Posted on August 26, 2024
The Port of Los Angeles has named Erica M. Calhoun as its new Deputy Executive Director.
She will be responsible for overseeing the City of Los Angeles Harbor Department’s Administrative Bureau.
Calhoun’s new role will reportedly include planning, directing, and managing many major divisions at North America’s largest commercial gateway and busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.
She has served as Interim Deputy Executive Director of Harbor Administration since May 2024.
Port of Los Angeles Executive Director, Gene Seroka, said: “Erica is an incredibly talented professional and valuable member of our Harbor Department team. Her dedication, leadership and hard work over the past two decades with the City of Los Angeles have paved the way for this new role, a well-earned and deserving promotion. I couldn’t be more excited for her.”
As Deputy Executive Director of Harbor Administration, Calhoun will be in charge of the port’s human resources department, which includes over 900 workers, as well as Risk Management, Contracts & Purchasing, and the Commission Office.
In Seroka’s absence, she will act as Executive Director of the Harbor Department. Calhoun started with the port in 2012 as a Senior Management Analyst in the Grants Unit, where she discovered and handled grant funding possibilities.
She joined the port’s Executive Office in December of that year, and in 2015, she was appointed Chief of Staff to the Executive Director, becoming the Department’s first African American woman to occupy that post.
Her previous positions included civilian supervision in the Los Angeles Police Commission’s Office of the Inspector General and as grants manager for the City’s Housing Department.