Speakers

Lucinda Babers was appointed as the Deputy Mayor for Operations and Infrastructure (DMOI) on March 5, 2019. She was also appointed to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Board of Directors in May 2020, where she currently serves as the 1st Vice Chair and the primary Director for the District of Columbia. In March 2020, she was appointed as an excecutive committee member on the Mayor’s DC Build Back Better Infrastructure Task Force.

Lucinda previously served as the Director of the District of Columbia Department of Motor Vehicles (DC DMV). As the DMV Director, Lucinda led the agency in significant and innovative changes, including the closure and opening of three service centers, elimination of passenger vehicle safety inspections, creation of a more secure credential (along with central issuance), and implementation of REAL ID and Limited Purpose Credentials. Under her direction, DC DMV added numerous online services—and received several International Customer Service and Communication Awards from the American Association of Motor Vehicles Administrators (AAMVA), as well as several regional AAMVA awards.

Prior to being confirmed as DMV Director, Lucinda served as the Deputy Director for DC DMV from 2003 until 2006. As Deputy, she was responsible for the review and revision of customer service processes that led to the DC Federation of Citizens Association unanimously recognizing DC DMV for the Greatest Improvement in Public Service for 2006.

Before coming to DC DMV, Lucinda served in several senior management positions at Amtrak. She was the project manager for the company’s service guarantee initiative. And, Lucinda is no stranger to DC Government; she previously worked on management reform projects for the city manager during the Control Board era and served as an internal consultant and project manager for the city administrator and corrections.

Lucinda started her career as an officer in the military. She holds a Master of Science in Business from Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She currently resides in Ward 6.

John has been an Emeryville resident since 2012. He is a former legal aid attorney who represented victims of domestic violence, people experiencing homelessness, and tenants facing eviction. John currently works as a nonprofit policy director on behalf of victims of violent crime and as an advocate for investments in community-based behavioral health programs that promote wellness and community safety. He is an animal lover, bicyclist and outdoors enthusiast, and can often be spotted on the Bay Trail or Emeryville Greenway.

Justin M. Bibb is the 58th Mayor of Cleveland working to improve public safety, invest in neighborhoods and modernize City Hall. On January 3, 2022, Mayor Bibb took the oath of office as the city’s first millennial mayor. 

Mayor Bibb was born and raised on Cleveland’s southeast side in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. Over the past 15 years, Mayor Bibb has worked in government, business and the nonprofit sector as an executive and nonprofit leader. He started his career in public service working for President Obama when he was in the U.S. Senate and later at Cuyahoga County as a Special Assistant advising on education and economic development policies. He led the Global Cities Practice at global research firm Gallup, served as Vice President at KeyBank and most recently as Chief Strategy Officer at Urbanova, a startup focused on improving cities. 

Mayor Bibb is a proud American University alumnus with an undergraduate degree in Urban Studies. He completed the General Course Programme with an emphasis in Social Policy and Economics from the London School of Economics and is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Doctor of Law (JD). 

Mayor Bibb’s vision for Cleveland is to become a national model for city management, police reform, and neighborhood revitalization. 

As Director of the Greensboro Public Library, Brigitte oversees the entire system, which includes the Central Library downtown and seven branches.  Her job also incorporates overseeing the Greensboro Historical Museum. Brigitte holds a Master’s Degree in Library Information Studies and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Criminal Justice Administration-Political Science.  She has been with the Greensboro Public Library for thirty-four years holding positions of Branch Manager, Senior Assistant Director, Information Operations/Administration and Branch Management prior to being selected Director in 2013.  Brigitte is very involved in the community, presently serving on several professional and educational Boards in the community. She is a founding member of the Welfare Reform Liaison Project. She is a member of professional organizations including the American Library Association, Public Library Association, North Carolina Public Library Association, North Carolina Public Library Directors Association, and the National Forum of Black Public Administrators.

Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti took office as Mayor of Scranton on January 6, 2020.

Prior to becoming Mayor, she advised the Pennsylvania Auditor General, the chief fiscal watchdog of the commonwealth, on oversight of public school districts, care for older adults, criminal justice reform and student debt.

Mayor Cognetti previously served as a director on the Scranton School Board, overseeing a $160M budget and helping navigate the district’s dual crises of financial distress and public mistrust.

She has a background in government oversight, investment management, economic policy, international relations and political campaigns, with broad experience in budget oversight, business development, coalition building and strategic communications.

Mayor Cognetti served in the Obama administration from 2009-2012 as a senior advisor to the Under Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department. She was a fundraiser and project director on numerous political campaigns, including running the out-of-state volunteer program in Pennsylvania for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign.

She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oregon Clark Honors College with a BA in English Literature and Romance Languages.

