Knope of the Week: Amanda Lamb, Oregon Secretary of State

Posted on November 7, 2014


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Determined. Truly Amazing. Good Company

Amanda Lamb (LinkedIn and Twitter) is everywhere – she’s writing articles for #ELGL14, she’s organizing the first ever Portland State alumni event for public administration students, and she’s working her day job as a performance auditor with the Oregon Secretary of State. ELGL is just one of the many organizations benefiting from Amanda’s work ethic. We admire Amanda’s drive to carry out new ideas and ability to bring diverse groups together. We had little trouble getting others to confirm what ELGL knows – Amanda is a making an impact throughout the public sector.

Background Check

0a88541Amanda Lamb is a Performance Auditor for the Oregon Secretary of State Audits Division, and has previously held positions in performance auditing and policy analysis at Multnomah and Clackamas Counties in Oregon and the City of San Diego in California. Amanda currently serves the Association of Local Government Auditors as the Quarterly journal editor and a member and former chair of the Publications Committee. Amanda is currently the Editor of the ‘ALGA Quarterly’ and she was a member of the Online Resources Committee where she assisted with developing the new ALGA website.

Amanda has a Masters of Public Administration from Portland State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from Lewis & Clark College.

 Word on the Street

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Alexandra Fercak, Senior Management Auditor, City of Portland

“Amanda was a fellow member of the Online Resources Committee at the Association of Local Government Auditors. She was instrumental in helping us transition to a new website and she continues to assist with website editing and troubleshooting (I often wished we could clone her J). She is someone who thinks outside the box when solving problems and is not afraid to embrace new technology, including learning website editing. Her positive energy was extremely valuable when introducing the new website to the ALGA members. Currently she is the editor of the ALGA Quarterly Journal, where she continues to work on finding new ways of communicating with members and presenting the association’s publications.”

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Kirsten Wyatt, Assistant City Manager, City of West Linn

“Working with Amanda on #ELGL14 was a dream.  She’s the kind of worker who takes a project, owns it, and runs with it – and then produces great results.  Plus, she’s really fun to ride the Pedalounge with, and she has big hopes and aspirations for what it means to be a public servant. Essentially, Amanda is the kind of person who makes ELGL such a unique association of people who are passionate about public service, and it’s only fitting that she’s our Knope this week.”

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Shanda Miller, Principal Auditor, Oregon Secretary of State

“Amanda demonstrates her leadership by not only recognizing problems but offering solutions, she volunteers to lead change efforts, and she enjoys presenting information and ideas. Amanda is very positive and has high energy. She is also easily humored and has a great laugh. She is very competent at what she does and is also a hard worker. Amanda is a huge asset to my team and my office.”

Connor McDonnell, Vice President of the Portland State PA Alumni Association

Amanda Lamb is hardworking, detail-oriented, and dedicated to local government and the Public Administration Alumni Association at Portland State University.  She pioneered the PA Alumni Association and successfully chaired the First Annual PA Connect.  She leads by example and follows up on her commitments.  She is a very, very well deserved Knope of the Week.  Congratulations to Amanda!

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Masami Nishishiba, Associate Professor, Portland State University

Amanda gets things done. Once she puts her mind around, she will never let it go until it gets done. I saw her in action when she was a student at PSU. As a president of PASA (Public Administration Student Association), Amanda was determined to make the organization active and vibrant. Sure enough, under her leadership together with other PASA board members, she invigorated PASA and established the foundation of the organization. Amanda also decided that our alumni need organizing. So she started the PA alumni organization. Amanda worked with me on the evaluation of the Clackamas County’s 4-day work week pilot project, while she was an intern at the Clackamas County. She dug into a complex set of data provided an insightful analysis. She remains one of the most reliable colleague whom I can count on when I want things get done.

Caroline Zavitkovski, Staff Auditor, Oregon Secretary of State

Amanda is truly amazing. She has a quick and poised response to every situation, which is frustratingly (almost) always brilliant and right. She is a true collaborator, dedicated public servant, and self-proclaimed local government nerd. What I appreciate most about working with Amanda is that she tells it straight and gets it done. And she does it with humility, respect, and a wicked cutting dry wit. She is a Knope every day.

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Kevin Kecskes, Associate Professor, Portland State University

As Hatfield School of Government, division of Public Administration faculty liaison to the emerging PA Alumni Association, I am so pleased to learn of your award to Amanda for her exemplary work not only for the highly successful recent “PA Connect” event, but for her work overall to build an important, new organization where there was only hopes of one not long ago. Great choice; well deserved. Bravo to Amanda, and to all.

Kent Wyatt, Senior Management Analyst, City of Tigard

I love Amanda’s commitment to increasing networking in the public sector. I had the privilege of being part of the first PSU PA Connects event. You would have never known it was the inaugural event. Amanda and the team of PSU alums did an incredible job of providing a networking and learning opportunity.

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