Meet the Chief Equity Officer Advancing Racial Equity in Washington, DC

There are many different ways that cities and counties are approaching the fairly new positions of a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Director, Racial/Social Justice Advisor, and Chief Equity (or Diversity) Officer. We are going to feature many of these different folks doing the work on the ground to create healthier, safer, and more inclusive cities in a series of interviews and profiles. Included in these features will be the story of each job, the various ways those positions were established, their different charges and responsibilities, and, of course, the individuals dedicated to doing this work themselves. Today we’re highlighting Dr. Amber A. Hewitt, Chief Equity Officer for the District of Columbia and Director of the Mayor's Office of Racial Equity.

Amber Hewitt first came to her role in Washington, DC by way of a Ph.D. in counseling psychology with an academic focus on adolescent identity development and well-being among Black youth. While Hewitt had planned to pursue teaching after receiving her doctorate and held a tenure-track position at the University of Akron, she ultimately chose to leave academia and enter the public policy realm. “Close to eight years ago, I moved to DC from an academic position in Ohio because I wanted to understand more about the public policy making process,” said Hewitt, who initially moved for a congressional fellowship, “because I was still developing my own understanding of how macro level change happens and how it impacts the lives of the clients, families, and students that I worked with.” In April 2021 Mayor Muriel Bowser appointed Hewitt to serve as the District’s inaugural Chief Equity Officer, a position where she could continue to follow her career threads of social justice and equity by directing racial equity work at the local government level.         

Hewitt was charged with advancing the Bowser Administration’s commitment to ongoing equity initiatives and achieving racial equity. In December 2020,  the DC Council passed the Racial Equity Achieves Results Act, providing a legislative framework for advancing equity-focused initiatives and recommending the establishment of “an Office of Racial Equity to coordinate the District's efforts to achieve racial equity.” A few months later, in February 2021, Mayor Bowser founded the Mayor's Office of Racial Equity (ORE), underscoring the administration's commitment to addressing longstanding disparities within the city. In order to both carry the legislative charge forward and honor the Mayor’s vision of a more racially equitable DC, Hewitt knew that the equity work had to permeate all levels of government.

“Sustainability has always been at the forefront of our mind,” she said, “when this office was established, we didn’t want this to just be a moment in time. We're committed to advancing racial equity in DC for the long haul.” Central to this approach was the development of DC’s first-ever Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP), signaling a profound commitment to addressing systemic disparities within the city. REAP lays out a roadmap of actions that the government will take over three years to “close racial equity gaps and measure progress towards a more racially equitable DC.” The plan is described as both a process and an outcome; the former being the examination of how local government makes decisions and designs programs, and the latter being a series of short, medium, and long-term goals designed to drive equitable outcomes.

Engaging the Community

REAP was crafted through extensive community engagement over a year and a half and serves as a roadmap for addressing disparities across various domains of city life. Despite beginning the engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic, resident participation was high. In the fall of 2021 Hewitt’s team began the community engagement process with three virtual listening sessions with residents, who were recruited by local advocacy and community-based organizations. The following summer the ORE held five public engagement forums in different Wards around the District, in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs. Another important community that Hewitt made sure to engage was the internal one; she held similar engagement sessions with agency and department leaders.

After holding these virtual and in-person sessions, Hewitt worked with her team to write a draft racial equity plan, which was then posted for public comment. Providing the opportunity for the residents to see what their initial engagement had led to and allowing them to share their thoughts and feedback before the plan was finalized, was an “important and essential piece” for Hewitt. For two months the draft plan was available — in multiple languages — online and in public libraries. Residents could email their feedback or submit their thoughts in the library’s public comment boxes. Even now that REAP is finalized and underway, the public comment period still has a positive impact for residents; out at events, ORE staff will hear “I submitted a comment in your public comment box!” from members of the community.

Hewitt emphasized how important it was to prioritize trust and meaningful engagement within the community, ensuring that diverse voices are heard and given space to be accounted for in the decision-making process. This is reiterated in the final REAP, which “invite[s] residents to hold us accountable as your partners in government.”

