CityU in government: Alums share their pivotal education choices that led to top leadership roles

By Genoa Sibold-Cohn

Velocity Contributor

Lynne Griffith knows the importance of a college education.

It’s helped the City University of Seattle alumna and chief executive officer of Pierce Transit lead Washington state’s second largest transit agency of more than 1,000 employees.

Still, it wasn’t until recently that Griffith added college graduate to her title.

“As a single mom supporting two boys through college, I had to set aside my aspirations of completing my degree,” Griffith says. “I wanted to finish what I started and gain academic credibility that matched my position as a CEO with a public transportation provider.”

In 2007, Griffith earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from CityU of Seattle. Her education inspired her to pursue a Master in Public Administration from the University of Washington in 2009. She also graduated this month from UW’s Executive MPA program.

Griffith’s degrees have been key to her success in government, which she says require individuals to be “flexible, adapt to change quickly, (be) financially savvy and incredibly open and straight forward.”

She is among the several CityU alumni Velocity profiled this month who are working in elected, appointed or key staff positions in government around the world. They’re proof graduates are making crucial decisions in communities where they live using skills they learned at CityU.

Like Griffith, a focus on education came after CityU alumnus Larry Campbell had already spent years in the workforce. He had been a laborer, hand riveter, Royal Canadian Mounted Police member, coroner and chief coroner for the Province of British Columbia.

Then Campbell made his big career move to mayor of Vancouver, B.C. where he served from 2002 to 2005. Now Campbell is serving by appointment as a Canadian senator - a role he’s held since 2005. Campbell, who has a Bachelor of Science in Administration and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from CityU, credits his education with helping him succeed in the political arena.

“CityU gave me the basic knowledge with my undergraduate course to pursue opportunities that would have been denied to me had I not graduated,” Campbell says. “The MBA took me a step further and gave me intensive skills that have proven time and time again to be invaluable. In addition, my CityU education gave me the confidence to take on challenges that I would not have considered previously.”

CityU alum Brian D. Gardner knows experience and education have been key to his successful, 30-year career in law enforcement as an employee of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Last year Gardner was elected sheriff - five years after earning his Master of Public Administration degree in Criminal Justice from CityU.

“I am a lifelong resident of Linn County and have worked for the sheriff’s office my entire adulthood,” Gardner says. ”It is literally the only job that I have known. Coupled with my education, all of those things helped prepare me for this position.”

Gardner applied to CityU after speaking with Seattle police officers who attended the university.

“I liked what I saw and applied for admission,” Gardner says. He valued CityU’s distance learning courses because they allowed him to work full-time and keep varying, nontraditional work hours, all while getting an advanced degree.

Gardner’s term as Linn County Sheriff started just seven months after the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids crested at 31.1 feet, devastating the city and numerous facilities. The sheriff’s office and correctional center were among the buildings that were heavily damaged in the disaster dubbed the Thousand Year Flood.

At the time, Gardner was a patrol division commander and played an active role in the flood evacuation in the Palo community and assisted with evacuation and relocation efforts for the sheriff’s office and jail. Since taking office in January 2009, Gardner has been directing the flood recovery process.

“Although all of my formal education has helped me in my career, I found the education that I received from CityU to be most beneficial,” Gardner says. ”My CityU education provided me with the depth, detail, and background that I need to perform successfully as a law enforcement chief executive.”

Lyle Kee also is using an advanced CityU degree to serve in law enforcement. Kee is the chief of the Yates Center Police Department in Yates Center, Kansas. In 1992, Kee earned a Master of Public Administration with a specialty in criminal justice.

“I have used the knowledge from my City University of Seattle degree to write grants, prepare budgets, conduct research and (have) the credentials required to teach as an adjunct professor at a local college, Kee says.

Kee feels his CityU degree has been vital to his role in government, which is constantly evolving and changing.

“Successful governments, as well as successful government employees, must be able to adapt to current changes, trends, emergencies, disasters, terrorism, war, and peace,” Kee notes.

CityU alum David Hambelton is serving an important role in Snohomish County, Wash. as the chairman of the Snohomish County Planning Commission. He’s serving his second appointed term that began in March 2008. His first term ran from 1982 to 1993.

Hambelton earned a Master of Science in Project Management degree from CityU in 1999.

“I feel it is important for citizens to be involved in our representative form of government,” says Hambelton, who was reappointed to the commission recently for an additional four years. “It is very interesting to review the information policy packets we receive to prepare for meetings. We hold public hearing and obtain the opinion of the citizens. We then make a recommendation to the Snohomish

County Executive and County Council. It is one of the most basic forms of government utilizing citizen input.”

Hambelton believes his CityU education has helped him in his leadership role.

“In receiving my degree at CityU, I learned how to lead and what makes great leaders, operate within our legal parameters, work with and lead teams, negotiate and compromise,” he says. ”All of these skills have served me well as a member and chairman of the commission.”

Across the globe in Indonesia, Syafrizal Syaiful is a staff expert for the budget commission in the country’s House of Representatives.

“The education from CityU really helped me a lot to support my job at the House of Representatives…they did not only teach me theoretically but also practically what happened in the (U.S.) market,” explains Syaiful, who earned a MBA with an Financial Management emphasis in 1999.

Adds Syaiful, “At the end if I have enough information regarding those issues then I can serve better the public in Indonesia by giving enough and good information to the elected official in the parliament in making policy.”

This group of volunteers, staffers and high-ranking officials demonstrate the value of a CityU education and how they are changing the world.