Becca O’Brien

Executive Counsel to the Mayor

In November 2006 Becca O’Brien joined the staff of the City of New Orleans as Executive Counsel to Mayor C. Ray Nagin, a cabinet position in which she serves as a senior policy advisor to the Mayor, providing staff continuity across a range of priority issues.

Ms. O’Brien comes most recently from the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, where in the aftermath of the hurricanes of 2005 she served as Director of Policy & Research. In this role, she led a policy team providing analysis and recommendations to the President’s Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding, Donald Powell, and advised the Coordinator, Deputy Coordinator and White House policy makers on the most effective role for the federal government in supporting and furthering long-term recovery and rebuilding. She coordinated a Policy Leadership Team of senior administration officials from throughout federal agencies and departments, and served as liaison to state and city government officials on questions of federal policy and support.

Previously a consultant with McKinsey & Company, Ms. O’Brien has specialized in strategic planning for non-profit and public sector organizations working on complex public policy issues. During her tenure at McKinsey, Ms. O’Brien served non-profit, governmental, academic and Fortune-500 private sector clients, as well as contributing to initiatives on knowledge management, business strategy and the development of McKinsey’s Public Sector Practice. Ms. O’Brien has also worked at the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. foreign policy think-tank in New York City; the Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research where she focused on Afghanistan’s post-conflict legal reform and constitutional process; and the U.S. Department of State Office of Legal Adviser where she coordinated aspects of the transfer of authority from the Coalition Provisional Authority to an elected government in Iraq.

Ms. O’Brien was educated at Yale College (B.A., History), the University of Cambridge (M. Phil., Historical Studies) and Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude). While a law student, she founded Just Democracy, a non-partisan, non-profit organization focused on engaging law students in the administration of local, state and federal elections in their law school communities across the country. She currently serves as President of the Board. She was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to the United Kingdom in 1999-2000 to support her studies at Cambridge, and upon graduation from Harvard Law School she received the Dean’s Award for Community Leadership.