Ernest G. Barefield

Ernest Barefield is the executive in charge of executive search, staffing, and consulting services for Gans Gans and Associates (gga). Ernest has also been a principal management consultant for gga for more than 20 years. As lead consultant, he has directed and managed a variety of consulting projects involving organizational, operational, productivity and diversity assessments of major corporations such as Ameritech, Waste Management, and Tampa Electric, Lutheran Services of Florid, and University of South Florida. He has also lead and performed consulting work on public sector organizational, operational, and productivity assessments for public agencies such as the Philadelphia Housing Authority, the City of Philadelphia Streets Department, the Newark Housing Authority, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and the Baltimore Housing Authority.

Ernest has also served city and non-profit organizations as Deputy CAO or Deputy for External Affairs (Atlanta and Philadelphia) and Chief of Staff (Chicago and Universal Companies (a Philadelphia based non-profit) with responsibilities for management oversight of key operations and support services. For Universal Companies, this involved the Education Division and led program implementation of education innovations like the Family Student Resource Center.

Ernest has also been the Principal and owner for 20 years of Barefield & Associates a government relations consultant and lobbying firm. He represented one of the nation’s leading Medicaid HMO’s, Amerihealth Mercy Health Plan for many years. In the course of his 30-year professional career in government administration, Barefield served as department head, deputy COA, COS, or Special Advisor for 5 mayors, Maynard Jackson, Andy Young, Shirley Franklin, Harold Washington, and Wilson Goode in three cities: Atlanta, Chicago, and Philadelphia, He has worked closely with legislative leaders in the house and senate of the Pennsylvania state legislature. He has enjoyed effective relationship with members of congress from Illinois, Georgia, and Pennsylvania over the years. Barefield has represented clients as a lobbyist and political strategist and advisor.