Atlanta has a new mayor named Andre. Here’s what you need to know about Andre Dickens, according to colleagues, friends and former classmates.
- City Council member: defeated a three-term incumbent to win his at-large seat in 2013 and ran unopposed in 2017
- Advocate: While on Council, Dickens championed affordable housing policies like requiring affordable units along the Beltline
- Engineer: studied chemical engineering at Georgia Tech and worked as an engineer for more than a decade
- Deacon at New Horizon Baptist Church, where he teaches Sunday school each week
- Business owner: founded an Atlanta home furnishing company that closed during the housing crisis.
- Atlanta native: raised in Adamsville Dickens graduated from Mays High School. He currently lives in Collier Heights, making him the first mayor who’s lived inside I-285 since Shirley Franklin.
- Father of one 16-year-old daughter, whom he shares custody of with his ex-wife, and enjoys a weekly Taco Tuesday.
- Friend: Buds and classmates as far back as middle school describe the mayor-elect as funny, loyal, intellectually curious, and genuine.
- Goal setter: When Dickens was 12, he met then Mayor Andrew Young, and told his family he too wanted to become mayor one day, according to his mother Sylvia Dickens.
- Podcaster (before it was cool): Roughly a decade ago, Dickens co-founded an internet radio talk show called 3 Degrees of Separation about the connections people share and hosted a segment about faith.
- Dancer: In high school, Dickens was the homecoming king and part of an all-male dance group called NXS that performed at pep rallies. You can watch the reunion performance at his 20th reunion.
Also, this super random fact:
- Per Maya Prabhu at the AJC, Dickens will be the third Atlanta mayor in a row with a mother named Sylvia.