![\"Harris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HarrisCountyAdministrationBuildingHoustonTX-1-1000x667.jpg\")
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Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n
Harris County Administration Building in downtown Houston.<\/p>\n
Erica Lee Carter, the daughter of the late Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, was selected by commissioners on Thursday to serve as the next Harris County Administrator.<\/p>\n
The position is charged with leading the Office of County Administration, which has overseen the day-to-day operations and long-term strategic plans of the county\u2019s largest departments since its establishment in 2021. On Thursday, Lee Carter spoke about her future roles in the position and thanked commissioners for the appointment.<\/p>\n
“Harris County is my home and heart, and it\u2019s with my heart that I joyfully accept this role of county administrator,\u201d she said. \u201cI look forward to elevating governance, collaboration and communication across Harris County departments.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n Lee Carter previously served as a policy advisor and worked to develop draft proposals in Harris County Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis\u2019 office. She served a brief 2-month stint in her mother\u2019s congressional position, serving out the remainder of the term after Jackson Lee\u2019s death in 2024. <\/p>\n Lee Carter also served as a trustee in the Harris County Department of Education for five years and earned her master\u2019s degree at Duke University\u2019s Terry Stanford School of Public Policy.<\/p>\n She is the third person to be appointed to the position of County Administrator. <\/p>\n RELATED: Sylvester Turner wins full District 18 term; Sheila Jackson Lee’s daughter to fill rest of term<\/a><\/p>\n In a statement on Thursday, Ellis said Lee Carter is dedicated to improving the lives of people who live and work in Harris County. <\/p>\n \u201cWe will all benefit from her brilliant mind, strong character, experience at all levels of government, understanding of our community, and her lifelong commitment to making government a force for positive change,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI look forward to working with her in this new chapter of her distinguished career in public service.”<\/p>\n Beginning in March, Lee Carter will replace Jesse Dickerman, who has served as the Interim County Administrator since April of last year, when former administrator Diana Ramirez exited the office. In his role, Dickerman advised county commissioners on policy proposals, fronted a statewide \u2018solar for all<\/a>\u2018 initiative and worked on negotiations to redevelop NRG Park<\/a>. <\/p>\n Commissioners have raised discussions in the past about the role of the county\u2019s administration department, with some suggesting the office is unnecessary and should be dissolved. They turned down a vote last year that would have reduced the department\u2019s roles.<\/p>\n The office is also charged with managing the county\u2019s 70 boards and commissions, and advises commissioners in the county\u2019s lengthy budget season. <\/p>\n Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Thursday said the position replaced a confusing system \u2014 in which the commissioners supervised individual departments \u2014 by centralizing the county\u2019s functions. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a mess,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m proud of the county administrator position. I think everyone in the role has done well. It\u2019s a hard job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wikimedia Commons Harris County Administration Building in downtown Houston. Erica Lee Carter, the daughter of the late Congresswoman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[66874,405,4166,66875,56,58,57,66,223,22823],"class_list":["post-163627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-erica-lee-carter","tag-harris-county","tag-harris-county-administration","tag-harris-county-office-of-county-administration","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-local","tag-news","tag-sheila-jackson-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}