City of Charlotte, NC Welcomes Its First Ever Black Female Mayor

Nationwide — Vi Lyles has just made history as the first Black woman mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina. She ran an aggressive campaign, and her victory was confirmed by local and national news outlets on November 8th.

Prior to becoming mayor, she was was an at-large representative on the Charlotte City Council. She was elected in 2013, and served two terms.

Lyles worked for the City of Charlotte for almost 30 years, starting off as an analyst in the city’s budget department before becoming budget director. She was assistant city manager for the city from 1996 to 2004. During her time with the city, she helped create the city’s first capital budget and led the restructuring of government programs to evaluate and assess performance audits for city programs.

She also led and presented the community safety plan and helped develop the city’s affordable housing plan and Mecklenburg County’s Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise Program for small businesses.

She has a bachelor of arts in political science from Queens University and a master of public administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a trained facilitator and executive coach, completing programs at the Institute of Government, North Carolina State University and the Lee Institute’s American Leadership Forum.

She says her proudest accomplishment is being mother to her two children Kwame and Aisha, 36 and 34, and grandmother to Aryah and Hailey.