Mayor Cognetti is originally from Beaverton, Oregon, where her parents still reside. She lives in Scranton with her husband and daughter.

José Cisneros is the elected Treasurer for the City and County of San Francisco. As Treasurer, he serves as the City’s banker and Chief Investment Officer, managing all tax and revenue collection for San Francisco. Appointed in 2004, and first elected in 2005, Cisneros has used his experience in the tech and banking industries to enhance and modernize taxpayer systems and successfully manage the City’s portfolio through a major recession.

Treasurer Cisneros believes that his role of safeguarding the City’s money extends to all San Francisco residents, and continues to expand his role as a financial educator and advocate for low-income San Franciscans through award-winning programs like Kindergarten to College, Bank On San Francisco and the Financial Justice Project. Cisneros served as Vice Chair on the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, and is currently Co-Chair of the Cities for Financial Empowerment Coalition.

Prior to his role as Treasurer, Treasurer Cisneros served as Deputy General Manager for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. In this capacity, he managed MUNI’s $7 billion capital program designed to repair, replace and enhance system assets – including the 3rd Street Rail extension serving Chinatown, Mission Bay and the residents of Bay View and Hunters Point. Before working at MUNI, Treasurer Cisneros served as a member of the MTA Board of Directors and was instrumental in creating Proposition E, the Muni Reform Charter Amendment.

Treasurer Cisneros has a strong business background in the private sector, previously working for IBM Corporation and Lotus Development Corporation as a Senior International Product Manager. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Vice President at Bank of Boston where he managed financial product portfolios valued at over $100 million.

Treasurer Cisneros lives with his husband in San Francisco. He received his Bachelor of Science from Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Eugenia Di Girolamo is the first Chief Urban Designer for the City and County of Denver. Eugenia is a trained architect and urban designer, with extensive expertise in planning policy, design review, resiliency, and community engagement. She previously served as the Deputy Director for Urban Design at the New York City Department of City Planning (NYCDCP), where she led urban design research and policy development, neighborhood studies and developed rezoning proposals. Eugenia also helped found the Civic Engagement Studio, a think tank to improve the NYCDCP’s outreach practices and enhance community involvement in planning processes in New York City. Eugenia has been an instructor at Cornell University and a guest critic to Yale University, NJIT, Columbia University, and Fordham University. She was also a member of the inaugural class of the Forefront Fellowship with the Urban Design Forum in 2016.  She is professionally bilingual (English/Italian) and earned a dual master’s degree in architecture and building engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy. 

Jayson is a public sector technology subject matter expert with 20 years of city and county government experience. Prior to joining AWS Jayson served as the Director of the Hamilton County Communications Center where he had oversight of the county’s information technology, telecommunications, and emergency communications divisions.  He also served as the Chief Information Officer for the City of Cincinnati where he led the city’s enterprise technology department, chaired the city’s I.T. Governance Board, and managed the city’s capital budget and project approval processes.  Jayson also has a broad public sector technology background in cybersecurity, network operations, infrastructure management, public safety, and data analytics in a variety of county and city agencies.  He also has experience in the private sector as a Business Analysis Manager with L3Harris where he was responsible for overseeing technology contracts and procurements totaling $350 million in annually.   

Jamie R. Gauthier represents West and Southwest Philadelphia as the 3rd District City Councilmember. Since assuming office in January 2020, Councilmember Gauthier has fought for her constituents’ right live with dignity and remain in the neighborhoods they’ve called home for decades. She is the only elected official in the City of Philadelphia with a planning degree, offering her a unique perspective on a range of social and economic issues.

Councilmember Gauthier’s agenda prioritizes creating and preserving affordable housing, improving educational outcomes, connecting residents to family-sustaining jobs, advancing small businesses, and investing in community-based assets like our Recreation Centers.

In her role as Chair of the Committee on Housing, Neighborhood Development, and the Homeless, Councilmember Gauthier champions policies that encourage the construction of new affordable housing, and the preservation of the city’s existing stock. For example, Councilmember Gauthier, alongside Councilmember Quiñones-Sánchez, authored legislation mandating Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning within their districts, which requires new, large developments keep 20% of their units affordable. 

Alongside Councilmembers Gym and Brooks, Councilmember Gauthier also created the Emergency Housing Protection Act (EHPA), which provided extensive relief to tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in addition to the Councilmember’s the Eviction Diversion Program, which enables landlords and tenants to arrive at an agreement without having to go to Court. The EHPA and Eviction Diversion Program are considered national models and resulted in a 60% decrease in evictions citywide.

