DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced on Friday that she appointed Amber Hewitt to lead a new local office tasked with ensuring racial equity in the city.
Hewitt, who has become the District’s first chief equity officer, most recently served as the director of Health Equity at Families USA, a national organization that works for affordable health care advocacy.
In her previous post, she was responsible for developing strategic policy priorities to improve equity in health services and reduce disparities in terms of health care access, as well as health care quality.
She also served as an American Psychological Association and American Association for the Advancement of Science health policy fellow in the Office of US Senator Cory Booker.
At the beginning of her career, she taught undergraduate and doctorate-level courses in psychology, social justice, multicultural counseling, and diversity issues at the University of Akron and Loyola University Chicago.
“The Office of Racial Equity will focus on developing an infrastructure to ensure policy decisions and District programs are evaluated through an equity lens,” according to a statement from the Mayor’s Office. “The Chief Equity Officer will collaborate with District agencies, residents, and external stakeholders to make meaningful progress toward a more equitable city. Among her first responsibilities as the Chief Equity Officer will be to conduct an equity analysis of the District to establish government-wide priorities and to build a team to support the implementation of these priorities.”
Mayor Bowser first announced the establishment of DC’s Office of Racial Equity on February 1, 2021, in honor of this year’s Black History Month. For further information on the responsibilities of the office, see Bowser’s previous release.