City Manager Lori Ann Farrell Harrison presented Senior Management Analyst Hadassa Jakher with the City Manager Leadership Award for the month of August.

“Hadassa is the consummate utility player and supports the City Manager’s Office in various tasks including public relations, outreach, finance, and budgeting capacities,” Farrell Harrison said. “She is a pleasure to work with and is an exceptional member or our team and our entire CostaMazing family.”

In addition to supporting Administration, Communications & Marketing, and Constituent Services Teams, she has also assisted in myriad special projects with the City Manager and Deputy City Manager, including the Strategic Plan — one of the most important documents aside from Budget.

She has been instrumental in the area of communications, especially bilingual communications as she has assisted in the translation of over 35 Spanish-language materials. She has created monthly social media plans and collateral for cultural festivities such as Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American and Pacific Islander Month.

She is always thinking ahead and developing creative ways to improve employee morale. Some of these ideas have transformed into events and programs coordinated by the City Manager’s Office. Most notably, Jakher has assisted divisions within the department in “clean up” invoices in certain accounts and took on the development of a better flow of processes.

Jakher joined the City team in 2019 as a part-time Council Aide and assisted City Council with constituent services, outreach, and response to requests. In March 2020, she was promoted to full-time Management Analyst and in April 2023, she was promoted to Senior Management Analyst. 

Before joining Cost Mesa, she was a planning intern for the City of Menifee. She also served as a Public Service Fellow for the Western Riverside Council of Governments. 

Jakher has a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Spanish and minors in Latin American Studies, International Relations, and Law & Society from Cornell University. While at Cornell, she studied abroad and was a Political and Economic Intern for the US Consulate General Barcelona. Jakher also has her Master’s in Public Administration from USC and is pursuing a law degree at Western State College of Law.