About me
Samuel Sanders, Jr. serves as the City Manager for the City of Charlottesville. He was unanimously appointed to serve in July 2023 after serving two years as the Deputy City Manager for Operations. As the DCM, he had direct oversight of Neighborhood Development Services, Parks and Recreation, the Utilities Department, Public Works, and Charlottesville Area Transit. He established the Office of Community Solutions to afford the City Manager an opportunity to directly focus on housing, redevelopment, and neighborhood relations. Sanders previously served as the third Executive Director of Mid City Redevelopment Alliance (MCRA), a non-profit community-based organization founded by Baton Rouge General Medical Center to revitalize the heart of Baton Rouge known as Mid City. The Alliance’s work to renew the Mid City region – home to 40,000 people - through a variety of programs, including teaching individuals and families how to obtain wealth through homeownership, investing in residents to lead the change they want for their neighborhoods, linking volunteers with individuals in need of home repairs, advocating for economic reinvestment, and constructing new homes to stabilize neighborhoods.
Sanders is a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He graduated from Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia in 1994 earning a Bachelor’s in English. He has been a licensed real estate agent and a certified comprehensive housing counselor. He completed his graduate studies at Troy University, earning a Master’s in Public Administration in 2013. Sanders also completed the Achieving Excellence Program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in
2020.
Sanders has built a career focused on public service and a commitment to impacting the lives of people who live in the community where he works. Sanders and his wife Sheren moved to Charlottesville in 2021. Sanders joined the city government, and Dr. Sanders joined the faculty of the Political Science Department at Virginia State University. They have two adult children: Khristopher who resides in Baton Rouge, LA and Sierra who lives in Dallas, TX.
