City of Charlotte Introduces New Deputy City Manager
Published on April 27, 2026
The City of Charlotte announced Rebecca Hefner as the city’s newest Deputy City Manager. Dr. Raquishela Stewart will succeed Hefner as Director of the city’s Housing & Neighborhood Services Director.
Hefner has more than 15 years of local government experience, including the past 13 years with the City of Charlotte. In addition to her leadership roles in Housing & Neighborhood Services (HNS), Hefner also worked in Community Engagement, Strategy & Budget and Innovation & Technology, where she led the Center for Data & Analytics within IT 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 Access Charlotte to implement public wi-fi across the city during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hefner’s tenure leading HNS has been marked by significant enhancements in innovation, collaboration and process improvements including leading the NEST Commission to develop and implement anti-displacement recommendations, including expansion of homeownership assistance, launching the City’s Accessory Dwelling Unit program and working with Charlotte City Council to design affordable housing funding policy to direct investment of the city’s historic $100 million affordable housing bond. Hefner also has private sector experience as a commercial construction project manager.
“Rebecca has a tremendous depth of knowledge and an extensive breadth of experience, which will serve the entire organization greatly as Deputy City Manager,” Charlotte City Manager Marcus D. Jones said. “Rebecca also has a demonstrated track record of strategic leadership and successfully executing important initiatives and programs. I’m glad that she’ll be continuing her career in this new role and continuing to serve our community.”
Hefner has Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina Charlotte and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Hefner will be replacing current Deputy City Manager Liz Babson who will be retiring in September.
HNS Deputy Director Dr. Raquishela Stewart will be promoted to Director of Housing & Neighborhood Services. Stewart has been with the city for over eight years, with the last two as the Deputy Director of HNS. During her time with the city, Stewart was the Division Manager for CharMeck 311 where she demonstrated exceptional leadership and customer service. As Deputy Director she led the creation of the Office of Youth Opportunity this past year and has overseen the rapid growth of that new, critically important function for the city.
Dr. Stewart has a Doctorate of Education in Organizational Leadership and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of La Verne. She earned her Bachelor of Science from University of Redlands.
“The biggest part of what makes our organization special is the people who have dedicated their careers to public service, which is especially true with Liz, Rebecca and Raquishela.” Jones said. “I’ve always boasted about the deep bench of leaders at the City of Charlotte and our ability to nurture the next wave of leaders in our organization and in our community. Today’s announcement highlights those values and the special people who work for the City of Charlotte.”