Who we are
Funkhouser & Associates is a consulting firm founded by Mark Funkhouser, a longtime public servant and a former publisher of Governing magazine. As mayor of Kansas City during the Great Recession, Mark has direct experience with managing government through a fiscal crisis. Funkhouser & Associates was founded on the idea that we can build a better government by building trusted relationships with each other and government partners.
MEET THE TEAM
Mark Funkhouser, president of Funkhouser & Associates, is a municipal finance expert who has spent decades in government service. As the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, during the Great Recession, Mark made the tough choices to put his city on the path to fiscal sustainability. That experience, his long tenure as an auditor and his most recent post as the publisher of Governing magazine have made him a trusted and credible advisor to government officials across the country. Mark holds a master’s degree in social work from West Virginia University, an M.B.A. from Tennessee State University, and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in public administration and urban sociology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Julia Burrows
Julia Burrows is a consultant at Funkhouser & Associates, a local government practitioner and policy advisor with decades of experience in sustainability, housing, civic engagement, and economic development. Julia joined F&A after serving as Special Assistant to Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg advising on climate mitigation, COVID-19 response and homelessness. She previously served as Director of the Governing Institute and in various roles during her 22 years with the City of Roseville, CA including Deputy City Manager. Julia holds a B.S. from the University of California, Davis in Environmental Policy Analysis & Planning.
Liz Farmer, a consultant at Funkhouser & Associates, is a fiscal policy expert and writer whose areas of expertise include budgets, fiscal distress, tax policy and pensions. She takes complicated topics and writes about them in language everybody can understand and her work has appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal and other national publications. She is also a fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government writing about the policy implications of the future of work. Liz holds a B.A. from the George Washington University in American history, film and television production and a Master of Journalism from the University of Maryland.
Veronika Zubo, a consultant at F&A, is an expert project manager and policy analyst. She has over a decade of experience in developing leadership programs and educational campaigns geared at public sector innovation and performance improvement. Previously, she helped design and implement strategic initiatives at Governing and later at Foreign Policy magazine, examining emerging trends and issues at the intersection of policy, society and business. She is passionate about supporting collective impact and good governance in local government through cultivating knowledge sharing, public-private partnerships and strategic planning capacity. Veronika holds an M.A. in political science
from California State University Long Beach, and is originally from Vienna, Austria.
Megan Gerken is F&A’s marketing and engagement intern and has worked with governments, private corporations and nonprofit organizations. Her interests include studying the intersection between public and private entities to identify areas for successful collaboration. Megan holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of South Florida and a Professional Certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace. She is studying for her M.P.A. at the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs and is also pursuing a Graduate Certificate in International Affairs at UGA’s School of Law.
OUR CLIENTS include