Additionally, Councilmember Gauthier has been leading the charge to enact a stronger local response to the gun violence epidemic. In 2020, the Councilmember joined Controller Rhynhart to demand Mayor Kenney enact an emergency response to gun violence, and authored a resolution, unanimously supported by her fellow Councilmembers, along the same lines. Her efforts resulted in a record $70 million investment in funding for gun violence prevention and programs in FY 22. The Councilmember continues to push the City to enact trauma-informed initiatives that target communities disproportionately harmed by gun violence.

In 2022, Councilmember Gauthier created the #JustServicesPHL campaign, which called for impactful major investments to address quality-of-life concerns in neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia. Through #JustServicesPHL, Councilmember Gauthier championed an immediate $30 million investment in basic services improvements in FY 23. 

Councilmember Gauthier also partners with the community on a variety of other issues. For example, she committed $4 million to improve neglected parks and recreation centers, as well as $160,000 in grants to community programs. 

Prior to her City Council candidacy, Councilmember Gauthier served as Executive Director of the Fairmount Park Conservancy, where she led the Conservancy in carrying out vital improvements in West Fairmount Park and organized stewardship and care for parks across the city. Councilmember Gauthier is also a former Executive Director of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.

After graduating from Central High School, Councilmember Gauthier received her undergraduate degree from Temple University and her Master’s in Urban Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.

Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, Captain Brian Geranen joined the Phoenix Fire Department in 2005. He is currently assigned to the Phoenix Fire Department’s UAS Program as the Program Coordinator where he serves as lead pilot and manages the training, response, and daily communications associated with the program.

Captain Geranen is a Certified Emergency Paramedic, an FAA 107 UAS Pilot, and holds an Associates Degree in Fire Science from Phoenix College, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Homeland Security and Emergency Management from Grand Canyon University

Kate Gallego has a vision for Phoenix: she sees it as a place that is vibrant and growing, and one where every person is treated with dignity and respect.

Mayor Gallego is a strong advocate for smart business growth and investment – she recently helped land the city’s largest-ever business development deal, a $12 billion semiconductor manufacturing plant that will bring significant economic development for decades to come. She is leading the city to global status as a leader in bioscience, research, and advanced medical manufacturing.

The Mayor is also leading Phoenix to meet its goal to become the most sustainable desert city in the United States. She has fostered investments in cool solutions, including the nation’s first, publicly funded Office of Heat Response and Mitigation; launched the city’s successful cool pavement pilot; and led the charge toward building the necessary EV infrastructure to get fossil fuel powered vehicles off the road.

Mayor Gallego is the second elected female Mayor in Phoenix history and one of the youngest big city Mayors in the United States. In November 2020, she was returned to office with the highest number of votes ever cast for a mayoral candidate in Phoenix.

A graduate of Harvard University, she earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior professional pursuits include strategic planning and economic development for one of Arizona’s largest utility companies and service in state government, as part of the Governor’s team. She was elected to the Phoenix City Council in 2013, and won the office of Mayor
in 2019.

Mayor Kate Gallego enjoys a desert hike and a good read. She is Mom to five-year-old Michael.

Emily Larson was elected Mayor of Duluth in November 2015 with 72% of the vote.  She was inaugurated on January 4th, 2016, and reelected in November 2019.

Prior to becoming Mayor, Emily was President of the Duluth City Council, served as a commissioner on the Duluth Economic Development Authority, and was the Council conduit to Parks and Libraries.

Currently, Mayor Larson serves on the Executive Council of the Young Women’s Initiative of Minnesota, the Mayors Advisory Council on Coastal Resilience, the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund Board of Directors, Minnesota Mayors Together, and the Minnesota Sea Grant Advisory Board.  As Mayor, her priorities include: addressing economic, racial, and opportunity disparities city-wide; advancing energy efficiency and climate resilience; increasing and improving our affordable housing stock; ensuring every resident has access to reliable, high-speed broadband internet, and; continuing to grow Duluth’s robust and unique economy.

Emily earned an undergraduate degree from the College of St. Scholastica, a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota Duluth, and is a graduate of Intermedia Arts Creative Community Leadership Institute.

She is an active trail runner and full-time admirer of Lake Superior.  Emily is married to Doug Zaun and together they have two grown sons.

Mayor Sam Liccardo is currently serving in his second term as Mayor of the 10th largest city in the United States. During his tenure as Mayor, Sam led efforts to fund the construction of thousands of units of affordable housing, launch the nation’s largest community choice clean energy utility, provide jobs to more than 4,000 teens living in gang-impacted neighborhoods, coalesce multi-billion-dollar investments in new transit, and preserve thousands of acres in Coyote Valley for open space and hillsides from development.

