CHESAPEAKE — Longtime Deputy City Manager Wanda Barnard-Bailey has retired after two decades with the city, and the city has hired in her place former Police Chief Kelvin Wright.

Bailey began her tenure with the city in 2005 and in 2020 was designated the city’s chief equity officer. Before then, she worked as a Navy Mid-Atlantic Region Counseling and advocacy coordinator for fleet and family support programs. She also worked as a hospice social worker and school social worker and worked on dropout prevention and alcohol an drug prevention in North Carolina.

“Dr. Bailey represents the very best of what it means to be the ‘city that cares,’ and she has meant so much to the community and our team,” City Manager Chris Price said in a statement. “Under her leadership, the city has taken sign

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