Nicole Beckett

Nicole Beckett built her 25-year career in Pennsylvania municipal management from the entry level through every tier of local government to municipal leadership — including 12 years as Borough Manager of Lehighton Borough, one of Pennsylvania’s 35 public power communities, where she directed a full-service municipality with a $20.5 million budget, led approximately 100 employees, and secured more than $13 million in competitive grant funding. She knows full-service municipal operations from the inside — the budget pressures, public safety demands, labor challenges, and day-to-day complexity that good management teams carry so elected officials can lead. Her expertise spans public power administration, municipal finance, economic development, public safety management, public works, and quality-of-life programming. She holds a Master of Public Administration degree and  Bachelor of Arts degree from Kutztown University, is a member of ICMA and APMM, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Municipal Electric Association. A recognized voice in Pennsylvania municipal governance, she has presented at PMEA, APMM, the Local Government Academy, and the Local Government Commission, and committed to staying connected at every level of the field, including administrative assistance to a small borough in northeastern Pennsylvania because the work matters to her at every scale.

As the Meyner Center’s primary staff lead for student engagement, Nicole directs the Municipal Internship Program and related public service programming, dedicated to bringing the next generation into a field she genuinely loves. Her experience at every level of municipal government enables her to lead executive recruitment searches, conduct administrative studies and organizational assessments, perform management consultations and performance evaluations, provide training and education for elected officials and staff, and support financial analyses, strategic workforce and compensation studies, and strategic visioning for municipalities.

Nicole may be contacted by phone at (610) 330-5856 or by email at beckettn@lafayette.edu