One of the highest-ranking staffers, and one of Mayor Shammas Malik’s first cabinet-level hires as his administration began, is on the way out.
Nanette Pitt will be leaving her position next month as Malik’s chief of strategy amid an apparent restructuring in the mayor’s administration as it heads into its second year in office. The chief of strategy role and a team of issue-specific “strategists” the position oversees were created by Malik to foster “a more open, responsive, and collaborative city government.”
Pitt and Brittany Grimes Zaehringer, Malik’s chief of staff, were “co-equals” as the seconds-in-command in Malik’s office. The three formed “a core executive leadership team.” Pitt and Zaehringer were the first cabinet members hired in December 2023 as Malik prepared to take office.
In a statement released Friday morning, Malik said “it’s not uncommon” for new administrations to change organizational structures after a year, and “I ultimately feel that restructuring this position will better serve our goals and set us up for success. This is a decision that was made after several months of consideration and discussion about our overall structure.”
Joining to ‘be at ground zero’ of important Akron issues
Prior to joining the mayor’s office, Pitt, who was born and raised in South Africa, was the senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Akron, where she developed a reputation as a progressive community leader and social justice advocate.
She told Signal Akron in January that she joined the city “to be at ground zero” of the issues important to the community and to “impact so many more thousands of lives by the efforts we all undertake together.”
In that interview, Pitt said her role was to oversee the big-picture vision of the mayor’s office and implement his campaign promises, with a priority on increased public safety.
“There are a lot of good people working on things within Akron, so my role will be to form partnerships and to be watching the landscape and especially the horizon, which is ever-shifting and moving,” she said at the time.
During March budget hearings in front of Akron City Council, which ultimately rejected funding for two open positions Pitt anticipated overseeing, she argued that the strategy team was “an investment in the future of Akron and the change that members of the community voted for when they voted for Mayor Malik. In order to see those initiatives come to life, we use human resources, mostly, to collaborate and bring those initiatives out and run them in the community.”
Pitt was a mainstay at public meetings at City Hall and at events throughout the city representing the Malik administration during the mayor’s first year in office. In a quote attributed to Pitt in the mayor’s office statement released Friday, she said it was an honor to hold the position and oversee the strategy team.
“I’m proud of the work we’ve been able to accomplish in the first year and have confidence in the future of Akron under Mayor Malik’s leadership,” her statement said.
While Malik’s office announced Pitt’s departure as part of its general restructuring plan, it is not clear whether Pitt will be replaced or how different the mayor’s cabinet will look in 2025.
