Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Announces the Fifth Class of Mayors to Go Back to School
September 27, 2021
Yearlong program provides 38 global mayors and 76 senior city leaders with executive training and innovation skills to help deliver results for their residents
Class of 2022 curriculum will focus on leadership and management skills to confront the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 in cities
September 27, 2021, New York, New York: The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative today announced its fifth class of mayors. Thirty-eight mayors from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Africa were selected for the 2021-2022 program, which is designed to equip mayors with the leadership and management tools to tackle complex challenges in their cities and improve the quality of life of their citizens. As the program celebrates its fifth anniversary, nearly 90 percent of past participants confirm that it has made them a better leader.
Mayors from 24 US cities and 14 international cities will each have two senior leaders join them in the program. The mayors and senior leaders will attend immersive classes in a hybrid in-person and virtual model, which will be taught by faculty from Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and feature renowned urban policy and innovation experts from across the Bloomberg Philanthropies network.
“We created the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative because cities have always been on the frontlines of the biggest challenges we face–and it’s critical that mayors have the skills, support, and resources they need to confront them,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and 108th mayor of New York City. “Five years later, with mayors leading the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s never been more clear how important that work is. This year’s class of mayors is a diverse group of innovative and accomplished leaders from around the world, and we’re looking forward to working with them as they continue to lead us through this crisis and build a better, more resilient future for their cities.”
As they work to help their cities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the participating mayors have identified several key topics they would like to address during the program. The top priorities for this class of mayors are: improving the way city hall engages with their community, leading change, and enhancing communications in order to inspire action among residents.
The class of 2022 represents the most diverse class of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership to date.
“The Bloomberg Center for Cities will put at the disposal of America’s leaders the tremendous resources of Harvard’s faculty and students,” said Harvard President Larry Bacow. “We look forward to welcoming the fifth class of mayors taking part in its cornerstone program, and we hope the experience of participating in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative will help them as they work to address complex issues and to improve their constituents’ quality of life. We are grateful to work alongside Bloomberg Philanthropies and to benefit from their generous support.”
Since its launch, the Initiative has built an alumni network of 158 global mayors. The fifth class of mayors to participate in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative are:
Ginger Nelson (Amarillo, Texas); Brandon Scott (Baltimore, Maryland); Claudia Lopez (Bogotá, Colombia); Marvin Rees (Bristol, United Kingdom); Trey Mendez (Brownsville, Texas); Raquel Lyra (Caruaru, Brazil); Tim Kelly (Chattanooga, Tennessee); Paulette Guajardo (Corpus Chirsti, Texas); Jeni Arndt (Fort Collins, Colorado); Lily Mei (Fremont, California); Aleksandra Maria Dulkiewicz (Gdańsk, Poland); Eric Genrich (Green Bay, Wisconsin); Donnie Tuck (Hampton, Virginia); Jay Wagner (High Point, North Carolina); Rick Blangiardi (Honolulu, Hawaii); Angie Carpenter (Islip, New York); Quinton Lucas (Kansas City, Missouri); Berry Vrbanovic (Kitchener, Canada); Peter Kurz (Mannheim, Germany); Daniel Quintero Calle (Medellín, Colombia); Dawn Arnold (Moncton, Canada); Carolina Cosse (Montevideo, Uruguay); Shawyn Patterson-Howard (Mount Vernon, New York); John Cooper (Nashville, Tennessee); Tim Sandoval (Pomona, California); Shannon Glover (Portsmouth, Virginia); Sandra Masters (Regina, Canada); Mārtiņš Staķis (Riga, Latvia); Patricia Dawson (Riverside, California); Erin Mendenhall (Salt Lake City, Utah); Miguel Romero Lugo (San Juan, Puerto Rico); Carolina Mejía de Garrigó (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic); David Ortega (Scottsdale, Arizona); Paige Cognetti (Scranton, Pennsylvania); Tishaura Jones (St. Louis, Missouri); Corey Woods (Tempe, Arizona); Randall Williams (Tshwane, South Africa); and Kennedy Stewart (Vancouver, Canada).
