Strategic Planning Partner
Harrison-Lee Development Consulting Services
Interim County Administrator, Unified Government Wyandotte County
City Administrator, City of Gardner
Executive Director, State of Kansas Office of Recovery
Deputy City Manager, City of Daytona Beach
Chief of Development, City of Orlando
Assistant City Manager, City of Titusville
Cheryl Harrison-Lee is an accomplished municipal administrator in Florida and Kansas. Over her 39 year career in public administration, Ms. Harrison-Lee’s experience includes employment in statewide, regional, and local government entities as well as private consulting firms.
She was appointed by Governor Kelly to serve as Executive Director for the Office of Recovery and established the framework, strategic priorities, and financial reporting for use of the $1.034B CARES federal allocation to the State of Kansas to address the impacts of the COVID-19 global pandemic. She led the effort to distribute federal grant funding to over 100 counties statewide and train cities, counties, and state agencies on the use of federal funds to address the health and economic impacts of COVID-19.
She currently serves as the CEO of Harrison-Lee Development Consulting Company. In this role, she is responsible for preparing the action plan to implement the Cultural Assessment Report for the City of Kansas City, Missouri Fire Department. She serves
as the chief technical advisor for the City of Kansas City, Missouri Central City Economic Development Sales Tax District providing expertise on the $100M sales tax. In this role, she created the district’s first strategic plan which received the State of Missouri’s 2021 American Planning Association Outstanding Public Outreach, Program, Project, Tool, or Community Initiative Award.
As the City Administrator for the City of Gardner from 2012 to 2018, she led development of organizational assessments and restructuring to transform the city to a high-performance organization, development of a 20 year Capital Improvement Program with included construction of a new public safety justice center and positioning the city for annexation of 6,000 acres and over $400 million of private investments. She led employee engagement efforts which resulted in achieving results consistent with Fortune 100 companies. Her work resulted in the City of Gardner receiving its first national recognition for developing the strategic plan and performance management system the Certificate of Excellence from the International City County Managers Association and the city’s first Government Finance Officers Association Distinguished Budget Award.
Ms. Harrison-Lee has initiated and led several citizen engagement efforts. At the City of Daytona Beach, she was responsible for working with over 100 stakeholders as part of a community-wide effort to develop a new vision for the city. Additionally, she led the staff liaison efforts for ten council appointed boards.
Ms. Harrison-Lee holds a graduate degree from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina. She is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program. She was featured nationally in Essence magazine for her accomplishments in the profession and recognized by the University of Florida with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Ms. Harrison-Lee is a Credentialed Manager through the International City Management Association (ICMA) and a Certified Planner through the American Planning Association (APA).