“April is the cruelest month,” and so it was April of 2026 when we lost someone extraordinary. Cheryl Simrell King was a nationally recognized scholar, talented educator, fully-engaged community member, and beloved mentor and friend.  

In her profoundly influential article, What’s a Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Cheryl calls for higher education to examine the systemic classism baked into our institutions and classrooms. She argues that college is experienced differently by first-generation, working-class students who often have more limited resources and greater obligations than their middle- and upper-class colleagues. Cheryl once told me that of all her publications, What’s a Girl was the most difficult for her to write, and also the work for which she is most proud.  

It has been over a month since her passing, and I have just begun to wrap my head around what I have lost, and that feeling of “Cheryl’s really gone” catches me unexpectedly each day. Today, I walked past the Legacy Garden on Evergreen’s campus, and my first thought was that the last time I walked in the little garden, I was with Cheryl.  I hold these moments close because they provide a chance to be with my dear friend again, if only in my memory.  

With love, 

Doreen 

It was in the year 2000. That year the MPA program was authorized to add an additional faculty following our successful program reboot. Cheryl Simrell King was selected and so was returning to the college and our MPA program after a seven-year absence.

I had arrived at Evergreen after she left for the University of Akron and had come to know her a little when we met at various American Society for Public Administration national events. Cheryl had recently co-authored the powerful Government is Us (with former Evergreen MPA faculty Cam Stivers) and was acknowledged as a rising academic star in public administration who was deeply supportive of the ideals of participation and public service. Who could teach a wide array of subjects including research methods. And was very committed to Evergreen’s model of interdisciplinary education with team teaching, relatively small seminar groups, narrative evaluations—elements she missed deeply at a more traditional institution.

We saw immediately how willing Cheryl was to put in the work to truly support students through well-designed classes and assignments, help for students who requested it—and willingness, even eagerness, to take on students as co-researchers, to their mutual benefit.

I recall chatting with her not long after she arrived at Evergreen and she was excited to return here.

Her co-authored text, Government is Us, had recently
https://patimes.org/redefining-public-service-through-civic-engagement/

Cheryl Simrell King, is a member of the faculty in the Graduate Program in Public Administration (MPA) at The Evergreen State College. Coauthor of Transformative Public Service: Portraits of Theory in Practice (2005, M.E. Sharpe) and Government is Us: Public Administration in an Anti-Government Era (1998, Sage Publications) and editor of Government is Us, 2.0 (2011, M.E. Sharpe) as well as articles in other trade press and academic journals, she writes and practices in the areas of democratizing and transforming public administration, accountability, sustainability and the relationships among and between citizens and their governments. King’s current public service work focuses on transformational sustainability in local governments (in partnership with the City of Olympia) and assisting local government officials in designing and implementing citizen engagement endeavors.

Cheryl taught with the program until 2020, which included an extensive term as Director of the program. Leading any master’s program at Evergreen is a challenge, but Cheryl rose to the occasion, moving our program forward and adroitly coordinating our faculty—no easy feat. As the college has an undergraduate focus in its DNA, in the past that has led (fortunately this is beginning to change and the masters programs are being recognized for their important contributions to the college).

Cheryl rose to the challenge and was an excellent Director.

I was fortunate to teach with her on many MPA core class teaching teams over that period, and it was an honor. She had a vast knowledge of the field, a willingness to try new approaches to teaching and was a great and supportive teacher and colleague who subtly encouraged those around her to up their game. Our weekly faculty seminars were memorable as Cheryl pushed us to talk through knotty concepts and issues. It wasn’t always easy—powerful team teaching isn’t for the faint hearted. But Cheryl was brilliant, funny and very skilled building a team.

She was also very gracious regarding her successes, including in 2015 the selection of her co-authored article “The Question of Participation” as one of the Most Influential Articles published over the 75 years of Public Administration Review.

Throughout her time at the college Cheryl was a consummate colleague and friend, yet always found the time and energy to continue to publish important books and research and support local projects supporting public service and the Olympia community. She had a powerful impact on our program and on a generation of our program’s students.

Both of these women have been identified in SWPA’s “Profiles of Outstanding Women in Public Administration”. ASPA is very fortunate to have two such bright stars in the public administration field and dedicated public servants in our ranks.

I have missed teaching with her. I know somewhere she is on a great and memorable road trip.

-Larry Geri — May 7, 2026