Institute introduced the City Manager in Residence Program in 2011, as part of a collaborative effort developed by the California International City Manager Association (Cal-ICMA) to offer students in graduate public policy and public administration programs the opportunity to learn first-hand from some of the best city managers in California. Past city managers in residence have come from the Cities of Half Moon Bay, Brea, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Monica, California. Read more.