DeKalb County, Georgia, appoints new sanitation director

Michael Thurmond, CEO of Georgia’s DeKalb County, has appointed Tracy Hutchinson director of the Sanitation Division. Hutchinson is the first woman to lead the division, which is the largest within the county’s Public Works Department.

Hutchinson joined the Sanitation Division in 2004 as assistant director of processing and disposal services. Since September 2016, she has served as interim director and is responsible for managing the division’s day-to-day operations, which include 641 employees and five operational areas. Hutchinson also oversees the Seminole Road Landfill, the only county-owned landfill in the state of Georgia.

DeKalb’s Sanitation Division serves more than 178,000 households weekly and leads the county’s environmental sustainability efforts, including the recently launched glass recycling program. The county says Hutchinson continues to bring positive attention and awareness to its sanitation efforts, vision and mission and was recently profiled in the August issue of the Kansas City, Missouri-based American Public Works Association (APWA) magazine, APWA Reporter.

Hutchinson is a 20-year solid waste industry veteran. Prior to joining the Sanitation Division, she was the first African-American female to serve in a senior management role within the engineering department at Waste Management Inc., headquartered in Houston. She was also the first female African-American president of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Georgia Chapter.

Hutchinson holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering from Savannah State University, serves as an APWA Public Works Leadership Fellow and holds professional SWANA certifications in landfill operations, collection systems and recycling systems.