The Port of Los Angeles has appointed Erica M. Calhoun as its deputy executive director overseeing the City of Los Angeles harbor department’s administrative bureau. In this new position, Calhoun will be responsible for the planning, direction and management of several key divisions at North America’s leading trade gateway and busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere. Calhoun has served as interim deputy executive director of harbor administration since May 2024.
“Erica is an incredibly talented professional and valuable member of our Harbor Department team,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “Her dedication, leadership and hard work over the past two decades with the City of Los Angeles have paved the way for this new role, a well-earned and deserving promotion. I couldn’t be more excited for her.”
As Deputy Executive Director of Harbor Administration, Calhoun will oversee the port’s human resources function for the department’s nearly 900 employees, as well as risk management, contracts an purchasing and the commission office. In Seroka’s absence, she will serve as acting executive director of the harbor department.
Calhoun first joined the port in 2012 as a senior management analyst in the grants unit, where she identified and managed grant funding opportunities. She joined the port’s executive office in December of that same year, and in 2015, was appointed chief of staff to the executive director, the first African American woman to hold that position at the department.
With more than 23 years of service with the City of Los Angeles, Calhoun previously served as assistant officer in charge in the Los Angeles Police Department’s budget section where she aided in the preparation, dissemination and management of the department’s $1.3 billion adopted budget. Her tenure also included serving in a civilian oversight capacity in the Los Angeles Police Commission’s office of the inspector general and as a grants manager with the city’s housing department.
Calhoun has an undergraduate degree in Spanish language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Science degree in public administration from California State University, Los Angeles.