Devereaux named as fellow to top leadership academy

The county will soon have the opportunity to exchange ideas with the best government minds in the nation.

County Chief Executive Officer Greg Devereaux has been elected as a fellow at the National Academy of Public Administration, where he will join a long list of national dignitaries including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Attorney General Dick Thornburg, former Cabinet Secretary Donna Shalala, and former Sen. Richard Lugar.

Chartered by Congress, the academy is an independent, non-profit, and non-partisan organization established in 1967 to assist local, state, and federal government leaders in building more effective, efficient, accountable, and transparent organizations.

“This is a great honor and a great opportunity for the entire County organization,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman James Ramos. “Our CEO being recognized as one of the country’s top local leaders shows the strength and resilience of San Bernardino County.”

Mr. Devereaux was nominated to the fellowship by Academy Board of Directors member and retired long-time Southern California Association of Governments Executive Director Mark Pisano.

The academy includes more than 800 fellows, among them former cabinet officers, members of Congress, governors, mayors, and state legislators, as well as prominent scholars, business executives, and public administrators.

The academy helps government agencies address their critical management challenges through in-depth studies and analyses, advisory services and technical assistance, congressional testimony, forums and conferences, and online stakeholder engagement.

The National Academy is the latest of several boards that have tapped into Mr. Devereaux’s expertise in local government management. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the graduate programs in planning at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at USC. He is also chair of the advisory board for the Department of Public Administration, California State University, San Bernardino, and is the visiting resident at the West Virginia University Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Public Administration.

Mr. Devereaux is a past member of the advisory committee for the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure at USC. In 2014, he was a presenter at the Ethics and Governance Program at the University of California, Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy. In 2009, Mr. Devereaux was appointed by the League of California Cities to the California Air Resources Board to the Regional Targets Advisory Committee, which advises the California Air Resources Board, on greenhouse gas reduction under SB 375. And he is a Past President of the California Redevelopment Association and has served on multiple California League of Cities committees.

In 2015, Mr. Devereaux became the 59th recipient of the Clarence A. Dykstra Award for Excellence in Government from the Southern California Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration. In 2014, Mr. Devereaux received the Southern California Association of Governments President’s Award for Public Service Leader of the Year. He was also the recipient of the American Society for Public Administration Inland Empire Chapter’s 2008 Outstanding Senior Administrator Award and the Building Industry Association Baldy View Chapter’s 2007 Good Government Award.

In 2005 Mr. Devereaux received the James S. Thalman Memorial Public Services Award from the League of California Cities Inland Empire Division, and in 2000 was named “Management Leader of the Year” by the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Riverside.