Andy Berke

Andrew Lawrence Berke (born March 31, 1968) is an American attorney and politician from Tennessee. He served as the mayor of Chattanooga from 2013 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Hamilton and Marion counties in the 10th district as a state senator from 2007 to 2012. On March 5, 2013, he became Chattanooga's mayor-elect, winning more than 72% of the vote, and he was inaugurated on April 15, 2013. Berke was reelected on March 7, 2017, and served until April 19, 2021, when he was succeeded by Tim Kelly. On October 6, 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Berke to serve as administrator of the Rural Utilities Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Early life and education Berke was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Marvin and Kandy Berke. He has one sister, Julie. He attended Rivermont Elementary and Baylor School in Chattanooga, where he was a standout tennis player, and Stanford University, where he met his wife, Monique. He lives in Chattanooga with his wife and their two daughters. He is Jewish. After graduating from Stanford with honors, Berke worked as a legislative assistant for U.S. Representative Bart Gordon. After graduating from the University of Chicago Law School, he worked as a clerk for Judge Deanell Reece Tacha of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Lawrence, Kansas. During this time he also taught at the University of Kansas School of Law as an adjunct professor. Berke returned home to Chattanooga and was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1994. He joined his family law practice, Berke, Berke, and Berke in Chattanooga, which was founded in 1934 by his grandfather Harry Berke.