{"id":3155,"date":"2026-05-04T12:38:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T19:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/?p=3155"},"modified":"2026-06-25T11:08:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T18:08:55","slug":"remembering-cheryl-simrell%e2%80%91king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/remembering-cheryl-simrell%e2%80%91king\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Cheryl Simrell King"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Dr. Cheryl Simrell King was a living example of one of her favorite poems by Marge Piercy:<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u201cThe people I love the best<\/div>\n
jump into work head first<\/div>\n
without dallying in the shallows<\/div>\n
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
She worked hard, fought strong, and laughed loud. Cheryl’s exemplary career in public administration spanned multiple decades. We were blessed to benefit from this brilliant theorist, leader, and teacher.\u00a0\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
Her principles and ethics of design thinking helped build our MPA program at The Evergreen State College. Just as she drove her rig across this country many times, Cheryl was the driver who compelled our program and the field of public administration to be transformational. She drove us to see \u201cus\u201d in governing. Cheryl, thank you for a job well done.<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
May long walks, good chats, and happy dogs always make us smile as we remember you.\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
-Amy Gould, MPA Faculty<\/strong><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cApril is the cruelest month,\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In\u00a0her profoundly influential\u00a0article,\u00a0<\/span>What\u2019s\u00a0a Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?<\/span><\/i>\u00a0Cheryl calls for higher education to examine\u00a0the\u00a0systemic classism\u00a0baked into our institutions\u00a0and classrooms. She argues that\u00a0college is experienced differently by\u00a0first-generation, working-class\u00a0students\u00a0who\u00a0often\u00a0have\u00a0more\u00a0limited resources\u00a0and\u00a0greater\u00a0obligations\u00a0than their middle- and upper-class colleagues.\u00a0Cheryl once told me that of all her publications,\u00a0<\/span>What\u2019s\u00a0a Girl<\/span><\/i>\u00a0was the most difficult for her to write, and also the\u00a0work\u00a0for\u00a0which she is most proud.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It has been over a month since her passing, and I have just begun to wrap my head around\u00a0what I have\u00a0lost,\u00a0and that feeling of \u201cCheryl\u2019s really gone\u201d\u00a0catches me unexpectedly\u00a0each day. Today,\u00a0I walked past the Legacy Garden on Evergreen\u2019s\u00a0campus,\u00a0and my first thought was that the last time I walked in the\u00a0little\u00a0garden, I\u00a0was with Cheryl.\u00a0\u00a0I hold these moments close because\u00a0they provide\u00a0a\u00a0chance to be with my\u00a0dear\u00a0friend\u00a0again,\u00a0if only in my memory.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With love,\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Doreen\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> (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\u2019s model of interdisciplinary education with team teaching, relatively small seminar groups, narrative evaluations\u2014elements she missed deeply at a more traditional institution.<\/p>\n

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\u2014and willingness, even eagerness, to take on students as co-researchers, to their mutual benefit.<\/p>\n

I recall chatting with her not long after she arrived at Evergreen and she was excited to return here.<\/p>\n

Her co-authored text, Government is Us<\/em>, had recently
https:\/\/patimes.org\/redefining-public-service-through-civic-engagement\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/em> (2005, M.E. Sharpe) and Government is Us: Public Administration in an Anti-Government Era<\/em> (1998, Sage Publications) and editor of Government is Us, 2.0<\/em> (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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Cheryl taught with the program until 2020, which included an extensive term as Director of the program. Leading any master\u2019s program at Evergreen is a challenge, but Cheryl rose to the occasion, moving our program forward and adroitly coordinating our faculty\u2014no 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).<\/p>\n

Cheryl rose to the challenge and was an excellent Director.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t always easy\u2014powerful team teaching isn\u2019t for the faint hearted. But Cheryl was brilliant, funny and very skilled building a team.<\/p>\n

She was also very gracious regarding her successes, including in 2015 the selection of her co-authored article \u201cThe Question of Participation\u201d as one of the Most Influential Articles published over the 75 years of Public Administration Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s students.<\/p>\n

Both of these women have been identified in SWPA\u2019s \u201cProfiles of Outstanding Women in Public Administration\u201d. ASPA is very fortunate to have two such bright stars in the public administration field and dedicated public servants in our ranks.<\/p>\n

I have missed teaching with her. I know somewhere she is on a great and memorable road trip.<\/p>\n

-Larry Geri \u2014 May 7, 2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Cheryl Simrell King was a living example of one of her favorite poems by Marge Piercy: \u00a0 \u201cThe people I love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shallows and swim off with sure strokes… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9454,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mpa-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3155"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3175,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3155\/revisions\/3175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mpanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}