(Washington, DC) Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced today that Clark Ray has been selected to serve as the city’s director of the Department of Parks and Recreation. Ray will join the department after successfully serving as the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services.

Ray said, “I am excited to be a part of the DPR team. Over the past several years DPR has made significant achievements in providing fitness and recreation activities for District residents. I am proud to serve as the Director and I am looking forward to working with all of the talented people at DPR and making the agency one of the best agencies in DC Government.”

As director of the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services, he was responsible for leading the charge to improve the quality of life for District residents through increasing the visibility of the Mayor’s constituent services efforts and ensuring that city government agencies provide coordinated and scheduled delivery of high-quality basic services for every resident, visitor, and business owner.

Results-oriented visionary Clark Ray brings more than 20 years of community outreach, executive leadership, and education and training experience to the District of Columbia government.

In August 2004, Ray was named the director of external affairs of the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission. As director at the Commission, Ray oversaw, coordinated and managed the location, design and construction of recreational sports facilities in the District. While serving in this capacity, he also was responsible for developing and monitoring project budgets as well as implementing and maintaining a community outreach plan to ensure that facility designs, development and operations took into their consideration valuable community input.

From 2000 to 2004, Clark served as Neighborhood Services Coordinator in the Office of Neighborhood Services in the Executive Office of the Mayor. Under the Neighborhood Service Initiative, he was responsible for developing a core team of District Government agency representatives while simultaneously establishing systems to monitor and maintain the coordination of timely responses to service needs of District residents. As a team leader and coach to Core Team members from participating agencies, he identified persistent and chronic problems throughout the city’s eight wards and developed and organized short and long term work plans to meet each need.

In 2000, after serving in the Clinton–Gore White House for six years, (which included being detailed to several federal agencies), Ray served as deputy campaign manager/chief of staff to Tipper Gore for GORE 2000. In this position, he was a member of Vice President Al Gore’s senior campaign management team and monitored and approved expenditures associated with Mrs. Gore’s campaign-related activities and events.

Ray has a master’s in education from Temple University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Arkansas.