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Leadership & Vision

Leadership

To lead the St Elizabeths East development and its complementary goals to generate jobs, provide education and training for expanded employment opportunities, and diversify the City’s financial base, Mayor Muriel Bowser named Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development John Falcicchio to head the development effort.  The project is executed by the staff within the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED).

St. Elizabeths East Team

St Elizabeths East Executive Director, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Government of the District of Columbia

Latrena M. Owens is the Executive Director of the District of Columbia’s St. Elizabeths East Campus Redevelopment project. Ms. Owens previously served as Chief of Staff for the District’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) and the Interim Chief of Staff for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED). Ms. Owens is also the former Chief of Staff at the Department of General Services where she oversaw personnel management, communications, resource allocations, performance management, and logistics for the agency.

As a Project Manager at DMPED, Ms. Owens managed the $17 million Neighborhood Investment Fund and a construction portfolio in excess of $3 billion. She worked closely with District leadership, federal partners, and community stakeholders to negotiate, develop, and implement key projects including the Center Leg Freeway Project (I-395); the reconfiguration of Riggs Road and South Dakota Avenue; and more than 150 grant-funded projects in accordance with the Neighborhood Investment Act of 2004.

Ms. Owens also previously worked at the Department of Employment Services, where she managed the workforce development component of the St. Elizabeths West Campus and Marriott Marquis projects. Her career in DC Government began as a Capital City Fellow working at the District Department of Transportation and DMPED.

In addition to her roles at these agencies, Ms. Owens has also served as the Director of Student Success for the Division of Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning at the University of District of Columbia Community College. In that role, she supervised numerous student success initiatives, including student retention, transition, and engagement services. Before serving as the Director of Student Success, Ms. Owens served as the Division’s Deputy Director of the Center for Workforce Strategies where she oversaw several career training programs for District residents and ensured compliance with federal and local grant funded programs.

Ms. Owens holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education from Virginia Commonwealth University and an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Project Manager, St. Elizabeths East, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, Government of the District of Columbia

James Parks IV is a Project Manager at St. Elizabeths East. He is responsible for maintaining interagency relations, public relations, and vendor programs support. James grew up in Washington, D.C. He graduated from Sidwell Friends School and completed a B.A. at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick. James has a passion for connecting with people and impacting them positively in order to change the world for the better. Through his experiences as a servant leader (including work as a Resident Assistant for freshmen and upperclassmen, a varsity coxswain for the Rowing Team, and the president of his college chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.) James has earned the respect of peers, coaches, and teachers at all the institutions with which affiliated.

St. Elizabeths East Advisory Board

The St. Elizabeths East Advisory Board, appointed by the Mayor, is responsible for providing guidance and professional expertise to the development.  Together, the Board is leveraging its combined expertise and experience to help fulfill the Mayor’s vision for transforming the 183-acre St Elizabeths East campus into a major economic and community-building opportunity.

Members of the St Elizabeths East Advisory Board include:

  • John Falcicchio, Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (Chairperson)
  • Baron Harvey (Co-Chair), Dean of the Howard School of Business (appointed)
  • Dean Telaekah Brooks (Co-Chair), Dean of the School of Professional Studies at Trinity Washington University
  • Shelia Bunn, Ward 8 Resident
  • Christopher Earley, Real Estate Finance Manager at Capital One
  • Brenda Jones, Ward 8 Resident
  • Michael Austin, ANC 8C Chairperson
  • Christopher A. Stewart, Faith Community Leader
  • Lafayette Barnes, Transportation and Land Use Expert

The new Advisory Board will meet quarterly. The dates of those meetings are below. Minutes/transcripts from the meeting will be posted here as well.

  • Tuesday, February 11, 2020

          Agenda, Transcript

  • Tuesday, May 12, 2020

          Agenda, Minutes

  • Tuesday, September 8, 2020

           Agenda, Minutes

  • Tuesday, November 10, 2020

The St. Elizabeths East Advisory Board meets at the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center (2730 Martin Luther King Jr., Ave., SE).  Meetings were open to the public. The dates of the 2016-2018 Advisory Board meetings were as follows.  Agenda’s and Minutes are posted below:

Vision

St. Elizabeths East will be a unique place to cultivate globally-significant economic opportunities in security, including critical infrastructure, energy, and sustainable technologies and practices – a place where our nation’s brightest minds can think, create, educate, and live.

 

Find details about this unparalleled vision, offering, place, project, and strategy in the publication St Elizabeths East: Envisioning the Future.

To maximize the growth of small businesses and jobs, St Elizabeths East will become:

  • A revitalized historic campus with new mixed-use neighborhoods of retail, office, housing, open space, and cultural amenities.
  • A center for excellence that leverages the substantial investment of DC government in infrastructure and other neighborhood amenities and improvements, including approximately $2.7 million in site planning and entitlements, and $4.5 million in historic building stabilization. Additionally, Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s budget, approved by the DC Council in June, 2012, includes $113.5 million for infrastructure improvements to be delivered between 2013 through 2016.
  • An economic development project that stimulates revitalization and regeneration in South East Washington.

Development on the East Campus is guided by the St Elizabeths East Redevelopment Framework Plan, approved by the DC Council in December 2008 and the 2012 Master Plan and an Economic Development Strategy funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, with multiple objectives that provide for:

  • Direct employment opportunities in both the short- and long-term for District residents;
  • Services and amenities that improve choices for both local residents and an new workforce;
  • Revitalization of the historic campus by adaptively reusing buildings within a mixed use environment
  • Expansion of retail and housing choices for residents east of the river, and others

Enhancement of mobility, replacement of obsolete infrastructure, and an example of best practices in sustainability.