Meet GOVERNING's 2011 Public Officials of the Year

To read the press release on the 2011 Public Officials of the Year, please click here.

Every year since 1994, GOVERNING has honored individual state and local government officials for outstanding accomplishment by naming them Public Officials of the Year. Elected, appointed and career officials from any branch of state or local government are eligible. Our readers are invited to nominate individuals who have had a notable positive impact on their department or agency, community or state.

GOVERNING annually receives several hundred nominations from individuals in the public and private sectors. In addition, GOVERNING staff consults experts and scholars in the field, and also nominates outstanding individuals they encounter in the course of their work. Nominations are evaluated by a selection committee, which, after painstaking research, chooses the winners.

Since their inception, the Public Officials of the Year awards have become the nation's preeminent honor for state and local officials. The awards are regularly cited by journalists, governmental leaders and the winners themselves.

The Public Officials of the Year are honored at an awards banquet in the fall, and their profiles appear in the November issue of GOVERNING.

The 2011 Public Officials of the Year are:

Mike Beebe, Governor of Arkansas

Matthew Goldstein, Chancellor, The City University of New York

Ron Haddad, Chief of Police, City of Dearborn, Mich.

Lee E. Haworth, Circuit Judge, 12th Judicial Circuit Court, State of Florida

Nigel Jacob and Chris Osgood, Co-Chairs, Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston

Dan Liljenquist, Senator, State of Utah

Joanie Mahoney, County Executive, Onondaga County, New York

Kasim Reed, Mayor, City of Atlanta