Philippe Derose

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Philippe Derose (born November 22, 1952) is an American businessman and former politician. He is believed to be the first Haitian American elected to public office in the United States. In 1993 he was elected councilman of the Village of El Portal in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and in 2000 he became the village’s mayor, the first Haitian American to hold that position. He later served on the North Miami Beach City Council from 2003 to 2013. He also leads the Haitian-American Alliance Youth Foundation, a nonprofit group.

Derose was born in Liancourt, Haiti, and grew up in St. Marc. His father worked in construction and for the Haitian government, and his mother sold cooked meals in the countryside before bringing them to cities to sell. He is the third of nine children. Wanting a better life in the United States, he moved to Brooklyn with his wife, Marie, in 1974. He earned a high school equivalency diploma in 1976, studied at York College from 1977 to 1979, and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from California Coast University. He and Marie have three children who work in public service: Sendy is a registered nurse in Miami, James works for the United Nations in Haiti, and Frantzy is a certified paramedic who serves as the executive director of the Haitian-American Alliance Youth Foundation. They have five grandchildren.

In 1990, Derose noticed a small Haitian community in El Portal and began attending homeowners’ association meetings, which inspired him to become an advocate for his neighbors. After two unsuccessful run attempts for the El Portal council (1990 and 1991), he changed his campaign strategy in 1992 to reach all voters, not just Haitians. In 1993 he won the council seat, becoming the first Haitian-American elected to public office in the United States. After one year as mayor, he moved to the North Miami Beach council, where he served from 2003 to 2013 and focused on beautification and planting trees.

After the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Derose joined a trip to his homeland with a delegation of government officials to help coordinate relief efforts. The group included notable Haitian-American leaders and other U.S. officials who worked on aid for Haiti.