Stacey Y. Abrams is the House Minority Leader for the Georgia General Assembly and State Representative for the 84th House District. She is the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly and is the first African-American to lead the House of Representatives. Stacey serves on the following committees: Appropriations, Ethics, Judiciary Non-Civil, Rules and Ways & Means. She is the CEO of SageWorks, LLC, a legal advisory firm that serves as General Counsel for the Atlanta Dream WNBA professional basketball team. She co-founded and acts as Chief Operating Officer of the Insomnia Group, a firm specializing in development, investment and consulting for complex infrastructure projects. Stacey also co-founded and serves as COO of Nourish, Inc., a beverage company with a focus on infants and toddlers. Formerly, Stacey was Deputy City Attorney for the City of Atlanta. Prior to her tenure at the City, she was Special Counsel at the Sutherland Asbill & Brennan law firm in Atlanta, with a focus on tax-exempt organizations, health care and public finance.
Stacey is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Next Generation Fellow of the American Assembly, an American Marshall Memorial Fellow and an alumnus of the Leadership Georgia, Leadership Atlanta and the Regional Leadership Institute. She also served as a Georgia delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. She has received the Stevens Award for Outstanding Legal Contributions and the Elmer Staats Award for Public Service, both national honors presented by the Harry S. Truman Foundation. Stacey has been recognized as a “Notable Georgian” by Georgia Trend. She has been honored as a Champion for Georgia Cities by the Georgia Municipal Association, and as Going for the Goal Woman of the Year. She received the Georgia Legislative Service Award by the Association County Commissioners Georgia, the Democratic Legislator of the Year by the Young Democrats of Georgia, and an Environmental Leader Award from the Georgia Conservation Voters for her legislative service. She has been recognized for outstanding legislative performance as an Arnie Award recipient from Creative Loafing for 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Stacey was inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers by the YWCA of Metro Atlanta in 2010. She was chosen in January 2005 by Atlanta Woman magazine as one of its “25 Power Women to Watch.” In addition, she was selected for Georgia Trend’s “40 Under 40” list of young Georgia leaders and for the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s “Top 50 Under 40” list of metro-Atlanta young leaders in 2004. In 2005 and 2006, she was noted as one of Georgia’s Rising Super Lawyers by Atlanta Magazine and Law & Politics Magazine. This follows recognition in 2003 as one of 16 “legal phenoms” by the Fulton County Daily Report, and as one of ten Outstanding Young Atlantans for 2002. In December 2001, she was featured as one of the “30 Leaders of the Future” for Ebony Magazine. Stacey was selected as a Salzburg Seminar Fellow by the international organization for her work in youth development and civic participation in 2000 and as a Freeman Fellow on U.S.-East Asian Relations in 2002. She is also a 1994 Harry S. Truman Scholar.
She has published articles on issues of public policy, taxation and nonprofit organizations, including pieces with The American Prospect, The Christian Science Monitor, Yale Law and Policy Review, and the Southern University Law Review. She is also an editor of and contributor to the acclaimed project Content of Our Character: Voices of Generation X-Collected Essays on Ethical Leadership in the 21st Century. Stacey has taught courses on law and social policy at Yale University and Spelman College. Under the pen name Selena Montgomery, Stacey is the award-winning author of several romantic suspense novels, which have sold more than 100,000 copies.
Stacey currently serves on the Board of Trustees for St. Joseph’s Health System, the Board of Visitors for Agnes Scott College, the Boards of Directors for Literacy Action and the Gateway Center for the Homeless, and the Advisory Board of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and other local advisory boards.
Stacey received her J.D. from the Yale Law School. She graduated from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin with an M.P.Aff. in public policy. She earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Political Science, Economics and Sociology) from Spelman College, magna cum laude.
