Stephen K. Benjamin

Stephen Keith Benjamin (born December 1, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer who served as the Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement under President Joe Biden from 2023 to 2025. Benjamin previously served as Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina from 2010 to 2022, becoming the city’s first African American mayor. He has also held leadership roles in several national organizations, including serving as President of both the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the African American Mayors Association. Benjamin's parents were from Orangeburg, South Carolina, but relocated to Queens, New York, during the Great Migration in the 1960s. Benjamin later moved to Columbia to attend the University of South Carolina, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1991 and a Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1994. While at the university, Benjamin served as President of Student Government, President of the student chapter of the NAACP, and later as President of the Student Bar Association. Benjamin began his public service career as a member of South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges' Cabinet, where he served as chief executive of a $43 million state agency employing 950 people. Benjamin also completed executive coursework through the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, participated in additional leadership programs, and was named both an Aspen Institute Rodel Fellow and a Liberty Fellow. In addition to his public service, Benjamin has remained active in academia. He has served as an Adjunct Professor at the University of South Carolina Honors College and was the Spring 2022 Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health.