Aretha R. Ferrell-Brown
Director, Neighborhood Action
Aretha R. Ferrell-Brown has served as the Chief of Staff
for the District of Columbia Office of the Deputy Mayor for Children,
Youth, Families and Elders since June 2004. As Chief of Staff, Ms.
Ferrell-Brown managed the day-to-day operations of the Deputy Mayor's
office and coordinated budget development for the agencies in this
cluster. She also oversaw multi-agency initiatives such as the Juvenile
Unauthorized Use of Vehicles Action Plan, which aims to stop the rise in
vehicle thefts by District youth by developing alternative means to
reach at-risk youth.
Ms. Ferrell-Brown has more than a dozen years of
professional experience at all levels of government. Prior to joining
the staff of the District, Ms. Ferrell-Brown was the Assistant County
Administrator for Los Alamos County, New Mexico. In this role she
managed the County's Intergovernmental Program, which included
coordinating the final negotiations for the San Ildefonso Pueblo Land
Claim agreement between the County, the Pueblo, the U.S. Forest Service,
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. For the City of Sunnyvale, California,
Ms. Ferrell-Brown served as the Assistant to the City Manager, where she
oversaw Sunnyvale's policy process. To better manage the e City's
legislative priorities and pending legislation, she developed a
legislative tracking system.
From 1997 to 2002, Ms. Ferrell-Brown worked for the City
of Chicago, as the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Chicago Housing
Authority and Assistant Chief Information Officer for the Department of
Business and Information Services. From 1995 to 1997 she served as the
Assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Governor of Maryland. In this
role, Ms. Ferrell-Brown administered Maryland Net Weekend, a $1.7
million initiative to connect Maryland public schools to the Internet
and Logan Online, a $2.5 million project to place Internet-linked
computers in the classrooms of all third-graders at a single elementary
school.
Ms. Ferrell-Brown began her career in government with the
Central Intelligence Agency in 1989 as an undergraduate intern and later
as Graduate Fellow focusing on Soviet Military Issues. She also worked
as a Management Intern in the Prince George's County Executive Office.
Ms. Ferrell-Brown is a member of the National Forum for
Black Public Administrators (NFBPA) and the International City and
County Managers Association (ICMA). In 2002, she was awarded the NFBPA
Young Administrator of the Year Award (Steven D. Ford Memorial Award),
which recognizes an administrator under age 35 who has demonstrated
above-average commitment and success in both their profession and in the
community. She currently serves as the national Secretary/Treasurer for
the Board of Directors of NFBPA.
Ms. Ferrell-Brown received a Bachelor of Arts in
Political Science from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from Howard University in
Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of the NFBPA's Executive Leadership
Institute and Mentor Program as well as the City of Chicago's
Intergovernmental Executive Development Program conducted by Harold
Washington College. Ms. Ferrell-Brown resides with her family in Ward 6.
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