Cheryl Artise Gray Evans (born 1968, New Orleans, Louisiana) is an American lawyer and politician. She represented District 5 in the Louisiana State Senate prior to her resignation in 2009. She formerly served in the Louisiana House of Representatives (District 98). on the Louisiana Senate site.
Background After finishing Eleanor McMain Magnet Secondary Senior High School in New Orleans, Gray proceeded to Stanford University, where she was a member of the track team and Delta Sigma Theta,See List of Delta Sigma Theta sisters. Her mother, Ernestine S. Gray, is also on that list. receiving her baccalaureate degree in 1990. She then returned to New Orleans and received her Juris Doctor from the Tulane University Law School in 1993.
She practiced law with New Orleans' Gray & Gray Law Firm, which was started by her parents.
Political career Gray Evans is a confidant with the reform faction of the Orleans Parish Democratic Party—the element frequently identified with the Black Organization for Leadership Development (BOLD) political organization which inexorably competes against William J. Jefferson and his Progressive Democrats.See Rosalind Peychaud and cf. Stacy Head. Jefferson's political career declined when he was defeated for re-election to Louisiana's 2nd congressional district seat by Republican Joseph Cao in 2008 and convicted of 11 felonies in 2009. Gray Evans defeated one of Jefferson's daughters, Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, for the Senate District 5 seat vacated by the term-limited Diana Bajoie, Jefferson's successor in the state Senate.Louisiana Secretary of State election returns for 2007 November 17. She is a critic of the Federal Emergency Management Agency's handling of recovery from Hurricane Katrina.Richard A. Webster, "Charity debate drags on as renovation talk surfaces" in New Orleans CityBusiness, 2008 September 29.
Personal life Gray Evans' official state senate résumé lists a host of achievements, activities, awards, and memberships. on the Louisiana Senate site (accessed 2009 December 29). She attends Asia Baptist Church in New Orleans and is married to former New Orleans television and radio news anchor/reporter Patrick Evans, who once served as Communications Director to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.Patrick Evans' résumé.
Toward the end of 2009 Cheryl Gray Evans resigned from the legislature to join her husband, who had begun serving on active duty in Connecticut as a public affairs officer in the Navy.Peterson qualifies for state senate race, Times-Picayune, 2009 December 29, Saint Tammany Edition, p. B1.
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