The city of Mercer Island announced the selection of a new permanent City Manager, Julie Thuy Underwood, on Thursday.

The City Council will formally approve her appointment at its Nov. 7 regular meeting, and she will begin employment January 3, 2017.

“I couldn’t be more pleased with this outcome,” said Mayor Bruce Bassett in a city press release. “Spending the extra time to locate the best candidates has certainly paid off, and I believe we‘re very fortunate to attract an experienced executive of this caliber.”

For the past 11 months, the city manager position has been filled by two successive interim appointees: currently, Pam Bissonnette, who started in July 2016, and prior to her term, Steve Lancaster.

Underwood has nearly 20 years of local government management experience, and since March 2014, has served as the assistant city manager for Daly City, California, a first-tier suburb of San Francisco with a resident population of over 100,000.

Prior to Daly City, Underwood was the city manager for Shoreline, Washington for over two-and-a-half years, and was the assistant city manager there starting in 2002. Before moving to the Pacific Northwest, Underwood was the assistant to the city manager for the city of Rockville, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC.

She has a master’s degree in public administration and policy from Virginia Tech, a bachelor of arts in government and politics and is an International City/County Management Association (ICMA) credentialed manager.

“I am very excited to be appointed Mercer Island’s next city manager,” Underwood said in the press release. “My family and I are eager to return to the great Northwest and are especially delighted to call Mercer Island home. It will be a privilege to serve the community, work with council and staff and help sustain the Island’s exceptional quality of life.”

Learn more about the city manager’s office at www.mercergov.org/CityManager.