Town Of Mansfield: Mansfield Town Manager Aylesworth Receives ICMA Designation

Press release from the Town of Mansfield:

May 22, 2023

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Ryan Aylesworth, Town Manager of Mansfield, recently received the Credentialed Manager designation from the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Mr. Aylesworth is one of just 1,300 local government management professionals currently credentialed through the ICMA Voluntary Credentialing Program.

ICMA’s mission is to advance professional local government through leadership, management, innovation, and ethics and by increasing the proficiency of appointed chief administrative officers, assistant administrators, and other employees who serve local governments and regional entities around the world. The organization’s 13,000 members in 27 countries also include educators, students, and other local government employees.

To receive the prestigious ICMA credential, a member must have significant experience as a senior management executive in local government; have earned a degree, preferably in public administration or a related field; and demonstrated a commitment to high standards of integrity and to lifelong learning and professional development.

Town Manager Aylesworth has eight years of professional experience in local government as a chief executive/administrative officer. Prior to his appointment in 2020 as Town Manager of Mansfield, he served the communities of Hinsdale, MA and Enfield, NH in a chief appointed official capacity.

As Mansfield’s Town Manager, Mr. Aylesworth is responsible for a number of important leadership functions, including: supervising department heads, overseeing development and execution of annual operating budget and capital planning, serving as chief personnel officer and appointing authority for the Town, playing an active role in shaping collaborative local economic development efforts, pursuing state and federal grants, representing the town on a variety of regional and state-level committees, guiding development of mass communications products, and overseeing staff responsible for the development of long-term/comprehensive planning.

“We congratulate Mr. Aylesworth on earning this ICMA designation,” says Mansfield Mayor Toni Moran. “When the Council hired a new Town Manager in 2020, one of the attributes we looked for was a genuine personal commitment to mastering professional skills. Earning this credential reflects Ryan’s commitment to continually sharpening his knowledge and capacity as a municipal manager, and the Mansfield community will benefit for years to come from his leadership.”

Mr. Aylesworth grew up in western Maine and holds a Bachelor’s of Science from Cornell University and Masters of Public Policy and Administration from the University of Massachusetts. While completing his master’s, he also worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in the agency’s Northeast Regional Office in Hadley, MA. While enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Minnesota where his studies focused on natural resources policy and governance, Mr. Aylesworth continued to serve with USFWS as the lead for governmental affairs in the External Affairs Division of the agency’s Midwest Region.

After later serving as the Executive Director of a small national environmental nonprofit organization, Mr. Aylesworth transitioned to a career in local government. He was appointed the first-ever Town Administrator in the Town of Hinsdale, Massachusetts. Mr. Aylesworth then served as Town Manager of Enfield, NH where he oversaw the design and construction of numerous facility/infrastructure projects, long-range strategic planning, and significant improvement in the Town’s financial condition.

Since coming to Mansfield in 2020, Mr. Aylesworth has helped continue to strengthen the Town’s financial condition, prioritized strategic planning initiatives focusing on the Town facilities and parks and recreation resources, presided over the construction of a new consolidated elementary school (the first newly constructed “net zero” public school in CT), facilitated the acquisition of competitive grants for key public infrastructure projects, implemented impactful American Rescue Plan Act investments, modernized the budgeting process, and dramatically expanded public engagement and communications efforts.

This press release was produced by the Town of Mansfield. The views expressed here are the author’s own.