20 Under 40 | GRETCHEN SPIKER
Photo by JOHN BURNS
Gretchen Spiker serves as the Director of Communications for the City of Topeka. In this role, Gretchen promotes the City, its employees, and the Topeka community. Her responsibilities include leading all internal and external branding and image efforts, managing City4 – the City’s Government Access Television Channel, fostering collaborations and partnerships to showcase and promote various events and programs across the community, managing the City’s various social media platforms, assisting with website development and other programing, serving the City’s spokesperson for media inquiries on a local, regional, and national scale.
Gretchen is a member of the Kansas Association of Public Information Officers, the immediate past chair for Club Blue (Boys & Girls Clubs of Topeka’s young professional organization), a board member for Shawnee County Crime Stoppers, and a life-time member of K-State Athletics Varsity K Club.
Gretchen was born and raised in a suburb of San Francisco. She attended college at K-State and in her senior year she accepted a position with KSNT. In June of 2022, Gretchen graduated from the KU Public Management Center’s Emerging Leaders Academy
Who is your greatest inspiration?
My grandfather is my greatest inspiration. He grew up on a small dairy farm in Wisconsin. He didn’t come from much, but he made it his mission to provide for his family. He joined the Navy out of high school, and later became an electrical engineer, graduating with a degree from Stanford University. He met my grandma when he was 16 and they've been together ever since. Not only is he a person of great intelligence, but he has an exceptional moral compass. He's loyal to causes and people he believes in. He's friendly and courteous to strangers, and would quite literally give them the shirt off his back. He's kind and generous. It's for these reasons and so many more that I look up to him. He inspires me to accomplish great things, while always staying true to myself.
What do you love most about your work?
I love that my role focuses on sharing about all the amazing people, programs, and work being done to better our community by those at the City of Topeka. It's a privilege to have the opportunity to share about the more than 1,000 city employees who keep Topeka running. My work also aims to improve accessibility of the city to the public at a time when transparency in government is incredibly important.
What do you do to recharge?
You can find me at the barn! Being around my horse is definitely my "happy place." It keeps me grounded, reminds me of my purpose, and I always leave feeling re-energized.
Click here to go to the full list of 2022 20 Under 40 Honorees.
