Brenda L. Lawrence 

Brenda L. Lawrence is the current mayor of Southfield, Michigan. She graduated from Pershing High School and earned her bachelor's degree in public administration from Central Michigan University.

After serving as president, vice president, and secretary of the Southfield Public Schools' board of education, she was elected to Southfield's city council. In 1999, she became council president. She was elected as mayor in 2001, defeating longtime incumbent Donald Fracassi.

Mrs. Lawrence is Southfield's first African-American and first female mayor, she was a Michigan delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She was re-elected as mayor in 2005 without opposition.

She was also recently profiled in Esquire Magazine as one the country’s "hardest-working" mayors and was identified by Crain’s Detroit Business as a regional leader with the "skills and determination to bridge the historic parochialism of the metropolitan area."

Mrs. Lawrence is a member of the Oakland County Chapter of the NAACP, the Michigan Association of Mayor’s Advisory Board, the U.S. Conference of Mayors Advisory Board and its nominating committee, the American Heart Association’s "Go Red For Women," the Michigan Suburbs Alliance Executive Board, the Women Officials Network Board of Directors, the Birmingham YMCA Advisory Board, the Pepsi Community Advisory Board, the MBN TV and Radio Advisory Board and the Board of Governors of the Renaissance/Skyline Club.

Mrs. Lawrence has been married to McArthur Lawrence for over 30 years. The couple has two children, Michael and Michelle, and one grandchild, Asya.

Source: http://www.cityofsouthfield.com/