Brianna Millor

Boston’s youngest cabinet head and a protector of Black joy prefers the attention not to be on her

By Toyloy Brown III

Leaders tend to stand out. They command the room and demand everyone’s attention. It’s not surprising for some to even bask in the glory they’re given.

Quinnipiac alumna Brianna Millor, 27, possesses these qualities. She can easily enjoy the adulation that comes with being the youngest cabinet head in Boston’s mayoral office.

But she doesn’t.

She despises being the center of attention. The mere thought makes the self-proclaimed introvert squirm.

Proof of Brianna’s evasion of the limelight is a few bewildered looks from her staff who watched journalists walk into her office to interview and photograph her. By her own admission, she has turned down multiple story requests from publications in the city, including the Boston Globe.

“I've never been the person in the spotlight, and it does bother me because I'm like, ‘I rather have this community member (shine),’” Brianna said. “I always seen myself as the support or the amplifier for things that are happening … there's so many people that are on the ground doing that work, and I just see myself as a vessel for that.”

Brianna is the chief of community engagement for Michelle Wu, the city’s first woman and Asian American mayor. Brianna, a Dorchester native, was appointed Jan. 3, and Enrique Pepen, director of the Office of Neighborhood Services, said that the wunderkind’s success is a testament to her talents.

“I think that speaks to what she's capable of,” Pepen said. “Where she could bring that leadership to the table without her having a long-lived experience where that hasn’t been the common trend of the city of Boston. I think she's breaking many barriers at the moment, as we speak.”

The Office of Community Engagement can be viewed as the front-line of city hall. As chief, Brianna oversees the Office of Neighborhood Services and monitors all staff liaisons that are assigned to specific neighborhoods and cultural communities. She ensures that her team is responsive to the physical and cultural needs of the city.

Pepen explained how he has noticed Brianna’s ability to empower everyone, inside and outside her office.

“Whenever there's a chance for one of the neighborhood liaisons to speak with the mayor or herself, she gives them the floor to do so,” Pepen said. “She's always elevating other voices, doesn't matter if you're working for the city, if you're a community activist, if you are a member of a civic group.”

While Brianna knows how to highlight people when progress is made, she is just as adept at responding to emergencies, going beyond what is required of her job responsibilities. This was exemplified on April 4, when a heavy fire in a triple-decker building in Dorchester displaced nearly 20 people and left two firefighters with minor burns.

Part of her department’s job is to respond to fires and assist those affected. Brianna’s duties do not force her to be present at the scene, but she was anyway.

“‘She says, ‘I got to go, I'm going to go to this, to ensure that the families are taken care of,’” Pepen said. “She doesn't have to attend. But she noticed the gravity of this one, and she put everything down and she just went. And she had the firsthand experience of what these families were going through, and I think that's just one of many instances where I've seen her leadership come out.”

The genuine desire Brianna has to show up for people in her city when they are in need is rooted in her upbringing. It goes back to the days when her mom, who is from Haiti, was a steady rock of love and support for family and friends.

“I've seen my mother be that for so many people and I've always wanted to be the person, the connector,” Brianna said. “My house was always a house every cousin came to, every friend came to and my mother was the person that every person talked to and was like ‘I need this advice.’”

At an early age, Brianna knew she wanted to help people in need. She chose the realm of politics as she saw it as a “vehicle for change,” although she is not a politician herself. Becoming an advocate for others wasn’t only a seed planted at home, but also through her early years in schooling.

Brianna was a student in the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity program. It allowed her parents to have her bussed from the mostly Black neighborhood of Dorchester to the predominately white Brookline school district since she was in the second grade. While the schools she attended offered some academic benefits,

she was one of a small number of students of color and experienced some discomfort from being outnumbered in a space.

She understood that she wanted to play a role in helping others and improving conditions for people who didn’t fit in with the majority like her.

To follow her passions, she thought attending a college in Washington D.C., the mecca of politics, was what she wanted. Instead, in 2012, she chose to be a political science major at Quinnipiac because of the picturesque campus and the school being the right size. Feeling like just a number wasn’t in her plans. She picked Quinnipiac since she wanted an “opportunity to make an impact.” It also helped that she received a helpful financial-aid package, she chuckled.

Brianna’s time at Quinnipiac academically and socially prepared her for her career. When she was in the master’s program for public relations, she learned how to analyze and synthesize heavy amounts of information and clearly communicate it to different groups.

In the untraditional sense, Brianna was prepared through the social situations that she encountered while at a predominantly white university. Even though she found pockets of community at the university, she felt she was not always safe as a Black woman.

The U.S. elected Donald Trump as president when Brianna was a student in 2016. She was not in favor of him being voted for a myriad of reasons but noticed how brazenly others on campus expressed their excitement. When leaving the Rocky Top

Student Center on the York Hill campus, she recalled witnessing students shrieking with happiness.

“There's people that are celebrating this victory and I'm petrified,” Brianna said. “Can I feel safe in this environment knowing that there's so much hate that's being spewed around, so much negativity and so much racism … It's just like, ‘Wow, this is really where I'm at.’”

This distinct experience was a sort of wake-up call, making her consider if it is possible to fully know if a predominately white space can be safe, especially as a Black woman that advocates for marginalized people. This moment also hardened Brianna’s resolve to enter the political world so she can understand how to “undo what has been done,” righting the wrongs that exist in the laws of this country and in her home city of Boston.

During Brianna’s graduate student year, she interned for then-council president Wu and went on to work for her for three years. Brianna did constituent service support, neighborhood and community organizing for Wu’s city council office along with other tasks.

One of Brianna’s skills that have helped her excel in this field is her ability to evaluate people for the right positions.

“She's looking for an individual that has lived experiences with whatever role she wants to fill. You can see it in the liaisons

that she's hired,” Pepen said. “Obviously, she looks at people’s resumes and everything, but she wants to see if she can vibe with them. She wants to sense their vibe, make sure that they're good for the role spiritually and mentally,”

Brianna’s own spiritual and mental well-being is also significant. It is not lost on her that her experience as a Black woman is comprised of different challenges that many in the U.S. cannot fully understand. While seemingly antithetical, this is part of why one of her biggest areas of growth has been to prioritize happiness.

“I used to take life very seriously,” Brianna said. “I joke a lot more now because these problems and wanting to attack the big issues could get very dense.”

Indulging in happiness is not a prerogative simply for her. It is apropos that she also strives for the bliss of others.

“I have a pin on my table that says ‘protect Black Joy,’” Brianna said. “Where I keep my happiness is from protecting that and it's an intentional action … As a Black person, you can't just go through life and expect people to not try to take that joy away. But that's your only form of power and resistance is keeping and protecting that joy.”