News Flash

Dec. 8, 2021 – Hampton City Council members unanimously agree that Michelle Ferebee, former Economic Development Authority chair and a NASA deputy director, should fill the vacancy that will be created when Councilwoman Chris Snead is sworn in as treasurer, announced Mayor Donnie Tuck at the City Council meeting. 

Sixty-two people applied to be the interim council member, serving from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2022. It is likely a special election will be held in November 2022 to allow the voters to decide who will fill the remaining two years of the term, from Jan. 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024.

Ferebee served for the past eight years on the Hampton Economic Development Authority, most recently as chair. In that role, she has been involved Hampton business initiatives from small-business grants to large development projects. The authority administers land sales in the Hampton Roads Center office park and encourages development projects in other areas of Hampton. It is a separate legal authority but is associated with the city and the economic development department.

Ferebee has worked at NASA Langley Research Center for 38 years, first as an aerospace technologist. Her roles there have included deputy for the office of business development, project manager for the center’s centennial, and two different deputy director roles – first for the Strategy, Aeronautics Research Directorate and now for Office of Strategic Analysis, Communications, and Business Development.

She is a native of Hampton who has also been active in a variety of community organizations, including the Foodbank of the Virginia Peninsula, The Junior League of Hampton Roads, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, and The Links. She has received numerous NASA awards, including the Exceptional Achievement Medal.