Keisha Lance Bottoms

Keisha Lance Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta, Georgia, from 2018-2022. Bottoms was the first Atlanta mayor to serve in all three branches of government, as a judge, city council member and mayor.

Bottoms was born on January 18, 1970, in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father, Major Lance, was a R&B singer-songwriter who was popular in the United States in the 1960s and in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Bottoms attended Florida A&M where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in communications. In 1994, she received her Juris Doctor degree from Georgia State University College of Law. After law school, Bottoms became a prosecutor and represented children in juvenile court.

In 2002 Bottoms became a magistrate judge in Atlanta and in 2008 was elected a Fulton County Superior Court judge. She served Atlanta’s 11th district as a city councilwoman from 2010 until 2018. From 2015 to 2017, she was the executive director of Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority. After her term as mayor, Bottoms served as director of the Office of Public Engagement and a senior advisor to President Biden from 2022-2023.