Communications Director
Donna L. Harris brings 26 years of communications and public affairs experience to the team at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) serving as Communications Director.
In 2021, Donna joined the District of Columbia’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH), established by the Homeless Service Reform Act, to facilitate interagency, cabinet-level leadership in planning, policymaking, program development, and monitoring for the Continuum of Care of homeless services. In this role, she was responsible for stakeholder engagement across the Continuum, focusing on consumers and front-line staff.
In 2017, Donna joined the Department of General Services (DGS), which is responsible for building, maintaining, and sustaining more than 840 real and land properties owned by the District government. As the agency’s Public Information Officer, she handled media and public relations regarding the work of the agency and its people. In that capacity, Donna provided strategic communications by ensuring key information about the nature and impact of DGS activities was accessible, reliable, and delivered through multiple channels to agency constituents. She worked with agency senior leadership to develop strategies and protocols to support specific internal and external communications goals. Donna developed the agency’s first-ever crisis communications plan and served as the agency representative when the District’s Joint Information Center was activated for major citywide events and incidents.
Prior to joining DGS in 2017, Donna served on the ABC7 News (WJLA) news team in Washington, DC, from 2012 to 2016, where she provided daily logistics and field production in a fast-paced news environment. She is the recipient of three National Capital Chesapeake Bay Regional Emmy Awards and an Edward R. Murrow Award – for team coverage – while at WJLA. From 2008 to 2010 she was a News Director at WVVI (93.5FM) in the US Virgin Islands and reported live from Capitol Hill on the inauguration of President Barack Obama. From 1998 to 2010, she worked at ABC13 News (WSET) in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she was a news anchor, reporter, and producer. Before her second career in news and public affairs, Donna served 12 years in the Executive Office at the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) in Washington, DC.
Donna is a native Washingtonian, was educated at the University of the District of Columbia in Journalism, and was recruited by WUSA9 to begin her career in television news. She is active with the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and is on track to become an Advanced PIO through the FEMA curriculum. Donna is a certified SCUBA diver and, in her spare time, enjoys mentoring others.