The American Public Works Association (APWA) awarded current acting deputy city manager Mark Jackson with the 2024 William E. Korbitz Award during the 39th Annual Colorado Chapter Awards Luncheon on Oct. 22, 2024. This award is given to an individual who displays the character, integrity and leadership of Mr. William Korbitz, the American Public Works Association Colorado Chapter’s first president.
Acting Public Works Director Jodi Lessman and City Engineer Nicole Hahn joined APWA -Colorado president Jay Goldie in presenting Jackson with the award.
“To be recognized by peers, not only for my work with the American Public Works Association, but also for career accomplishments and contributions to the community, is the ultimate honor for me. To be mentioned alongside the best of Public Works leadership over the past thirty years is humbling to say the least. I am beyond honored, and feel blessed to been able to serve the amazing communities of northern Colorado over the course of my Public Works career,” Jackson says.
Under APWA guidelines, “The recipient is evaluated on general accomplishments over their career; leadership characteristics that have positively impacted their agency, department, staff and community; contributions to the Colorado Chapter; contributions to APWA outside of the Colorado Chapter; involvement that has positively impacted their community; and all other contributions and involvement throughout their life. This year’s winner has exemplified and embodied every aspect of the selection criteria.”
Jackson has more than 30 years of experience in local and regional government and has served those years in key leadership roles. In 2023, Jackson served as APWA’s Colorado Chapter president. In February 2024, Jackson joined the acting city manager Rod Wensing as the acting deputy city manager to lead the City of Loveland during a leadership transition. In this role, Jackson guided a dedicated team in navigating the City of Loveland’s challenging decision-making process to implement a reduced services budget across departments. Over the past 10 months, he led impactful discussions with Loveland City Council, executive leadership, managerial teams and key stakeholders. Through his visionary leadership, Jackson laid the groundwork for a thorough review of city services and programs to identify those that would need significant reduction or elimination.
During these hard conversations and decision-making processes, the city was able to provide strategic budget implementations across departments. Additionally, Jackson has supported the City Manager’s Office with managing seven departments: public works, water and power, parks and recreation, cultural services, library, development services and IT.
Jackson was hired as the City of Loveland’s public works director in 2018. Previously, he served as the City of Fort Collins’ deputy director for the department of community planning, development and transportation. Jackson holds two master’s degrees from the University of Colorado Denver in urban and regional planning, and Colorado State University in sociology. He earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial-organizational psychology from Colorado State University.