NORFOLK – Dr. Ron Carlee said he hopes he never retires.
The work of local government, after all, is never done.
“My mission is to recruit and train the next generation of local government leaders and to be out in the field working with the people who are doing local government business,” said Carlee, a clinical assistant professor at the School of Public Service in Old Dominion University’s Strome College of Business, during a recent video interview highlighting his career.
And although retirement is not on the agenda, after nearly 50 years working in local government, Carlee’s contributions to the management profession have been recognized with a prestigious award from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA).
The ICMA Distinguished Service Award is given to managers who have made an outstanding contribution to the management profession and local government. Recipients of the award have demonstrated exceptional service to their community and have made major contributions beyond direct service to local government, according to the ICMA.
In his remarks accepting the award, Carlee said that he could not have achieved distinguished service without the distinguished service of his wife, Emily Cross. In addition to her own career, she has been actively engaged in Carlee’s work since they became a couple in 1986.
Carlee joined ODU’s faculty in 2016, but before then, he was a successful government administrator, with roles as county manager and city manager in Arlington County, Va., and Charlotte, N.C., respectively. Notably, Carlee was serving as manager of Arlington County during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon. The county’s well-planned response under Carlee’s leadership during that time and the weeks following the tragedy is now a model taught in emergency management classrooms worldwide, according to ICMA.
During his time at the Strome College of Business’s School of Public Service, Carlee has been instrumental in the Agile Team Norfolk program, which is designed to equip municipal employees with the tools needed to problem-solve within their organizations. Employees learn skills such as negotiation, project management and issue resolution that they can then apply to their respective roles within the city.
More than 600 employees have been through various modes of the program, the flagship of which is a 40-contact-hour academy. Through fiscal year 2024, the project had grossed $429,904, with a net income of $181,090.
Over the summer, Carlee negotiated a new five-year Memorandum for Understanding for Agile. Academy XIII began in September.
“Although my time working as a city and county manager has come to an end, I have found true fulfillment in my work with the newest generation of leaders in local government,” Carlee said. “There's no greater reward than seeing others carry forward the principles of ethical governance and community service to make a real difference in the world. And even more rewarding is working with the committed students in the MPA program.”