Meet the Mayor

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin

In 2001 the people of Atlanta elected Shirley Franklin, a first time candidate for public office, to serve as the 58th Mayor of the City of Atlanta. She also became the first female mayor and the first African American woman to serve as mayor of a major southern city. 

Since her inauguration in 2002, Mayor Franklin has worked to build a “Best in Class” managed city by strengthening existing frameworks, implementing progressive changes and making the tough decisions necessary to make Atlanta better.  She returned accountability to city government, worked to increase effectiveness and efficiency in government operations and to strengthen private and non-profit partnerships in the city and metropolitan Atlanta region.

The Administration is continuing to improve financial and budget management practices as part of the reform plans initiated five years ago.

Some of Mayor Franklin’s accomplishments include:

• Implemented one of the strongest ethics reform programs in the nation and in the state.
• Laid the foundation for the current $3.2 billion overhaul of the city's aging water and sewer system.
• Convinced the 2004 General Assembly to allow Atlanta to place a municipal option sales tax before the voters that overwhelmingly passed and generates funds to repair an antiquated water/sewer system.
• Completed the Fifth Runway of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as part of $6.3 billion airport investment plan.
• Commissioned city leaders to study homelessness in the city to develop the "Blueprint to End Chronic Homelessness in Atlanta in 10 years." The flagship project, the 24/7 Gateway Center opened in 2005 .and serves 500 people a day in collaboration with dozens of community partners.
• Implemented the New Century Economic Development Plan outlining an economic vision through 2009 that includes aggressive economic, redevelopment and affordable housing and transportation goals.
• Created  the "Mayor’s Youth Program", designed to engage Atlanta Public High School students in developing their own plans for life beyond high school, whether it is college or the workforce. Since 2005, over 1,700 Atlanta Public School graduates were helped with financial aid, laptops and other technical assistance.
• Administered the $150 million Quality of Life Bond Program through the Public Works Department to add new sidewalks, beautify major arterials, enhanced both pedestrian and vehicle safety by improving  traffic signals, provided for walkways, trails and amenities, as well as reconstruction and resurfacing damaged streets and bridges.  Nearly 1,200 projects are underway or completed.
• Lead the citywide community efforts to acquire the Martin Luther King, Jr. Collection of his personal papers for Morehouse College, his alma mater.
• Commissioned long-range plans to enhance Atlanta’s plans for economic development with innovative initiatives like the Beltline, Peachtree Corridor and the arts.
• Launched a Sustainability Initiative for the City of Atlanta to help preserve our natural resources and reduce our carbon footprint. Atlanta has one of the highest percentages of LEED Certified sustainable green buildings in the United States.
• Joined the national nonpartisan coalition of mayors around the country to crack down on illegal guns to make American cities safer.
• Established the “Dear John” public education campaign to publicize the commercial sexual exploitation of children in Atlanta and to call the community to action.

Some of Mayor Franklin’s other city focused accomplishments are evident in police and fire improvements which include the Atlanta Police Department’s (APD) first-ever accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Today crime in Atlanta is down overall 30%, the lowest it has been in decades. Atlanta Fire Rescue developed a best-in-class customer service program to assist residents as the first responders during critical emergencies and gained national accreditation.

Mayor Franklin is currently one of the co-chairs of the 2008 National Democratic Convention; she is also the former Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Georgia and former president for the Conference National Democratic Mayors. She has held leadership roles in the US Conference of Mayors as the chair of the Women’s Caucus, co-chair of the Tourism Task Force and a member of the Environmental Committee. She was the first Atlanta mayor to serve as president of the Georgia Municipal Association which is the only state organization that represents the 502 local governments in Georgia and a founding member of the Metro Atlanta Mayors Association that is an alliance of 65 mayors in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

She serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR, Chair of Atlanta Development Authority, Chair of the Board of Trustees of CIFAL-Atlanta, a CARE USA ambassador and Mayors of the National Conference of Black Mayor’s Business Council.  She is secretary of the Board of the Atlanta Regional Commission and serves as Chair of its Ethics Committee. She previously served as the Founding Vice President of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRETA).

Her community appointments include, the Board of Trustees for Spelman College and Paideia School in Atlanta. She also served as a member of the board of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Neighborhood Arts Center, Atlanta Black United Fund, the Expansion Arts Advisory Committee for the National Endowment for the Arts, Georgia Arts Council, National Urban Coalition, and the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. Franklin has a lifelong love for the arts and years of community and political engagement that demonstrate her continued commitment to public service.

Mayor Franklin earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Howard University in Washington, DC and was awarded her Masters of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania.  She has received honorary degrees from Howard University, the Atlanta College of Art, Cambridge College, Spelman College, Morehouse College, Clark Atlanta University, Tuskegee University, Oglethorpe University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Franklin previously served as the Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for Mayor Maynard Jackson and was subsequently named Chief Administrative Officer and City Manager for Mayor Andrew Young.  When Maynard Jackson was elected to his third term, Franklin served as Executive Officer of Operations. Under the administrations of mayors Jackson and Young, Franklin was responsible for the day-to-day of all city operations the airport to zoning. With over 13 years of executive management responsibility for one of the region’s most successful cities. Franklin joined the Atlanta Committee for Olympic Games in early 1991 as Senior Vice President of External Relations. In this position her responsibilities included community, local government and labor relations and the development and successful implementation of the Committees Affirmative Action & Minority Enterprise Program.

She also served as senior vice president for external relations for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and served as CEO of Shirley Clarke Franklin & Associates, a management and consulting firm for public and community affairs.

Mayor Shirley Franklin has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, Black Enterprise, Essence and many other local and national publications.  Governing magazine named her 2004 Public Official of the Year. Time Magazine in 2005 named her one of the top five mayors in the country; she is ranked among the top ten mayors in the world by the World Mayor Internet organization and has been named one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report.  That same year, Esquire Magazine named her one of the best and brightest and American City and County Magazine named her Municipal Leader of the Year. Mayor Franklin received the prestigious 2005 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award.  In 2006, she was honored with the Southern Institute for Business and Professional Ethics’ Ethics Advocate Award and is widely viewed as one of America’s best leaders.

Franklin is a 35-year resident of Atlanta and regularly addresses audiences and organizations on a variety of policy, economic and urban issues.

For a copy of Mayor Franklin's bio, click here.