Bret Hanemann
Director of Governmental Affairs
Bret Hanemann was appointed DCFS Director of Governmental Affairs in March 2024.
Hanemann’s areas of expertise include team building, strategic planning, community relations, marketing and entrepreneurial leadership.
He joins the Department from Jesuit High School, where he served as the Director of Admissions and teacher of public speaking and radio/tv production for over a decade. During his tenure, Hanemann led recruitment activities, developed admissions financial strategies and action plans, and established strong working relationships with community leaders, increasing the school’s student body diversity while decreasing refusal rate and driving Jesuit’s unparalleled market share of Catholic elementary school students with 70% of the student body originating from Archdiocese schools.
He also served as the head swimming coach at both Jesuit High School and Dominican High School for three decades, bringing home a combined 23 state titles and 12 state runner-up titles.
Hanemann previously served as an adjunct speech professor at Tulane University, as well as Assistant Principal/Dean of Students at Jefferson Community School, Louisiana’s first charter school serving the needs of at-risk students in Jefferson Parish. He is a past board member for the Krewe of Orpheus and volunteer for Special Olympics of Louisiana.
A New Orleans native and Jesuit High alum, Hanemann holds a Master’s in Education, with a concentration in Supervision/Evaluation, from Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, and a Bachelor of Communication Arts from Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama.
He and his wife Alissa have six children.