Matt Allen
City Manager
City of Garden City

Matt Allen has been the City Manager for the City of Garden City, KS since June 1, 2008.  Prior to that, Matt served Garden City for six years as the Assistant City Manager.

He leads a municipal government team that is receiving state and national attention for innovation in the areas of public participation, fiscal transparency, economic development, embracing diversity and healthy community design for rural communities.

Matt was raised in Garden City. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas. Matt's local government calling began with a part-time internship with Saline County, Kansas in 1994 which has since led to career advancement opportunities with the City of Lenexa, KS, the City of Salina, KS, the City of Joplin, MO, and the City of Oakley, KS before returning to his hometown of Garden City in 2002. 

Matt supplements his full-time work with in local government with the occasional consulting job and currently serves as Board Chair of the Kansas Health Foundation, the state's largest health philanthropy.  In 2017, Matt was named Alumnus of the Year by Leadership Kansas and was profiled in the Ingram Magazine article 50 Kansans You Should Know. In 2018 he was awarded the Kansas Association of City/County Management’s highest honor, the Buford M. Watson Award for Excellence in Public Management. Earlier this year, the Kansas Chapter of the American Society of Public Administration named him the Kansas Public Servant of the Year.