Atlanta Mayor Dickens appoints Rocsean Spencer as city’s new director of Office of Contract Compliance

ATLANTA—After a national search, Mayor Andre Dickens today announced the appointment of Rocsean Spencer as the city’s new  director of the Office of Contract Compliance (OCC). Spencer, whose  appointment became effective July 29,  formerly served as the inaugural Chief Diversity Officer at the New Orleans Ernest N. Memorial Convention Center. Her appointment marked a significant milestone as the first of its kind among convention centers nationwide.

In her role as Atlanta’s OCC director, Spencer will oversee the department that links small minority and women-owned and disadvantaged businesses with City-related business opportunities, while maintaining Atlanta’s national standard for Minority Business Enterprise.

The OCC is designed to service and administer programs on formal contracts in the City’s Aviation, Watershed and General Fund Departments.

“The OCC is one of the greatest legacy projects handed down to us by Mayor Jackson, and it is up to us to keep women and minority-owned businesses not just engaged in City business, but thriving as active partners,” said Mayor Dickens. “Rocsean has built an entire career on the ideals of equity, fairness and inclusiveness in how business should be done, and I look forward to seeing how she will continue to grow OCC’s programs and engage even more of these small businesses who otherwise would not have a seat at the table.”

The mission of the Mayor’s Office of Contract Compliance’s Equal Business Opportunity Program is to mitigate the effects of past and present discrimination against women and minority businesses. The City of Atlanta has found that African American, Female, Hispanic and Asian American-owned businesses have suffered the effects of racial and gender discrimination in both public and private markets, resulting in the disproportionate award of contract dollars to non-minority or non-female businesses. It is the responsibility of the Office of Contract Compliance to promote full and equal business opportunities for all persons doing business with the City of Atlanta. In FY 2024 alone, there were roughly 112 competitive procurements with OCC requirements.

Prior to joining the City of Atlanta, Spencer most recently served as the New Orleans’ Convention Center’s First Small and Emerging Business (SEB) Program Director, a position that was created in 2019 to help promote the importance of diverse and small business inclusion. In that role, Spencer was tasked with developing and managing the Small and Emerging Business Opportunity Program. Spencer improved small business participation from 2% to 34% on the $557 million capital improvement. She also  championed the organization’s commitment to reducing bias, promoting equitable outcomes, cultivating respect and inclusivity, and aligning communications and People Services programs with overarching Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) objectives.

Spencer came to the Convention Center from the City of New Orleans, Office of Supplier Diversity. She served as Certification Officer, where she reviewed Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) certification applications and attended State and Local DBE (SLDBE) program outreach events. She was later promoted to Compliance Officer, where she managed a portfolio of $450 million dollars of Public and Private Sector funds. Spencer was promoted to supervise the DBE program, where she managed the SLDBE Certification Department as SLDBE Certification Coordinator. Then she assumed the role of interim director.

Spencer earned her B.A. in Public Administration from Southern University at New Orleans. She also earned her Master’s in Contract Compliance Certification from American Contract Compliance Association and Morgan State University for Continuing and Professional Studies.

You can learn more about the OCC or doing business with the City here.