Katie Black
Title: General Manager, Community Services
Areas of focus: As General Manager of Community Services Katie oversees six areas: Community Strategies, Partnerships, Recreation & Social Programs, Emergency Management & Community Safety, the Calgary Fire Department, and the Corporation’s Anti-Racism program. These functions comprise a team of nearly 4,000 full-time employees.
Community Services is a people department and the heart of its work is community. The team connects and protects diverse individuals, communities, and businesses through strategies and education, programs and services, enforcement and emergency response - directly and through partners. The department serves a range of people, from those seeking active and creative lifestyles to those experiencing vulnerabilities including imminent threat to life or property, or systemic barriers to full civic participation. Community Services and our partners have the expertise, networks, and relationships to see that everyone has full access to, and inclusion in Calgary.
Career history: Prior to taking on the General Manager role for Community Services, Katie Black served as Director of Calgary Neighbourhoods since 2014 and is passionate about making life better every day for everyone.
In her over 30 years of public service, Katie has championed The City's social wellbeing agenda inspired by Council, colleagues and citizens in neighbourhoods and communities of affiliation. Her work on The City's first homelessness strategy established a foundation for Calgary's poverty reduction initiative Enough for All. In addition, Katie previously led the development of Council Priorities for the Business Plan & Budget 2009-11, and has overseen the delivery of the Community Representation Framework, Investing in Partnerships Policy, Fair Entry Program, and the Seniors Age-friendly Strategy, to name just a few.
More recently, she was accountable for transforming the passion of a three-day public hearing on experiences of racism in Calgary, into The City’s Anti-Racism program attending to public safety, community at large, and our own organization. As the General Manager responsible for the work of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) as well as Calgary’s Bylaw enforcement she had a key role in steering through Calgary’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Katie says, the whole is always greater than the sum of the parts, and collective impact is where we are most effective.
