Officers

Chair:               Cheryl Robertson, District of Columbia (automatic, no vote needed)

Chair-elect: Ellen Freeman-Wakefield, Nebraska

EIlen Freeman-Wakefield was born and raised in Harold Wood Essex, England. In 1980, she came to the United States on a holiday (vacation) and decided Nebraska was a place she wanted to explore more. After returning home to resign a position in the largest teaching hospital in England, she returned to Nebraska to attend the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Ms. Freeman-Wakefield has more than twenty-five year’s administrative experience in nonprofit agency administration. In her position as Director for Professional Programs for the School of Public Administration at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, she works with the Nebraska Certified Public Manager® Program and Nebraska Municipal Clerks Association to foster and encourage the highest possible levels of performance and ethical practice of public and nonprofit sector practitioners and students in order to effectively provide services and continuously improve the performance of state, local and federal government and the nonprofit sector. Ms. Freeman-Wakefield is also a facilitator for the IIMC Athenian Society and a member of the Education Advisory Board. Previous to her work in higher education, she spent her time advocating for those women and children fleeing intimate partner violence and oversaw the daily operations of the Women’s’ Center for Advancement (formerly the YWCA). Previous to her work in domestic violence, she spent her early career advocating and administering early childhood education programs. Ms. Freeman-Wakefield also holds a position with School of Community Service and Public Affairs University of Nebraska at Omaha College of Public Administration where she teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. In addition to UNO Ms. Freeman Wakefield also taught at Creighton University in the Political Science Department Midland University in the Sociology Department. Ms. Freeman-Wakefield is on the National Certified Public Manager Consortium Board and Executive Council, where she is the Chair of the Governance Committee and Chair of the Accreditation Standards Committee. She also holds a board position with the American Society of Public Administration – Nebraska Chapter and is on the IIMC Education Advisory Committee. 

Secretary:        Stephanie Duncan, South Carolina

Stephanie is with the Department of Administration Division of State Human Resources (DSHR) for 20 years. She has worked in the Division as a Human Resources Consultant and currently as the State Training and Development Director and the Director of the Certified Public Manager (CPM) certification program for South Carolina.  Prior to coming to the Department of Administration, Stephanie was with the Department of Health and Environmental Control as a Trainer/Facilitator and curriculum developer.  Stephanie holds a B.S. Degree in Business Management and Human Resources from Benedict College and Limestone University. She is a certified Mediator/Arbitrator for Division of Sate Human Resources. Stephanie received her CPM certification in 2005. She is a Board member of the International Public Management Association (IPMA) for the State of South Carolina and a current member of the Executive Council. Stephanie worked for 13 years as an Assistant Vice President of Management Training and Leadership in the private sector. She is a Certified Master Trainer and Project Training Manager.  Stephanie is also certified by Franklin Covey Corporation as a Focus® facilitator and a certified Myers Briggs Instructor.  Stephanie is currently a member of the National Consortium of the Certified Public Managers® Executive Council.
 

Treasurer:       Ann Cotten, Maryland

Ann Cotten is the Director of the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore and an affiliated faculty member in the College of Public Affairs. The Schaefer Center is the applied research and public service division of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs. She has been working with government and nonprofit organizations for the past 25 years in the areas of strategic planning, program evaluation, survey research, policy analysis, management consulting, and performance measurement. Dr. Cotten founded and directs the Maryland Certified Public Manager® (CPM) program housed in the Schaefer Center. The Maryland CPM Program builds management capacity in Maryland’s public sector by teaching applied public management skills to supervisors and managers in government and nonprofit organizations located in the state.  Dr. Cotten has extensive experience training public sector managers in Managing for Results, performance measurement, and strategic planning. She has facilitated the development of strategic plans for a number of Maryland agencies and the Midtown Special Benefit District. She is treasurer for the National Certified Public Manager® Consortium. She previously served as a member of the finance committee of the American Society for Public Administration. She is the Chair of the University of Baltimore’s Institutional Review Board and Council on Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. Previously she has served as President of the Southern Consortium of University Public Service Organizations, Member of the American Society for Public Administration’s National Council, and President of the Maryland Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration. In 2008, Dr. Cotten was named one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by the Maryland Daily Record. She is a member of Leadership Maryland Class of 2012 and the GBC Leadership Class of 2015. She teaches strategic management for government and nonprofit organizations and survey research in the University of Baltimore’s School of Public and International Affairs. Dr. Cotten is a professionally trained focus group moderator and is an experienced trainer of mid and upper level managers. She hold a Master’s Degree in Economics and Doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Baltimore and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Members-at-Large - (Three 2-year positions open and a 1-year position to fill the vacancy created by Stephanie Duncan moving to Secretary)

Haldane Davies, US Virgin Islands

Haldane Davies, Ph.D., serves as Vice President for Business Development and Innovation at the University of the Virgin Islands. Dr. Davies holds a doctorate in Philosophy degree in Educational Administration with a focus on higher education from Andrews University. He is also a strategic planner, certified mediator, trainer, accreditation evaluator, competency assessor, and a member of the Baldrige Board of Examiners. Dr. Davies, who is also Executive Director of the Foundation for the University of the Virgin Islands, holds certificates in related areas from Harvard University, Cornell University, the University of the West Indies and Yale University.

