Deputy City Manager Rebecca Hefner leads the city’s operations portfolio and oversees the Mobility+ initiative, advancing the city’s transformational investments in mobility infrastructure and aligning those investments with housing, small business, workforce development and sustainability goals. Hefner’s leadership within multiple departments at the city has been marked by significant enhancements in innovation, collaboration and community engagement.
Rebecca has more than 15 years of local government experience, including the past 13 years with the City of Charlotte. Previously, Rebecca served as the city’s Housing & Neighborhood Services Department director overseeing the city’s affordable housing efforts including the Housing Trust Fund, emergency repair, rehabilitation, homelessness initiatives and down payment assistance programs. Additionally, Rebecca was responsible for overseeing the city’s code enforcement and neighborhood services divisions and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg 311 call center. She also helped lead the city’s efforts to create the Office of Youth Opportunities.
In addition to her leadership roles in the Housing & Neighborhood Services Department, Rebecca also worked in the Strategy & Budget Department and Innovation & Technology Department where she led the Center for Data & Analytics facilitating the sharing and use of data and evidence to improve city services, inform decisions, solve problems, foster innovation and meet strategic goals. That work included the launch of Smart Charlotte to build a ‘smarter’ and more technologically advanced system for the city and the launch of Access Charlotte to implement public Wi-Fi across the city during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to her time in public service, Rebecca worked as a project manager in the commercial construction industry. She has a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and historic preservation and a master’s degree in public administration from UNC Charlotte, and she has called Charlotte home for over 25 years.