Fernandez Serves On Obama Transition Team

What will the Barack Obama administration look like? Ask New Haven’s Henry Fernandez — he’s helping to plan it.

Fernandez (at right in photo, beside the NAACP​’s Scot Esdaile), New Haven’s former director of economic development, landed a spot on the Obama transition team’s Health and Human Services group.

He came to the transition crew the way many others have — through the Obama campaign’s ​“farm team,” the Center for American Progress. That D.C. think tank was started by former Clinton Administration Chief of Staff John Podesta; Podesta now oversees the 450-member Obama transition team. Fernandez is a senior fellow at the center.

The transition team group on which Fernandez serves is looking at the makeup of, among other agencies, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD is the agency that has perhaps the greatest impact on the life of New Haven, since it funds the housing authority, pays the Section 8 vouchers that many low-income families use to rent private homes, and supports (or doesn’t support) myriad housing and commercial development projects across town.

According to the transition team’s official website, where Fernandez’s name appeared Tuesday, the mission of these groups is ​“to provide the President-elect, Vice President-elect, and key advisors with information needed to make strategic policy, budgetary, and personnel decisions prior to the inauguration. The Teams will ensure that senior appointees have the information necessary to complete the confirmation process, lead their departments, and begin implementing signature policy initiatives immediately after they are sworn in.”

Fernandez declined comment on his appointment. Click here to read an Independent article he wrote about Obama’s election.

He is principal of Fernandez Advisors, LLC a strategic and management consulting firm counseling businesses, foundations, non-profits, and government agencies.