Meet the Assistant City Administrator
Chris Rodriguez, Assistant City Administrator
Dr. Chris Rodriguez is the Assistant City Administrator for the District of Columbia. He is responsible for cross-agency collaboration and results delivery for the city’s 38,000 employees, which includes the Departments of General Services, Human Resources, Risk Management, and Contracting and Procurement, as well as the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, responsible for all technology operations and artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives. Dr. Rodriguez chairs DC’s AI Task Force, which is charged with reviewing, approving, and implementing innovative AI projects across District Government.
Prior to his current role, Dr. Rodriguez served as DC’s Acting Chief Technology Officer in 2023-24 and was the Director of the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency from 2017-23. In this role, he served as the Homeland Security Advisor to the Mayor of Washington, DC, as well as the regional lead for homeland security federal grants for the National Capital Region, which encompasses 24 jurisdictions across DC, Virginia, and Maryland. During that time, Dr. Rodriguez led the COVID-19 incident response for the District, which was recognized as among the strongest in the nation. He oversaw emergency response operations, supply procurement, hiring and training, and life-saving activities such as testing, vaccine disbursement, as well as other essential community and business-related tasks. Dr. Rodriguez also led emergency response coordination for DC during the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Dr. Rodriguez’s career in public service began when he joined CIA following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As a senior analyst and Branch Chief, he monitored terrorist groups to counter human-caused and cyber threats to the US and its allies by closely collaborating with federal, state, and local counterparts. From 2009-11, he was deployed to the US Embassy in Brussels. From 2014-17, Dr. Rodriguez was Director of New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security, coordinating the government response to the al-Qa’ida-affiliated attack in Seaside Park, NJ on September 17, 2016.
Dr. Rodriguez received a BA from Williams College and an MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame. He is a Lecturer at the University of Virginia’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies - Center for Public Safety and Justice, where he helps to teach, train, and mentor public-safety executives from the country and world. Dr. Rodriguez lives in Washington, DC.
The Government Operations Team in the Office of the City Administrator is comprised of the following staff:
Rebekah Mena, Chief of Staff
LaRae Wilson, Executive Officer
Tina Roper, Operations Manager
Tony Goodman, Acting Senior Advisor
Brittany Williams, Senior Operations Analyst
Damon Westray, Senior Program Analyst