Kwanza Hall
Encyclopedia
Kwanza Hall is an American politician currently serving as a city council
City council
A city council or town council is the legislative body that governs a city, town, municipality or local government area.-Australia & NZ:Because of the differences in legislation between the States, the exact definition of a City Council varies...

man representing District 2 in Atlanta, GA. Hall was first elected to the Atlanta City Council
Atlanta City Council
Atlanta City Council is the main municipal legislative body for the city of Atlanta, Georgia. It consists of 15 members elected from districts within the city. The Atlanta City Government is divided into three bodies: the legislative, executive and judicial branches. The Atlanta City Council serves...

 in 2005 and re-elected without opposition in 2009. He represents the neighborhoods of Atlantic Station
Atlantic Station
Atlantic Station is a large brownfield redevelopment project at the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Atlantic Station is being master developed by AIG Global Real Estate and local development partner Jacoby Development, Inc...

, Castleberry Hill
Castleberry Hill
Castleberry Hill is a neighborhood in central Atlanta, Georgia located adjacent to and southwest of the Central Business District. It is a federally recognized historic district since 1985 and became a City of Atlanta Landmark District in 2006...

, Downtown
Downtown Atlanta
Downtown Atlanta is the first and largest of the three financial districts in the city of Atlanta. Downtown Atlanta is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters, city, county, state and federal government facilities, sporting facilities, and is the central tourist attraction of the city...

, Home Park
Home Park
Home Park is an all-seater football stadium in the Central Park area of Plymouth, England, and is the home of Football League Two club Plymouth Argyle. The ground, given the nickname the Theatre of Greens by the club's supporters, has been Argyle's permanent residence since 1901...

, Inman Park
Inman Park
Inman Park was planned in the late 1880s by Joel Hurt, a civil engineer and real-estate developer who intended to create a rural oasis connected to the city by the first of Atlanta's electric streetcar lines. The East Atlanta Land Company acquired and developed more than 130 acres east of the city...

, the Marietta Artery, Sweet Auburn
Sweet Auburn
The Sweet Auburn Historic District is a historic African-American neighborhood along Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia. The name Sweet Auburn was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, referring to the "richest Negro street in the world". The Sweet Auburn district includes:*the Martin Luther King, Jr...

 and the Martin Luther King Historic District, Midtown
Midtown Atlanta
Midtown is the second largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north...

, Poncey-Highland
Poncey-Highland
Poncey-Highland is a neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, located south of Virginia-Highland. It so named because it is near the intersection of east/west Ponce de Leon Avenue and north/southwest North Highland Avenue. This Atlanta neighborhood was established between 1905 and 1930,...

, and the Old Fourth Ward
Old Fourth Ward
The Old Fourth Ward, often abbreviated The Fourth Ward or O4W, is a neighborhood stretching east from Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The Old Fourth Ward is one of the city's most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, but is also one of the city's most eclectic, containing a burgeoning nightlife district...

. For 2010, he serves as the vice-chair of the City Utilities Committee. He also serves on the Community Development/Human Resources Committee and the Committee on Council.

Education

Kwanza Hall graduated from Benjamin E. Mays High School in Atlanta. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

 where he studied political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...

.

Career

Before holding elected office, Hall worked in the Fulton County
Fulton County, Georgia
Fulton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. Its county seat is Atlanta, the state capital since 1868 and the principal county of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

 government, and he served as Vice President of Technology for GoodWorks International, a human rights and public service consulting firm co-chaired by Andrew Young
Andrew Young
Andrew Jackson Young is an American politician, diplomat, activist and pastor from Georgia. He has served as Mayor of Atlanta, a Congressman from the 5th district, and United States Ambassador to the United Nations...

. He then moved on to become the Director of Business Development for MACTEC Engineering and Consulting, Inc., a position he currently holds.

In 2002, Hall was elected to the Atlanta Board of Education where he served for three years prior to his election to the Atlanta City Council. During his time on the Atlanta Board of Education, Hall worked toward closing the achievement gap and contributed to reforms that improved the performance of Atlanta Public Schools on statewide tests.

Hall currently represents District 2 on the Atlanta City Council, a post he was elected to in 2005. He was re-elected without opposition in 2009. Among the most notable of the initiatives he has been involved in during his tenure is the Atlanta Beltline project. Hall has also focused strongly on community improvement including land use, historical preservation, and sustainable development of in-town neighborhoods.

Boards and awards

Hall serves on the boards of a number of organizations, including the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, the Midtown Improvement District, Operation HOPE, the Big Kidz Foundation, the Ferst Foundation for Childhood Literacy, Creating Pride, and Midtown Bank.

Hall has been recognized by L.E.A.D Atlanta, the Regional Leadership Institute, Leadership Georgia, and the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship Program. In 2009, he was recognized by Creative Loafing as Atlanta's Best Local Political Figure.

Personal life

Hall lives in the Martin Luther King Historic District with his wife, Natalie, and two sons.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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