Page 26 - Sept-Oct2023 Vol 41 No 3

GERMANTOWN By Lisa Hood Skinner
Howlett Awarded 2023 Scholarship

The 2023 TCAPWA $4,000 Scholarship is awarded
to Tiffany Howlett, City of Germantown’s Sanitation/
Administrative Coordinator for the Public Works
Department. She is pursuing her graduate degree in
Public Administration at University of Memphis, with a
concentration in public management and policy.
Her supervisor, Bo Mills, Germantown’s Director of Public
Works, calls her “the perfect representative for TCAPWA’s
scholarship honor. She is an excellent student and will
certainly use her Master’s Degree in Public Administration
to grow herself in responsibilities within the field of Public
Works.”
The TCAPWA Scholarship was established to promote
the profession of Public Works and to assist Public Works
employees or their children in Tennessee. Two $2,000
scholarships can be awarded each year, but sometimes a
single $4,000 scholarship is awarded if there is only one
qualified applicant.
Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible
for consideration. It is expected that applicants are students
pursuing a field of study related to Public Works. Howlett
said she hopes to use her degree “to cultivate a more
sustainable and beautiful Germantown for current and future
generations to experience and enjoy.”
“Through this program, I will have the opportunity to
leverage skills in policy development, strategic planning,
and program evaluation, all while contributing to a cycle of
continuous improvement,” she said. She was Germantown’s
2022 City Employee of the Year.
Howlett has been in her current position since July 2022, Administrative Assistant.”
and previously worked for a year as City of Germantown “Our Solid waste collections contract is complex with
Public Works Administrative Assistant. Before that she rear door and curbside garbage options, and weekly yard
worked in Cordova, Tenn. for Insight Risk Management and waste and collection issues,” he explained. “She works as a
has been in various management positions over a period of go-between for our customers and our contractor, and is in
three years at Memphis Botanic Garden. constant contact with our contracted collector, keeping them
She’s become active in Public Works-associated groups, in the know about solid waste collection issues. This requires
and joined TCAPWA earlier this year. She’s a member of the an intricate knowledge of our multi-year collection and
City of Germantown Natural Resources Commission and disposal contracts and the tact to ask for assistance and to
is a Young Professional with the Solid Waste Association of prod for optimum service.”
North America (SWANA). She also served on the City of While acknowledging she serves in a busy position,
Germantown Neighborhood Preservation Commission. Howlett said one of the things she enjoys most about her job
She was in Leadership Germantown’s Class of 2021 and “is the ability to serve the community in which I live” and “to
is a member of a wide variety of community boards and apply creative practices to my work.”
organizations, including the Germantown Women’s Club,
Farmington North Neighborhood Association, and was in
the Class of 2019 Germantown Police Department Citizen’s Applications for the 2024 TCAPWA
Police Academy. Scholarships will be accepted starting
Mills said one of Howlett’s strongest assets is her ability
to recognize and solve complex situations throughout the in the Spring of 2024. Please check
various Public Works departments. “Since her hiring, she tennessee.apwa.org after the first of
has been very responsive to customer issues and needs for
the Public Works Department. Over the past year she has the year for the current application.
overseen Solid Waste Collections and served as department
26 TPW September/October 2023