President’s Message May 2025

Kenneth N. Wilson, President, NACA

Greetings to all members of the National Association of County Administrators (NACA). It is truly a rewarding experience serving as your President and representing this organization. As county management professionals, we are vitally important during this challenging and unpredictable economic period.

As you know, NACA provides us with a valuable network of professionals who have committed to public service. With them, we can share insights on county-specific management challenges and opportunities. Please get in touch with us if there is anything we can do to assist you in getting involved with our organization.

NACA encourages professional excellence to improve the management of county government. Our members are county administrators & managers from across the country, and many are members of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and their counties belong to the National Association of Counties (NACo).

We are all proud to support professionally administered county government. NACA is valuable in several ways, such as providing a peer network of professional county administrators, promoting continuing professional development, and amplifying the essential work performed by you all every day leading the nation’s counties.

For information on what we are involved in, please check the NACA website for information or follow us on LinkedIn. I very much value every member of this organization, so please feel free to contact me with any ideas on how to make NACA more of a valued resource for you. County government provides many critical and essential services, so let’s all promote our work to the fullest extent possible!

May 8th Virtual Idea Exchange

I want to thank everyone who participated in our 3rd NACA Virtual Idea Exchange held May 8, 2025, and thanks again to our partner Mission Square Retirement for your involvement. Please review our events webpage for details regarding the next exciting upcoming conversation among county administrators and other professionals.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

We are in the middle of Mental Health Awareness month, so please check on those in your community, make sure they know it's okay not to be OK, and residents and staff should get help when they need it. We all know that mental wellness is a part of complete personal wellness. Let’s all stand together as county administrators and managers to encourage our residents to foster healthy habits and practices that support mental well-being, such as physical exercise, mindfulness, and maintaining healthy relationships with others. In May, and every month, let’s beat the stigma associated with mental and behavioral health matters.

2025 NACo Annual Conference - See you there!

I look forward to seeing you all at the 2025 NACo Annual Conference, July 11-14 in Philadelphia City and County, Pa. We will have many NACA events during the conference: two in-person Idea Exchanges on July 12 and 13, NACA’s Annual Membership Meeting on July 12 and NACA’s Reception on the evening of July 12. Please check the conference schedule to confirm dates, times, and location.

Yours Truly,
Kenneth N. Wilson, MPA, CTA, ECI
President, NACA