Launched in 2017, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is a collaboration between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School, to equip mayors and senior city leaders with tools and expertise to effectively lead cities. Harvard faculty, staff, and students, alongside experts from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global network, work with mayors and senior officials over the course of the program to foster professional growth and advance their capabilities to drive innovation and deliver results for residents.
The private sector invests more than $42 billion each year in executive development, but there is no equivalent in the public sector. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative aims to close this gap to help mayors excel.
About The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative
The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is a collaboration between Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Business School, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, to equip mayors and senior city officials to tackle complex challenges in their cities and improve the quality of life of their citizens. Launched in 2017, the Initiative has worked with 400 mayors and 1,300 senior city officials in 478 cities worldwide. The Initiative has also advanced research and developed new curriculum and teaching tools to help city leaders solve real-world problems. For more information, please visit the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, or visit us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 810 cities and 170 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation, corporate, and personal philanthropy, as well as Bloomberg Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works in cities around the world. In 2020, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $1.6 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
Twenty-two Harvard graduate students take their talents to U.S. and international cities
June 10, 2022, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, the flagship program of the Bloomberg Center for Cities, is pleased to announce the 2022 Bloomberg Harvard Summer Fellows. This group of 22 outstanding Harvard Master’s and professional degree students was selected from a highly capable pool of more than 150 applicants from across nine Harvard Schools.
Students will work in local government in the following cities, all recent participants in the Initiative’s programming for mayors and senior city leaders:
They will contribute meaningfully to innovating government services, applying the tools of data-driven decision-making, human-centered design, and cross-sector collaboration to help cities tackle complex challenges such as gun violence, youth mental health, equitable economic development, and homelessness, improving the lives of city residents.
Since 2018, the Initiative has placed 86 Harvard graduate students in paid summer roles in 59 U.S. cities and nine international cities (some with multiple placements). Fellows work closely with city leader supervisors, addressing complex problems such as affordable housing, community safety, early childhood development, equitable economic recovery, and racial equity and access. Fellows deliver work such as analyses, plan designs, and new resources to assist mayors and city staff in advancing key priorities.
This year’s class of Summer Fellows includes 12 graduate students from Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), four from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, two from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, one from the Harvard Divinity School, and one earning a joint degree at HKS and Yale Law School.
“Summer Fellows are catalysts and emerging leaders,” said Pascha McTyson, the Initiative’s Program Manager for Student Engagement. “The Fellowship is beneficial to everyone—the students who apply their skills and capabilities and gain valuable exposure, and the cities that gain extra capacity and new knowledge and tools to innovate and serve their residents.”
Seven emerging leaders take up new roles in US cities
August 4, 2022, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, the flagship program of the Bloomberg Center for Cities, is pleased to announce the first recipients of the Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellowship. Seven accomplished Harvard graduates have accepted positions in city halls around the country, where they will make significant contributions over the next two years.
The City Hall Fellows are working in these cities, which have participated in the Initiative’s programming for mayors and senior city leaders:
The Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellowship places Harvard master’s or professional degree graduates into leadership positions in city halls, where they will contribute to lasting change by applying skills and helping build capabilities in city government. The Fellows will help their host cities tackle pressing and significant challenges identified by each mayor. Central to each Fellow’s work will be strengthening their host city’s capacity to sustain the work beyond the two-year fellowship term.
The inaugural class of City Hall Fellows includes three master’s degree graduates of Harvard Kennedy School, two from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and two from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
“I’m delighted by the knowledge and energy of this inaugural group of talented professionals,” said Bulbul Kaul, the Initiative’s Senior Program Director for City Support and Student Engagement. “The City Hall Fellows will take on complex challenges that are top priorities for each city’s leadership, ones that will benefit from fresh perspectives, new uses of data, and collaborative and innovative approaches to help diagnose and address the underlying causes and symptoms. We look forward to the cities’ future progress and accomplishments, achieved with their Fellows’ contributions over the next two years.”
The City Hall Fellowship team is planning future cohorts and will invite potential host cities to apply in fall 2022. Fellowship applications will open to eligible Harvard graduate students at that time, and the Initiative will announce the second annual cohort of Fellows in summer 2023, following a competitive application process. Fellows receive a competitive salary and benefits, robust professional development opportunities, and a unique opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives.
Visit our Fellowships page and join our email list to get the latest information.
