Lucia Davis-Raiford comes to Miami-Dade County with more than 20 years of experience in advocating for civil and human rights.

Ms. Davis-Raiford’s career in equal employment policy began at Miami-Dade Transit in 1981, where she was Director of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity.  She left Miami in 1986 to join the staff of the New York City Transit Authority where she held various positions including Manager, Disadvantaged Business Programs; Director, Affirmative Action; and, Acting Vice-President at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Ms. Davis-Raiford is an attorney whose work in law enforcement began at the 7,000 member New York City Transit Police Department where she was Special Counsel to the Chief  of Police and liaison for labor and government affairs and where she created that Department’s first EEO Investigations Unit.  She was promoted to Director of the Legal Services Bureau where she advised the Chief of Police on policy and legal matters related to patrol strategy, investigations, and administration.  She directed the activities of 100 sworn and civilian members of  the Legal Services, EEO, Community Affairs, Court, Documents and Disciplinary Units, and was the first woman to do so.

In 1995, Ms. Davis-Raiford became the founding Director of the Domestic Violence Unit of the New York City Police Department.  From the Office of the Chief of Department, she developed policy, procedures and service delivery systems to ensure equal protection for victims of family violence.  As the highest ranking civilian in operations side of the NYPD, Ms. Davis-Raiford developed the first department tool for tracking domestic crime statistics, developed curricula, established training procedures and oversight of domestic violence field operations at all organizational levels of this 50,000 member agency.

She is a frequent lecturer on the role of police in domestic violence and the development of social policy, and has lectured all over the United States and in England, Austria, Taiwan, and France.  Additionally, she has been consulted by law enforcement, social service and legislative organizations from countries around the world including India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

The development of management and operational systems to support equality and fairness has been the over-arching theme of her career.  She is the proud mother of two wonderful children.