Dickson Projects Director Christopher Hooper Completes CPM Program

City of Dickson Projects and Safety Director Christopher Hooper has completed the 2024 Certified Public Manager (CPM) program through the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service. A graduation ceremony was held Feb. 4 at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Based in the Naifeh Center for Effective Leadership, the CPM program is accredited by the National Certified Manager Program. The CPM program is designed to provide an in-depth, comprehensive, competency-based, nationally certified development program for all managers from state and local government organizations, universities and those from business and industry who desire training and certification.

The Tennessee CPM program is a 300-hour hybrid program designed for working professionals with busy schedules by combining online instruction with monthly in-person classes over the course of a year. CPM Program Manager Trent Clagg welcomed the almost 80 participants in the seventh year of the program and their families to the graduation ceremony.

“This was a 300-hour certification… and if you do the math real quick of our graduates here, that’s over 21,000 hours of study this year,” Clagg said. “21,000 hours to make Tennessee better.”

“Today marks a milestone, not just in your professional journey but in your service to offer something greater than yourselves,” NCEL Executive Director Dr. Macel Ely told the graduates. “Government is more than policies and procedures. It’s about serving people, having purpose and making progress.”

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director Brad Nealon was the graduation’s keynote speaker.

“I don’t know a lot of you here in the room, but just by you being here and taking on this responsibility for a year, it tells me a lot about you,” Nealon said. “It tells me that you’re willing to sacrifice, that you’re willing to endure, that you’re willing to grow and better yourself; not only yourself, but your agency, and, as we see throughout the room, your families.”

Hooper began working for the City of Dickson’s Public Works Department as a general laborer in 1996 and advanced as an equipment operator, crew leader, project coordinator and cemetery supervisor. In 2015 he was named the city’s Senior Project Coordinator and added Safety Director duties in 2019. In 2022 he was named Project Director/Safety Director, where he oversees multiple grant-funded projects valued at millions of dollars and the city’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration programs, chairs the city’s Safety Committee, coordinates the city’s Title VI Advisory Committee, Americans with Disabilities Act compliance program and Title IX compliance program. In 2024 he added duties as the city’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) coordinator.

A 1996 graduate of Dickson County High School, Hooper has earned Emergency Medical Technician and EMT-IV Therapy certifications from Columbia State Community College, manager of Environmental Safety and Health for general industry and construction industry certifications and Construction Manager diploma from North Carolina State University and is certified by the State of Tennessee as a Municipal Financial Officer and Municipal Clerk and Recorder, along with multiple other certifications.

“My hope is to use the skills that were learned during the past year and the friendships that were made with fellow classmates to help me improve myself and others around me, and to provide a link between other municipal/county/state agencies that have attended this program,” Hooper said. During the program, students must complete a capstone project in order to receive certification.

Hooper’s project entitled Transportation Modernization Program focused on ways municipalities can utilize technology to improve traffic systems. The Naifeh Center for Effective Leadership offers the CPM program January-November in Jackson, Nashville and Knoxville.

For more information on the Naifeh Center for Effective Leadership’s Certified Public Manager program, visit www.leadership.tennessee.edu.