LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Jerry Abramson, the former longtime mayor of Louisville who also served as Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, is returning home to take a job at Bellarmine University after working in President Barack Obama’s administration.
The school announced Wednesday that Abramson will be an executive in residence, teaching courses on leadership and civics and serving as a guest lecturer in other classes. He’ll assume another key role - developing and directing a new institute for local government leadership with the goal of training local officials nationwide.
Abramson, a former president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, also will develop seminars for elected officials on Bellarmine’s campus, the school said.
Abramson will begin his duties on the Louisville campus next week, the school said. He previously served as an executive in residence at Bellarmine in 2011, before he was elected lieutenant governor.
“I’m excited to return to Louisville and be back on a college campus, working directly with young people,” Abramson said in a release from the school. “I’m looking forward to bringing my experience in local, state and federal government to Bellarmine’s students, and helping local governments across the nation innovate and better serve their communities through a new institute that I’m developing.”
Bellarmine’s interim president, Doris Tegart, praised Abramson as “one of the most dynamic and energetic public servants in our city, commonwealth and nation … He will be a remarkable asset for Bellarmine’s students, with his deep understanding of public policy issues.”
Abramson was a popular fixture in Louisville government for decades, first as a city alderman and then as mayor of the state’s largest city. He served as mayor from 1986 to 1999. He returned for another stint, from 2003 to 2010, as mayor of Louisville’s consolidated local government.
Abramson took on a statewide role as Kentucky’s lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2014 during most of Democrat Steve Beshear’s second term as governor. Abramson left Beshear’s administration when Obama chose him for the job as his director of intergovernmental affairs. In that role, he served as the Democratic president’s liaison to state and local governments.
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