Kirsten Ert
After a nationwide search, the Lakesite Board of Commissioners voted unanimously at its Tuesday meeting to name Kirsten Ert as the new city manager for Lakesite. Ms. Ert will replace Dr. David Edwards who will retire in June after serving in the position for 30 years.
Ms.
Ert is a native of Germany and moved to the United States in 2014. She is a graduate of the University of Hawaii and worked at the Hawaii Legislature as a senate research coordinator. After moving to Chattanooga, she earned her Master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration in local government management. During that time, Ms. Ert worked at Chattanooga State Community College in the Center for Academic Research and Excellence.
Prior to her position as Lakesite City Manager, Ms. Ert held the position of Senior Community Planner for the City of Collegedale. During her tenure, she served as the city liaison for all planning and community development projects and programs. She set up a city-wide strategic planning process, served as the community survey administrator and improved how the city uses social media to engage with residents.
Ms. Ert serves on the Board of the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council and is a member of TCMA (Tennessee City Managers Association), ICMA (International City Managers Association), and the Association for Strategic Planning. She was selected for the ICMA Emerging Leaders Development Program which recognizes promising leaders in local government and helps them build skills in the management profession.
“Lakesite has been extremely fortunate that for the last 30 years we’ve had an excellent city manager running our city like Dr. David Edwards,” said David Howell, mayor of Lakesite. “He has fundamentally changed Lakesite for the good and his impact will be felt forever. I personally have been very blessed to work alongside him for the last 14 years and it’s with a heavy but appreciative heart that I wish him an amazing retirement and I will forever call him a friend. With that said, the business of Lakesite must go on and we are super excited that after a long nationwide search we were able to find such an excellent candidate in Kirsten Ert to begin a new era in Lakesite and take our community to the next level. She is extremely qualified and Lakesite is very blessed to have been able to hire such an outstanding city manager and I can’t wait to see what our future holds.”