High Five with Kelly DiMartino: A Career Built on Communication, Grounded in Trust
Nestled along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, Fort Collins, Colorado, is home to about 170,000 residents and Colorado State University. Known for its vibrant downtown, craft brewing scene, and outdoor lifestyle, Fort Collins consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in the United States.
I’ve known City Manager Kelly DiMartino for years, going back to her PIO days when we were both members of 3CMA. Watching her journey from communications professional to city manager has been inspiring. Today she leads Fort Collins with a steady hand, drawing on a career that grew across multiple departments and leadership roles.
This article is part of my ongoing High Five with a City Manager series, where I profile leaders doing the difficult, often unseen work of city management. You can find other examples here.
Here’s Kelly’s take on her career path, the challenges of leading in today’s environment, and what she’s learned along the way. Her responses have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
1. Career Path
I often tell people I got into this work by accident. Right out of college, I landed a job as public information officer for Grand Island, Nebraska. I fell in love with local government—the chance to directly impact people’s daily lives through services was incredibly rewarding.
A colleague pointed me to an opening in Fort Collins for a communications and public involvement coordinator. I didn’t expect to get the job, but after visiting the community, I immediately knew it was where I wanted to be. What started as a one-person shop eventually grew into a full-scale marketing and communications team.
From there, I moved into city management, with stops in HR and technology services, before becoming deputy city manager. When my longtime mentor Darren Atteberry stepped down after 17 years as city manager, I served in the interim role. That’s when I realized this work resonated deeply with me and that I had something to offer. After a nationwide search, I was honored to be selected as city manager.
2. Looking Back
What I wish I’d known as a mid-level manager is the importance of looking up and out in addition to down and across. It’s natural to focus on your team and their performance, but what sets strong leaders apart is the ability to also understand broader context—what’s happening across the organization, in the community, and in the profession. That perspective is invaluable.
3. Biggest Internal Challenge
Our biggest internal challenge is navigating today’s leadership environment. Resources are tightening, community expectations are rising, and our workforce is facing complexities like never before—mental health needs, post-COVID flexibility expectations, and shifting roles as advocates or neutral advisors.
The tension is how to balance fiscal discipline with a commitment to human flourishing. It requires deep business insight and organizational agility, but also empathy. That balance is what keeps me up at night.
4. Biggest External Challenge
Polarization is the external challenge that worries me most. People are quick to jump to conclusions before understanding facts or tradeoffs. In Fort Collins, we have ambitious climate and housing goals, and achieving both requires difficult choices.
National rhetoric is seeping into local governance, which risks undermining the currency we trade in every day—trust. At the same time, AI and other technologies present both exciting opportunities and risks. The challenge is to use them responsibly to strengthen community rather than deepen divides.
5. Best Learning Experience
I’ve been fortunate to have great learning opportunities. The most impactful was the Harvard Kennedy School program for senior executives in state and local government, which I attended just as I was stepping into the city manager role. Being immersed in conversations with both appointed and elected officials was invaluable.
Closer to home, our organization has embraced the Enneagram as a leadership development tool. It’s helped us build self-awareness, understand motivations, and create a culture of curiosity and appreciation. It’s been transformative for me personally and for our leadership team.
Closing Thought
Kelly’s career reflects the power of saying yes to opportunities, even when they weren’t part of a master plan. Her emphasis on trust, process integrity, and resilience in what she calls the “messy middle” of governing is a reminder of what effective city management looks like in an era of rising expectations and polarization.
GGF readers will be hearing more from Fort Collins soon. As a well-known high-performing organization, the city has been putting strategic foresight into practice— a topic I’ll be covering in an upcoming piece.
Onward and Upward.