Women candidates for Lake Worth City Manager

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What the women candidates say about themselves that was not necessarily said in their resumes. This information is taken off the web sites where they are employed. This is only posted as a reminder that women are still very much a minority in the field of professional city manager. Please read the back-up on-line to get in-depth information that these candidates wanted to present.

Bonnie Therrien

is a senior vice-president of the Mercer Group. (Remember them? that is the same group with Connie Hoffman, the professional head-hunter, who brought us candidates the last go around that eventually resulted in the employment of Susan Stanton). Most recently she served as Town Manager of Wethersfield, Connecticut. Ms. Therrien has over 24 years of experience in local government management. Her positions have ranged from the Deputy City Manager of Hartford, Connecticut, with a population of over 100,000 to the first Town Manager of Berlin, Connecticut, a community of 10,000. She has served as the Assistant Town Manager and Interim Town Manager of Enfield, Connecticut for close to seven years; Assistant City Manager of Jacksonville, North Carolina and was employed as Town Manager in Wethersfield for over 5 years.

During her public sector career, Ms. Therrien has completed over fifteen budgets proposals, developed strategic plans for the communities she has served, negotiated numerous union contracts, implemented citizen budget forums, developed core service budgets and served as the Personnel Director , hiring numerous senior level Department Heads in such areas as Finance, Town Planners, Economic Development Directors, Director of Public Works, Police and Fire Chiefs and Assistant Managers.

Ms. Therrien holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, a Master of Science in Criminal Justice and a Master of Arts in Public Administration. She has served on numerous committees for the International City and County Management Association (ICMA) and is an ICMA Credentialed Manager.

Dr. Oel Wingo

earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Florida and has more than 25 years of management experience in the public sector including extensive collaboration with private sector entities. She has provided training and given presentations both nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics from governance and management to current issues in education.

An accomplished writer, her works have appeared in a number of scholarly journals. Following Hurricane Katrina, Wingo's personal journal containing a description of her experiences as team leader of an emergency response team was published in local newspapers. Dr. Wingo maintains a number of professional organization memberships including the International City/County Management Association and the Alliance for Local Government Innovations Group. She also serves on various professional, not-for-profit and civic boards.