News and Updates

What New Orleans neighborhood do you live in? / Where did you grow up? 

I am a lifelong resident of New Orleans and a proud resident of the Hollygrove neighborhood.

Describe your job to us!  

Currently, I wear two hats. I am both the Director for the Project Delivery Unit and the Chief of Staff for the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer of Infrastructure (DCAO), Joseph Threat, Sr. As the PDU Director, I lead a Team of nearly 50 professionals. Our department assists with administration of both capital and emergency recovery projects through the procurement and management of federal grants and bond funding to improve the quality of life for the residents of New Orleans. As the Chief of Staff for Infrastructure, my role is to further the mission and vision of the DCAO based on any initiatives or priorities he has established for the 9 departments within his purview which are the 1.) Department of Public Works (DPW), 2.) Capital Project Administration (CPA), 3.) Department of Property Management (DPM), 4.) Sanitation, 5.) Parks & Parkways, 6.) Office of Resilience and Sustainability (ORS), 7.) Stormwater & Green Infrastructure, (SGI), 8.) Project Delivery Unit (PDU), and 9.) RoadworkNola.

Tell us about your career path. 

I started my career in the private sector as a management consultant and project manager. I worked for a firm for nearly 10 years where I would travel to other organizations throughout the US and Canada to understand what their goals were, then then I'd work with all levels of their management structure to identify their operational deficiencies. Those areas of improvement were often opportunities to help the company realize its goals. I learned so much in that role about myself, how to work with people, and how to be both results and solution oriented professionally. About a year and a half after Katrina, I decided to work locally because I thought my skillset could assist with Katrina recovery in the place I loved the most, home. I was hired by a disaster recovery firm who was working on a FEMA Individual Assistance program here in New Orleans. I later spent a couple years work along the Mississippi Gulf Coast helping develop a program which assisted Mississippi residents purchase cottage units that were issued by the State and FEMA. In late 2010, I was approached by my former manager from the FEMA IA project to return to New Orleans for a project working with the City's Bureau of Finance. I worked as a consultant for the City from January 2011 until September 2012 specifically focused on grants, when a group of us was offered full-time positions with the City. 

Since 2012, I have held a few different positions with the City. I've been a Management Consultant to the Bureau of Finance, the Federal Grants Manager overseeing all initiatives with FEMA for the City's Public Assistance grants program, the Director of Federal Grants which expanded my scope to the management of all the new grants the City was applying for through Cares Act, ARPA, Treasury, Dept of Energy, etc. All of those experiences prepared me for the 2 hats I wear today.

What aspects of your job do you enjoy the most? 

I love my Team and how they are always laser focused on the mission. We are always looking for ways to make ourselves better, which will in turn provide better service for the departments we serve. Though we primarily work on grant and bond funded projects, sometimes we get called on for special projects to assist other departments. The special projects keep things interesting and provide growth opportunities. I really love that my team loves to assist whenever and where ever asked.

What challenges do you find to be the greatest in your role? 

In my Chief of Staff role, I can see all the competing priorities the Operations departments have, which presents the greatest challenge. Each and every director and team member has a strong desire to provide the absolute best service to the residents of this City; however, sometimes we have more needs than resources and that's really hard. 

What is your favorite thing about New Orleans? 

The people and the culture here are unmatched. I've been a lot of places, but nothing beats the energy in New Orleans.