Adrian M. Fenty was elected the fifth Mayor of the District of Columbia in November 2006. He has made quality public education for all and efficient and accountable government hallmarks of his administration.

Fenty has become a national leader in the area of urban education reform after changing the city’s public schools governance structure in his first months in office. The new structure, which placed the city’s school chief as a direct report to the mayor allowed him to make swift changes in the system’s central office, improve teacher qualification requirements and implement a dramatic school consolidation process focus resources on stronger academic programs.

Removing layers of bureaucracy and increasing efficiencies have resulted in major improvements in the test score results. In 2008, both elementary and secondary schools achieved significant gains in reading and math proficiency, compared to a lackluster performance in past years. His administration has also taken on a massive, five-year maintenance and construction effort to dramatically improve school buildings by 2014.

Mayor Fenty has added police officers to the streets and expanded community policing initiatives, expanded health care coverage for the uninsured, and established thousands of units of affordable housing, while creating the Housing First program to provide permanent supportive housing for the city’s homeless neighbors. The administration has made tremendous strides in reducing the backlog of Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations by improving the retention of social workers, increasing recruitment of social workers to fill vacancies, and building a quality leadership team with a depth of experience. It has improved the delivery of emergency medical services. It also finalized the sale of Greater Southeast Community Hospital (now United Medical Center) in a public-private partnership that kept the facility open for patients east of the Anacostia River.

Going forward, Fenty is committed to meeting the economic challenges facing the District by creating new jobs, spurring neighborhood economic development and investing in local infrastructure in an effort to stimulate the city’s economy. Improving education will also remain a cornerstone of the Mayor’s agenda, with special attention paid to improving graduation rates and reducing truancy. With encouraging progress surrounding the city’s congressional voting rights status, Fenty has committed to work with the Obama Administration to make a voting member of Congress for the District a reality.

Mayor Fenty was born in the District on December 6, 1970, and grew up in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. His parents, owners of the popular Fleet Feet athletic-apparel store, still live in his boyhood home. Fenty attended Oberlin College before earning a Juris Doctorate from Howard University Law School. After graduating from law school, Fenty served as an ANC Commissioner and President of the 16th Street Neighborhood Association.

Fenty worked as the lead attorney and counsel for the DC Council Committee on Education, Libraries and Recreation before throwing his hat in the ring for the Ward Four council seat and defeating a four-term incumbent in 2000. After being re-elected in 2004 for a second Council term, Fenty made the decision to run for Mayor in the 2006 race. He won all 142 precincts in the city’s democratic primary and went on to be sworn in on January 2, 2007.

A long-distance runner in high school, Mayor Fenty regularly takes part in triathlons and other races in the District and throughout the region. Mayor Fenty lives with his wife Michelle, their twin sons Matthew and Andrew and daughter Aerin, in the District's Crestwood neighborhood.