DMPED: Biography - Valerie Santos

Valerie Santos is the District of Columbia’s Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, where she is responsible for executing Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s economic development strategy and managing a development pipeline worth more than $13 billion in public-private housing, retail, office and parks projects throughout the District. Santos is also responsible for District’s efforts to create and preserve affordable housing and he oversees the District’s business attraction and retention initiatives.

The office is charged with bringing federal, nonprofit and private and community partners together to expand the District's tax bases, attract and retain businesses of all sizes, bring good-paying jobs for residents and strengthen business climate. Projects within the office’s portfolio include the $2 billion Southwest Waterfront redevelopment, the $1 billion redevelopment of the 10-acre former Convention Center site and more than $70 million worth of waterfront parks and infrastructure projects. The portfolio also includes various housing and mixed use projects of all sizes located throughout the Districts including the O Street Market in Shaw, the redevelopment of the Minnesota-Benning Metrorail Station site and the New Communities Initiative.

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development is the District’s lead agency in coordinating business and economic development issues and oversees a cluster of agencies that include the Department of Small and Local Business Development, the Department of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Planning and the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Prior to becoming Deputy Mayor, Santos served as the Planning and Economic Development Office’s Chief Operating Officer. Before joining the District government in 2007, Santos was a vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, where she specialized in urban public-private development. Previously, she was a manager with Ernst & Young’s real estate group and an associate with Hamilton Rabinovitz & Alschuler. She is a graduate of Santa Clara University and earned her MBA at Harvard Business School and a Masters in Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.