Dennis Martino, New Hampshire

Dennis is currently the Secretary of the CPM Consortium. Dennis is the former Director of the NH Bureau of Education and Training where he ran the NH Certified Public Manager Program. He has taught leadership courses on the graduate level at several colleges. Prior to his current academic work he had twenty-one years’ experience in Labor Relations as a union advocate and contract negotiator.  His teaching philosophy or approach is summed up as creating a partnership between the mentor and the learner. Civic and Board Affiliations: Clerk of the Board of Directors for the Belknap – Merrimack Community Action program. Treasurer of NH Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health. President of the NH Association of Certified Public Managers. Delegate to the American Academy of Certified Public Managers. Chairman of the Manchester NAACP Legal Redress Committee. Member - Chicago Industrial / Organizational Psychologists. Member of the National Certified Public Manager’s Consortium Board. He is a resident of Hopkinton NH. Education: BA Sociology, St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH; M. Ed. Rivier University; MS in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, California Southern University; NH Certified Public Manager; Labor Education and Training from the George Meany Labor Center, Silver Springs Maryland

Walt McBride, Georgia

Walt brings to the table a number of qualities that will greatly benefit the Consortium. Walt has an appreciation for the roots and history of CPM while offering innovative ideas and novel approaches. He is a flexible problem solver. He has a great deal of energy, is willing to roll up his sleeves and is a good networker. Walt has been contributing to committees and has an understanding of the Consortium's role and progress.  Walt coordinates and teaches in the Georgia CPM program and the Management Development Program, and manages the Institute of Government’s continuing education and certificate programs for the Georgia Chapter of the American Public Works Association. He also develops and delivers customized leadership and management programs for client groups. His previous experience includes positions as a county extension agent, a county manager, and a training coordinator for the risk management programs of the Georgia Municipal Association and ACCG, Georgia’s association of counties.

Tonya Neaves, Virginia

Tonya T. Neaves is the Interim Director for the Centers on the Public Service with George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government. In this role, Dr. Neaves maintains oversight of its day-to-day administrative operations as well as secures new research and development contracts and established a series of executive education programs. Other major activities include serving as a faculty member in the Masters of Public Administration program and Coordinator for its Emergency Management and Homeland Security certificate. She also serves as the Director of the Virginia Certified Public Manager® Program. Prior to joining Mason, Dr. Neaves was the Director for the Mississippi Public Safety Data Laboratory at the Social Science Research Center of Mississippi State University, where she is still a Research Fellow. As a scholar, Dr. Neaves’ research portfolio has included securing contracts from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, National Highway Safety Transportation Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Transportation Security Administration, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. To date, her total research funding approximates $6 million. Dr. Neaves has also published her efforts in the Review of Policy Research, Journal of Emergency Management, Review of Public Personnel Management, and the American Journal of Public Health. She has also co-authored book chapters in The Future of Disaster Management in the U.S.: Rethinking Legislation, Policy, and Finance, New Voices in the Old South: How Women and Minorities Influence Southern Politics. She was also an editor for the National Academy of Public Administration and American Society for Public Administration’s Memos to National Leaders. Dr. Neaves holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Public Policy and Administration from Mississippi State, where she also earned her Master’s in Public Policy and Administration. She has also participated in the University of Zagreb’s (Croatia) Center for Advanced Academic Studies, University of Michigan's Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research, Duke University’s Dynamic Management and Leadership Programs, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Management and Innovation Program. As an active member of the American Society for Public Administration, Dr. Neaves recently served as District Representative to National Council, 2014-2017 and was the Conference Coordinator for the Northeast Conference on Public Administration, 2015. She is also the Treasurer for the Section on Emergency and Crisis Management and Program Co-Chair for the 2018 annual conference. She is also an Associate Editor for the Journal of Urban Management and is a board member for Public Personnel Management.

Rhonda Priest, Wyoming

Rhonda Priest has over fifteen years’ experience in the public and non-profit sectors, with prior experience in the private sector. Before joining Laramie County Community College in 2010, she was the Executive Director of the Cheyenne Community Clinic and the Regional Manager for the Alzheimer’s Association. Currently, she is the Leadership and Development Program Manager in the LCCC School of Outreach and Workforce Development, which includes overseeing the Wyoming Certified Public Manager Program and the newly launched Administrative Professional Academy. She is the lead work readiness instructor for the America’s Promise grant, a business trainer for the School of Outreach and Workforce Development, and an adjunct instructor in the School of Business, Agriculture, and Technical Studies.  She is a certified career coach, a certified facilitator, and a trained resume and grant writer. She received her CPM designation in 2011 and became the Director of the Wyoming CPM Program in 2015. She presented at the 2016 National CPM Consortium meeting. She serves as the LCCC Staff Senate President, and she was chosen as the LCCC Professional Staff Person of the Year. She is actively involved across the LCCC campus. She is a Leadership Cheyenne graduate, and she has volunteered with local non-profit organizations including Circles Wyoming, United Way of Laramie County, Habitat for Humanity, and Convoy of Hope. She is a former Athena Women’s Leadership Award nominee, and she was selected as one of only 80 women nationwide by “O” Magazine, The White House Project, and American Express for the first Women Rule! Leadership Summit in New York City in 2008.  Rhonda earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Valdosta State University and a Master of Education degree from Concordia University – Portland.