Congratulations to our newest CCMF Board of Trustees member, Karen Pinkos, on her selection as the next president of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)!
Below is an excerpt from the official announcement. You can get to know Karen a little better in this ICMA interview as well.
Pinkos will serve at this leadership level for a one-year term commencing at ICMA’s 103rd Annual Conference in San Antonio/Bexar County, Texas, and will then assume the role of president at the ICMA 104th Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland, in September 2018.
“The individuals who serve on our board are authentic, outstanding leaders, not only in their own communities, but also in the field of professional local government management,” said ICMA Executive Director Marc A. Ott. “We welcome and appreciate their commitment to moving our association and our profession forward, and we are honored that Karen will return to the ICMA Executive Board in October as 2017-18 president-elect.”
Pinkos’s local government career began in 1997, when she accepted the position of assistant to the city manager of Oak Park, Michigan, which she held until September 2001. She served as assistant to the city manager of El Cerrito, California, for five years before being named assistant city manager in July 2006.
An active member of ICMA since 1999, Pinkos was elected by the membership in 2008 for a three-year term as a West Coast Regional Vice President. She served stints on the organization’s Conference Planning and Conference Evaluation committees, as well as its Annual Awards Evaluation Panel and 2008 Strategic Planning Committee. She was also a member of ICMA’s Digital Strategies Advisory Board (formerly the Knowledge Network Advisory Board), Task Force on Women in the Profession, and West Coast Regional Nominating Committee, both as a member and as chair. Since 2012, she has contributed to the ongoing success of ICMA’s Welcome Ambassadors Program. She also served as president and past president of Cal-ICMA, the “official” California state affiliate with ICMA; and is a member of the Alliance for Innovation.
Pinkos earned her bachelor of arts degree from Oakland University in Michigan in 1998 and a master’s of public administration from Oakland University in 2001. She is also a 2012 graduate of the Senior Executive in State and Local Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and earned a certificate in 2007 from the University of California at Berkeley.