Jenny James | Early Career Outreach Committee Chair
The Early Career Outreach Committee (ECOC) took advantage of the 2025 Winter Institute to support early career MME members and students. While the Institute explored topics relevant to every career phase, two specific events focused on the early career.
- Early Career Outreach Dinner: More than forty ECOC representatives, students, and early career members gathered for food and conversation thanks to our sponsor Municipal Financial Consultants, Inc. The Committee achieved its goal of building stronger relationships and generated topics for future ECOC learning sessions.
- Mentor Mentee Relationships Know No Bounds: This session explored strategies and benefits of mentoring through the experiences of MME’s own Chuck Bennet, Dave Faber, and Tim Heiden. They shared countless examples of sharing knowledge, resources, and emotional support. Their relationships define the value of mentoring and many of us left the session inspired to follow their example.
The ECOC now turns our attention to planning a spring learning session and a Summer Workshop activity. The ECOC and Advocacy Committee will also be collaborating on outreach to high school students. Both committees recognize the need to strategically engage young people in the profession so that our communities are in good hands in the future.
Jenny James
Chair, Early Career Outreach Committee
Deputy County Administrator, Kent County
Jenny’s local government career spans 30 years with Montgomery County, Maryland, City of Rockville, Maryland, and Kent County, Michigan. Her roles in those organizations include legislative analyst, assistant city manager, deputy city manager, and deputy county administrator. In her current role, Jenny supports Kent County’s health and human services departments. She served as a regional vice president on the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) Executive Board, chair of the ICMA Board’s Committee on Professional Conduct, and in leadership roles with the Metropolitan Association of Local Government Assistants. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in public management from the University of Maryland at College Park. Jenny is pleased to engage and support newer members of the profession through the Early Career Outreach Committee and appreciates the focus that MME places on recruiting the next generation of local government leaders.