Samia Byrd

I am a woman of strong faith, a wife, mother, and sister. I am the first Chief Race and Equity Officer for Arlington County government and I am also a Deputy County Manager. I provide leadership and vision to ensure the development and management of strategies to advance racial equity for Arlington County residents and employees. This includes building an infrastructure to ensure policy decisions, programs, procedures, plans, interactions and engagement are evaluated through an equity lens. It also involves collaborating with County departments, employees, community members, and other stakeholders to build their capacity to normalize, organize, operationalize and assess racial equity. I also serve as a Senior Leader supporting the County Manager and County Board in work related to development and land use planning, policy, programs and regulations.

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I have always been encouraged by the opportunity to have a tangible impact on quality of life issues for people in all communities. All of the things that go into planning and creating community and the social implications of this have always had an impression on me. In particular, I’ve always thought about people's lived experiences in this context. How do the places we make or create center the people who occupy those places? How do they specifically center people who are like me? Do they exclude people, or consider them an afterthought? What do people need and how do we provide it? How do we plan for it so everyone can enjoy an optimal quality of life? City Planning for me is about quality of life and bringing together physical spaces with social elements. The people who work in public service have the ability and opportunity to center people who look like and are similarly situated to me in conversations about place! This is what builds better, stronger, healthier communities where everyone advances and everyone thrives.

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