Office of Racial Equity Team

Dr. Amber A. Hewitt, is the Chief Equity Officer for the Government of the District of Columbia. In this role, she works in collaboration with District leadership and agencies to apply a racial equity lens across government operations. In 2018, she was appointed by Mayor Bowser to the Commission on Fathers, Men, and Boys. Amber was the Director of Health Equity at Families USA, a national, nonpartisan consumer health advocacy organization. She also previously worked as a health care lobbyist for an integrated, children’s health system. Amber’s background also includes serving as an American Psychological Association/ American Association for the Advancement of Science health policy fellow in the Office of U.S. Senator Cory Booker. She began her career as a tenure-track professor teaching undergraduate and doctorate-level courses in psychology, social justice, multicultural counseling and diversity issues at the University of Akron and Loyola University Chicago. Her research on adolescent identity development and well-being, with a special focus on Black boys and young men, has been published in several top-tier academic journals. A counseling psychologist by training, Amber has provided psychotherapy and psychoeducational testing for children and families. She received her B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Southern California, M.A. in psychology from Boston University, and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Loyola University Chicago. She holds an adjunct faculty appointment at Simmons University.

Carmen Berry has extensive experience and a proven commitment to program development and implementation for local government and private sector operations. As a Special Assistant to the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity, Ms. Berry is responsible for supporting the office’s day-to-day operations and establishing and cultivating relationships with residents, community stakeholders, and community-based organizations. Before joining the Mayor’s Office of Racial Equity, Carmen served as Program Manager of the District’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. In this role, she wore many hats, including manager of the Family and Survivor Support team, tasked with providing direct support to families of homicide victims and survivors of shootings and stabbings. Carmen also served as a Community Outreach Coordinator under the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services’ Safer, Stronger DC Community Partnerships Office. In that role, Ms. Berry provided direct support to communities impacted by high rates of gun violence.

Before joining the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services’ office, Ms. Berry’s passion led her to the field of Public and Community Health. She managed a hypertension and diabetes screening and education program for MedStar Health by operating directly from African American barbershops across the District. She also served as a Senior Research Supervisor in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, examining how environmental exposure during pregnancy and early life might play a part in the development of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Carmen is a native Washingtonian and resides in her childhood home located in Ward 5. She holds a Master’s of Science in Health Education from Howard University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Community Health from Morgan State University.

Allyson Criner Brown (she/her) is a seasoned equity and community engagement practitioner, trainer, and scholar. Allyson brings more than 15 years of teaching, training, and facilitation experience to ORE, where she develops and implements racial equity training programs for District government employees as the Training Specialist. She has led workshops and professional learning experiences for the National Museum of African American History and Culture; National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement; National Academy of Public Administration; US Department of Education; DC Public Schools; Alexandria City Public Schools; Black Women Bike DC; and more. Allyson’s recent accomplishments include producing the equity framework and narrative, related trainings, and the first agency-wide racial equity impact assessment (REIA) tools for the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). She co-authored Engagement for Equitable Outcomes: A Practitioner’s Playbook (Rowman & Littlefield) in 2022, and her previous publications include the essay “Engaging and Embracing Black Parents” in Teaching When the World is on Fire (The New Press, 2019), edited by MacArthur “genius” fellow Lisa Delpit. Allyson produced the Freedom Reads: Anti-Bias Book Talk mini-series (2020) and is the editor of three Teaching for Change publications: Parent-Principal Chats Manual (2019), Parent Organization Equity & Inclusion Tool (2017), and the second edition of Between Families and Schools: Creating Meaningful Relationships (2016).

Allyson holds a Master of Public Administration from GWU’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, and a Bachelor’s in US History from the University of North Carolina.