"Uniting Around a Common Vision"
by Valerie Lemmie
Published June, 2000
I am extremely pleased to be with you this evening and share in your graduation celebration. It is a distinct honor to join you, the Y2K class, on such an auspicious occasion. Your jubilation this afternoon will be matched only by the unique challenges and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities ahead of you as public administrators and environmental professionals.
As both a practicing administrator and environmentalist, I take special delight in having an opportunity to share my thoughts about the world which you are about to enter.
The Chinese have a saying, "May you live in interesting times" which is understood by them as both a blessing and a curse. And I must say, I know of no other generation that will face such interesting, changing times, and that will have as much influence on the future shape of the world, its institutions, moral fabric, inter-global relationships and humanity, as will the class of the new millennium.| next |
Valerie Lemmie, City Manager of the City of Dayton, Ohio, received her bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of Missouri in 1973, and her master's degree in urban affairs and public planning from Washington University in St. Louis in 1975. She assumed the position of Dayton city manager in 1996, after serving as city manager in Petersburg, Virginia. In Dayton, Lemmie is responsible for 16 city departments, 3,000 full-time employees, and a city budget of $800 million dollars. She interacts with citizen and community groups, develops creative solutions to urban problems, supervises the implementation of city policy, controls government finances, and provides continuity and support to the mayor and the city commission.
Lemmie delivered these remarks at the 2000 graduation recognition ceremony for the masters students at the Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs in Bloomington.
A. James Barnes, dean of the School, said in his introduction of Lemmie, "Those on our faculty who teach the city managers of tomorrow have watched with excitement and anticipation as the City of Dayton continues its renaissance. The redevelopment of the riverfront, new downtown housing, the re-establishment of brownfields, and the development of a major new research park are accomplishments in which Valerie and others in the city's administration can take great pride."
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The School of Public and Environmental Affairs . Indiana University
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