ARC board approves Fulton COO as their new executive director

The Atlanta Regional Commission Board voted Wednesday to hire Anna Roach as its new executive director.

The 47-year-old has been with Fulton County government nearly a decade and served as Fulton’s chief operating officer since 2017.

The agency will now finalize her employment agreement and establish a timeline for her to take over, ARC Board Chair Ken Armstrong said after the vote.

She plans to join in February to allow for a smooth transition, according to a news release announcing the vote. Roach’s priorities include promoting housing access and health equity while developing a highly skilled workforce and finding “common ground on the best path forward for transit in the Atlanta region.”

In her COO role, Roach oversaw the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars in capital projects. Fulton has about 4,500 employees and a budget of $1.2 billion. She also answered hard questions during public meetings from elected officials on the Fulton County Commission wondering why the county was using taxpayer money a certain way or about some initiative being pursued. She handled incoming fire with grace.

Following a nation search, Roach becomes the first woman to lead ARC — a quasi-governmental agency that creates reports and convenes elected officials to tackle some of the metro area’s greatest concerns. Politicos pay attention to and often cite their research on topics including transportation and demographic shifts.

People will begin to look even more toward ARC as the metro area booms, which is something Roach mentioned in her cover letter.

“The truth is,” she wrote, “there may never be a better time than now to serve in as regionally significant a role in Metropolitan Atlanta as this one. The Atlanta Regional Commission is a trusted voice with a solid reputation for providing insight, guidance, and strategic funding opportunities designed to move the area forward.”

She takes over from Doug Hooker, who has lead ARC since 2011. He announced in April 2021 that he’d retire in March 2022. At the time, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that ARC had about 240 employees.

Hooker caught some flack a couple years ago after an AJC and Channel 2 Action News review led lawmakers to pull 60% — or $150,000 — of the agency’s state funding because an audit showed he had misused his purchasing card. He received a $30,000 bonus the next year.

After being an administrative law judge for New York City, according to her resume, she came to Atlanta in 2006 as an assistant dean/faculty member for Greater Atlanta Christian Schools.

After a yearlong stint as assistant deputy general counsel for the District of Columbia, she returned to Atlanta for another yearlong role as a director at a management firm before joining Fulton government in 2013 as assistant county manager.

Roach came to the position with 20 years of law experience, according to her county biography. In 2015, per the AJC, the county manager promoted her to chief strategy officer.

The ARC screened 20 candidates and interviewed 14 people between Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, per an attachment to the board’s agenda, before landing on the mother of four who lives in South Fulton with her husband.

“I think we have a bright future ahead of us,” said Armstrong, the ARC board chair.