Setting the Indicators

At the heart of the REAP are a set of 43 indicators, carefully selected to track progress towards a more racially equitable DC. The development of indicators was not a solitary endeavor but part of the collaborative community engagement process. These indicators, grouped into themes (Housing, Economic Opportunity, Health and Environment, Civic Engagement, Public Safety and Justice, Quality of Life, and Education), provide a comprehensive framework for evaluating and addressing racial disparities. It was important for Hewitt that each indicator had to:

• Allow for disaggregated analysis.
• Be outcome oriented.
• Use a participatory approach.
• Support transparent decision-making.
• Be simple.
• Employ racial justice and trauma-informed lenses.

These cross-cutting indicators also had to “respond to a community identified priority; have a valid, regularly available disaggregated data source; and be relevant to the work of the DC Government.” For example, the community and ORE might have identified Housing as a theme; indicators under that topic could then include things like amount of affordable housing in the District, proximity of housing to parks and green spaces, or housing cost burden.

Setting up indicators in this way was crucial. Without establishing corresponding data points, it wouldn’t be possible to first establish a baseline measurement nor second, set up actions to improve conditions. Additionally, each indicator corresponds to a single measure. According to Hewitt, “we did that intentionally because we wanted the data to be accessible and, as best as possible, easily understood by residents and other external stakeholders.”   

Tracking Progress

The three-year period of work outlined in the REAP is from financial year (FY) 2024 to FY 2026; this period was chosen because Hewitt wanted to emphasize a sense of urgency. While she said that it will clearly “take more than three FYs to achieve equity,” having measurable and time-bound goals is important for understanding advancements.

There are two ways that ORE will measure the District’s progress on racial equity. The first are performance measurements that align with each goal, to be reported yearly, based on agency surveys and existing internal agency tracking systems. The second is through a dashboard that ORE is currently developing; it will measure those seven dimensions of resident quality of life, like health and environment, public safety, housing, and economic opportunity. Each dimension will be further broken down into indicators disaggregated by factors like race, ethnicity, and geography. Just like the initial development of the REAP, there will be an open community engagement period where residents can do user-testing and provide feedback on the dashboard. “It’s for residents to hold us accountable and see progress,” Hewitt said, “the goal isn't just measuring and tracking, but for agencies to use it as a tool as they're developing” their racial equity work.

Sustaining the Work

Many of these initiatives and projects are embedded in existing government infrastructure, including budgeting and performance management. By mandate of the City Administrator, managers are required to undergo ORE racial equity training. Some agencies already had a staff lead or working group on equity, while others didn’t have the same infrastructure. Hewitt’s team built off what already existed and the range of knowledge to help all agencies better understand racial equity and how it applies to their work. The office also provides online tools that District employees can use to continue learning and apply to the government agency.

There is also a cohort model of 24 agencies that directly report to Mayor Bowser; since October 2021 different agencies have been working on individual REAPs. These plans will be released on a rolling basis, providing another progress metric and ensuring that the community can follow specific equity work more closely — and further embedding the equity work into the everyday agency missions. “Yes, we're the office of Racial Equity and we serve as a convener and provide technical assistance,” Hewitt said, “But we've developed different cohorts of agencies and interagency committees and working groups to make sure that the reach is far and wide.”

Mayor Bowser’s commitment to addressing longstanding disparities and achieving a more racially equitable government is clear in this work. Through strategic planning, community engagement, and legislative support, Hewitt’s efforts in the District have emerged as an example for cities nationwide seeking to tackle systemic disparities with a methodical, thoughtful, and resident-informed approach. “All of our work is centered on improving outcomes for residents who've been most impacted by structural racism and improving impacts for all,” said Hewitt, “We want a better quality of life for all Washingtonians, so that's what we're striving for — and for a city where race or ethnicity will no longer predict outcomes or opportunities.”