Deputy Mayor Khalfani Stephens

khalfanistephens_headaBOUT Deputy Mayor Stephens

Mr. Stephens is Deputy Mayor of Pontiac, MI. In this position, he operates as the Chief Operating Officer and advisor to the Mayor. Mr. Stephens assisted in lowering the City’s operating deficit, restructuring the City’s departments to increase service delivery, and introducing new programs to increase employee morale. 

Before coming home to Pontiac, Mr. Stephens served as the Director of Economic Development and Assistant City Administrator with the City of Flint. In that role, he oversaw a nearly $4 million grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. He helped the City of Flint to become one of 32 communities across the country to receive $1 million in funding to support small businesses and helped secure additional funding for small businesses. 

Mr. Stephens was recruited to Flint from the Development Authority of Clayton County Georgia where he redesigned an economic development agency in Metropolitan Atlanta. While with the Development Authority, Stephens wrote the agency’s standard operating procedures, metrics, and hired staff. He also brought national attention to Clayton County and drove over $100 million of new investments and facilitated the creation of over 500 new jobs paying above the county’s median wage. 

Before moving to Georgia, Mr. Stephens held positions with the City of Farmington Hills and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation where he was instrumental in helping many companies from small start-ups to large international organizations find the resources that they needed to grow and thrive in Michigan. 

Mr. Stephens began his career journey in Pontiac where he worked as the Pontiac Growth Group Director for the Pontiac Downtown Development Authority as well as an Educator for the Pontiac School District. 

Mr. Stephens has a Post Master’s Certificate in Economic Development and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Wayne State University. He also was an honors graduate with a BA in Linguistics and History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is fluent in French as a result of overseas experience living and working in France, and he also speaks Spanish. Mr. Stephens is also a licensed State of Michigan real estate person, a Certified Economic Developer (CEcD), an Economic Development Finance Professional (EDFP), and a Michigan Master Citizen Planner.

In addition to being the Oakland Livingston Human Service Agency (OLHSA) Chairperson, Mr. Stephens volunteers as the Vice President for The Pontiac Kappa Foundation. He serves on the Oakland County Land Bank Authority, the Board of the Michigan Economic Developers Association, and a lecturer at the University of Michigan- Flint. 

Mr. Stephens is married with two children. He is an active member of the Pontiac Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. and in his spare time he enjoys, travel, language learning, gardening, and cooking.