Meet Creighton Avila!
Creighton is taking on local organizing resonsibilities so ELGL can provide more California-focused topics for webinars, lunch and learn sessions, and blog columns. Please email Creighton if you’re a Californian looking for new ways to engage with ELGL’s mission of connecting, communicating, and educating about local government. Today, Creighton provides an introduction:
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I’m looking forward to working with other ELGL members and the great professional local government organizations in California to provide content that sparks the interest of local government professionals.
I was born and raised in Northern California and started my local government career there as a replacement warehouse clerk by morning, transforming to city mailman, in the afternoon. However, my journey into local government took a roundabout path after two summers as a clerk and mailman for the City of Vacaville.
Upon graduation from the University of Southern California, I worked on the reelection campaign for Governor Gray Davis followed by working in the Governor’s Office as a lead advance. These positions allowed me to meet local government professionals from around the state. A common thread shared by all I met was a fundamental enjoyment for the field and the level of responsibility they felt to improve their communities while juggling a wide range of demands (e.g. public interest groups, state government, federal government, etc.).
I found an immense level of respect for all the local government professionals that I met, and I wanted to positively affect people’s lives like them. After the recall of Governor Davis, I decided to go to graduate school and specialize in local government management.
Like any good Californian would do … I moved to the South. I attended the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In Chapel Hill, I was able to learn from great local government academics and practitioners and more importantly I learned the ways of barbeque.
I stayed in North Carolina after graduation to take an International City/County Management Association Fellowship working for Catawba County. After my fellowship in Catawba County, I worked for Guilford County and the City of Greensboro. At all three locations, I had the opportunity to work with management and boards to help the organizations run more efficiently and effectively through evaluations, performance measurement, and process improvement.
In the last year, I moved back to California after accepting a position in the Chief Administrative Office in El Dorado County. It is great to be back in California, and I hope to meet many of you soon. Please contact me and tell me what educational content ELGL can provide. Also, contact me if you know where I can get some genuine Southern barbeque in Northern California.
What are the next steps?