Mayor Cherelle Parker appoints city’s first-ever director of Latino engagement and announces other top hires
Parker also announced Tuesday that her administration will retain the current head of the Department of Human Services and the director of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has hired the city’s first-ever director of Latino engagement, creating a new role to liaise with a community the mayor says is “not a monolith.”
William Garcia, who Parker said has been working in the city’s Latino communities for two decades, will take on the new job in the mayor’s office and was one of nearly two dozen appointments announced Tuesday. The mayor also announced a handful of positions focused on community engagement and labor, as well as top deputies under Managing Director Adam K. Thiel, who is responsible for city operations.
And Parker said her administration will retain two top officials from former Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration: Kelly Richards, the director and president of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and Kimberly Ali, the commissioner of the Department of Human Services, the agency in charge of child welfare.
The hires come as Parker is more than two months into her tenure as mayor. Most of the city’s major operating departments now have leaders serving in a permanent capacity, but for weeks, many were led by holdovers from Kenney’s cabinet. Parker acknowledged during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday that she has been criticized for the pace at which she’s built her administration, saying “I’ve taken a few hits about this process.”
“But we’re looking for the right people for the right positions at the right moment in time for what we want to get done,” she said.
Here’s a look at the hires she announced Tuesday.
Retentions from the Kenney administration
Parker re-appointed Ali, who started her career at DHS as a social worker more than 20 years ago and has headed the department since 2020.
She leads an agency with chronic turnover problems and that has long faced intense scrutiny for how it handles child welfare, including during Ali’s tenure. For example, in 2022 The Inquirer reported that DHS was housing children overnight in conference rooms. And DHS operates the city’s only juvenile jail, where there’s been an overcrowding crisis for more than a year.
Parker said Tuesday that Ali is “an innovative thinker.”
“She’s trying to figure out ways to ensure that we can consistently improve on how the department functions and operates,” she said.
The mayor will also retain Richards, who took over the city’s system of 54 libraries in 2022 following years of funding cuts, internal strife, and the resignation of his predecessor. He’s navigated the system through two years of short-staffing and inconsistent hours, largely as a result of a stressed pandemic labor market that’s left a range of city agencies understaffed.
Community engagement, cultural affairs, and public health
In other mayoral appointments:
Orlando Rendon, who was the commissioner of the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Department under Kenney, will now be the executive director of the Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity, a subsection of the Mayor’s Office focused on fighting poverty.
Valerie Gay, who was most recently deputy director of audience engagement and chief experience officer at the Barnes Foundation, will be the city’s new executive director of the Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy. The role will be a cabinet-level position, an elevation under Parker.
Shania Bennett, who worked as a volunteer on Parker’s mayoral campaign and who the mayor described as a sort of mentee, will serve as director of youth engagement.
Donna Bailey will be the new chief executive at Community Behavioral Health, a quasi-governmental agency that administers Medicaid funds to health-care providers. She was previously a top officer at the Public Health Management Corporation.
Managing director’s office top staff
Parker announced that her administration has hired the following people to work under Thiel:
Tara Mohr is now the city’s first deputy managing director. Mohr comes to the Managing Director’s Office from the Fire Department, where she worked as Thiel’s chief of staff for eight years while he was fire commissioner.
Aubrey Powers will be deputy managing director for community services. Powers previously worked in the office as chief of staff.
Michael Carroll will be retained as a deputy managing director focused on transportation and infrastructure.
David Wilson will be deputy managing director for general services, overseeing administrative functions. Wilson has worked in administration at the Managing Director’s Office for 15 years.
Crystal Yates-Gales will be deputy managing director for health and human services. Yates-Gale also previously worked with Thiel in the Fire Department.
Brian Clinton will be chief of staff. Clinton is a former deputy chief of staff under Kenney.
Labor and employee relations team
Parker’s administration appointed the following people to work in the city’s Department of Labor under Director Perritti Di Virgilio:
Cara Leheny will be the deputy director of labor and employee relations. She was previously a deputy city solicitor.
Pamela Robinson will be deputy director of the Office of Labor Relations. She’ll play a key role in negotiations with unions that represent city workers, several of which have contracts that expire this year.
Rose Smith-DiFranceso will be a deputy director in the Department of Labor. She is a former assistant district attorney who has also worked in the Office of the Inspector General.
Andre Bragg will be deputy director of labor standards.
Curtis Bronson will be the chief of staff in the Department of Labor. He has worked for the city on labor and wage compliance for seven years.