Lisa Shaffer

Ms. Shaffer is a dedicated public servant with 18 years of progressive experience in local government, most recently as Chief Administrative Officer for Salt Lake City. As the City’s CAO, she managed day-to-day government operations, appointed personnel, set strategic direction to achieve the City’s goals, and led a cross-departmental team that managed the City’s annual budget of $2 billion. Ms. Shaffer is adept at organizational and fiscal optimization, including succession planning. Her facilitation, vision, and project execution skills enabled her to create the City’s first Innovations Team, which implemented Citywide Enterprise Resource Planning solutions for Finance and Human Resources functions. She also collaborated with the Fire Chief to implement an alternative response team to respond to public safety calls for service. Before serving as CAO, she was the City’s Public Services Department Director and transitioned the City to a mobile platform for asset management, which facilitated the creation of a comprehensive asset management plan. Utilizing gathered data, she formed the City’s first capital projects team. She also served many roles within the City’s Community and Economic Development Department, including as Project Manager responsible for implementing a database to track building permit processes, which required her to maximize current functions and recommend process changes. She was the City’s single point of contact for complex development projects, which required collaborative team-building among external partners and internal stakeholders.

With a background that enables her to understand and influence every function and operation of local government, Ms. Shaffer is eager to help cities, counties, and districts improve. She is most proud of her ability to identify current issues, assemble collaborative teams, responsively enact a relevant and timely vision (including technological implementation), and work productively among stakeholders with disparate interests.