President Emeritus, Prince George's County, Term 2022 - 2026
Chair, Education Transformation and Finance Committee
Clarence C. Crawford is an adjunct professor in the American University’s Master of Public Administration (MPA) Program where he teaches Federal budgeting, ethical leadership, and enterprise risk management (ERM). He was appointed by Gov. Hogan to serve as a Member of the Maryland State Board of Education. Clarence is the founder and president of the Teach ‘em to Fish CDC, whose God-given call is to be the best in the world at battling poverty, hopelessness, and violence by creating a generation of successful business owners and outstanding employees who will transform their world. Finally, he is a member of GAO’s Center for Audit Excellence Advisory Board and OPM’s Presidential Rank Review Panel.
Beginning as a GS-1, Clarence learned how to progress through the ranks and how to become a strong leader, enabling him to become a senior executive, ES-6 (i.e., four-star general equivalent) chief operating officer, and chief financial officer. He used innovative approaches to lead successful transformations. Clarence specialized in starting up new functions, creating high-performance organizations, and turning around less-than-stellar ones. His senior executive career included positions at the General Accounting Office, Office of Management and Budget, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of Personnel Management where he oversaw the $1.8 trillion Federal employee pension and benefits fund programs, and he implemented an ERM program. Clarence’s career also included assignments as a Metropolitan Police Officer, Presidential Management Intern, and numerous assignments at the Internal Revenue Service.
Upon retirement from the Federal government with 39 years of service in 2006, Clarence was recruited as a managing director to create a Deloitte presence among Federal CFOs and establish the Deloitte Federal Financial Management Solutions Center. He created and hosted the Federal CFO Insights Radio Show on WTOP’s FEDNEWS Radio. Clarence hosted the quarterly CFO Roundtable series. He helped create and/or tailored solutions to address many of the major challenges facing the Federal government. He grew his account into one of the Federal practice’s best-performing accounts. Clarence retired from Deloitte Consulting, LLP in April 2014. He later served as the Senior Vice President for Corporate Solutions for the Addx Corporation where he helped his clients develop and execute transformative strategies needed in this fast-paced, ever-evolving Federal environment. Clarence co-moderated the National Academy of Public Administration’s (NAPA) quarterly Federal CFO Forum. Finally, he completed his appointment as a Principal Director (Maryland) and 1st Vice Chair of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Board.
Clarence was a Meritorious Presidential Rank Award recipient, elected as a NAPA Fellow, and received the African American Federal Executive Association’s Ebenezer Bassett Award. He earned his MPA in Finance and Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice from the American University, and he has taken classes at the Capital Bible Seminary.
His life experiences have taught Clarence that
success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered…. (Orison Swett Marden). Clarence’s success has come not despite but because of having dyslexia and graduating high school unable to read. By the grace of God, strong support from family and friends, and a bullheaded determination, he taught himself to read as a 22-year-old college freshman police officer. Learning to read opened the doorway that unlocked dyslexia’s superpowers for Clarence’s true success.