Mayor Liccardo also enacted a first-in-the-nation ordinance to reduce gun violence, requiring gun owners to have insurance and pay an annual fee to relieve the public cost of gun violence. Sam launched a Smart City Vision, aiming to make San José America’s most innovative city, in part by bridging the digital divide through the nation’s first Digital Inclusion Fund to provide broadband access, devices and skills to low-income families. By 2022, the City’s efforts will connect more than 300,000 low-income San José residents with free broadband.

Sam also championed the unprecedented private/public agreement between San José and Google for their new transformational project, Downtown West, an investment of $200 million towards community priorities including affordable housing and opportunity pathways for youth in underserved neighborhoods.

During his term, Sam also launched the Resilience Corps in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, employing nearly 500 young residents from the city’s lowest-resource neighborhoods with livable wages to aid in vaccination efforts, food distribution, and improve the city’s ability to withstand the effects of climate change.

In 2021 he served as the Chair of the Big City Mayors, a coalition of mayors from California’s 13 largest cities, advocating for innovative solutions to combat homelessness and improve COVID-19 response, which led to a $1 billion in spending annually for homelessness for two years.  

Prior to his service in elected office, Sam served as a criminal prosecutor at the federal and local level, prosecuting cases of sexual assault and child exploitation.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University, Harvard Law School, and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

First elected to City Council in January 2020, Mary is passionate about fighting poverty, institutional racism, housing rights, and improving the quality of life for all Rochesterians.  She seeks to increase civic engagement by increasing transparency of the legislative process and to govern alongside the community.

She has focused on community efforts to halt displacement and create access to quality, affordable housing as a volunteer with City Roots Land Trust and the City-Wide Tenant Union. Mary has also volunteered with Mothers Out Front, a group mobilizing to preserve a livable climate and inspire bold local action to achieve a sustainable future for our children. 

Mary has been proud to call Rochester her home since relocating from Pennsylvania in 1999 to study Information Technology at RIT.  After graduating, Mary began a career in her field.  As she grew in her corporate roles, so did the calling to help people and serve the community.  She eventually left her corporate career to start a career in service. 

Erin J. Mendenhall is the 36th mayor of Salt Lake City.

Erin came to Salt Lake with her family when she was 7 years old, and after losing her father to cancer at age 13, Erin graduated from Alta High School and enrolled at the University of Utah. It was there that her interest in the intersection of science and public policy took shape, leading to a career focused on improving Utah’s air quality and protecting our environment.

Just weeks after the birth of her first son, Erin learned the air quality in Salt Lake City had become so bad that it could take two years off his life. She decided to stay and fight rather than walk away, becoming an activist and joining Utah Moms for Clean Air in 2008. Determined to bring scientific understanding to air-quality discussions in the state legislature, our schools, and our community, Erin co-founded a new non-profit organization, Breathe Utah, in 2010, and was appointed to Utah’s Air Quality Board in 2014. She has since twice been elected as its chair.

Wanting to advance air-quality policy inside the city government and serve Salt Lake City on a wider range of issues, Erin was elected to represent District 5 on the City Council in 2013. During her six years on the Council, including one year as its chair, Erin worked for equitable progress across the city, driving road repairs and infrastructure maintenance, expanding access to transit and affordable housing, and making the city more equitable for women and girls. She is the first mayor in Salt Lake City history to have been publicly elected from the city council.

As mayor, Erin is working hard to make Salt Lake City more environmentally and economically resilient, and to take advantage of the region’s historic period of economic opportunity. She is determined to ensure every Salt Laker — no matter their neighborhood, economic or housing status, faith, race, or sexual or gender identity — can access all the city has to offer. Erin’s love for the extraordinary people of Salt Lake City drives an unrelenting commitment to bringing people from different walks of life together in pursuit of results for the entire city.

Erin was elected the 36th mayor of Salt Lake City on November 5, 2019 and took the oath of office on the steps of City Hall on January 6, 2020.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in gender studies and a master’s degree in science and technology, both from the University of Utah. Erin and her husband, Kyle LaMalfa, are the proud parents of three children, Cash, Everett, and Milå.

Michael C. Morgan, Ph.D. is the assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction. In this role, Dr. Morgan is responsible for providing agency-wide direction with regard to weather, water, climate, and ocean observations, including in situ instruments and satellites, and the process of converting observations to predictions for environmental threats.

Dr. Morgan has more than 25 years of demonstrated scientific leadership. Prior to joining NOAA, he had most recently served as a professor and associate department chair in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where his research was focused on the analysis, diagnosis, prediction, and predictability of mid-latitude and tropical weather systems. 

In addition to his roles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Morgan recently served on the World Meteorological Organization World Weather Research Programme’s Scientific Steering Committee. In addition, he recently served as a member of the board of directors of the American Institute of Physics and as chair of their Public Policy Advisory Committee. He also recently completed two terms on the Board of Trustees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

Dr. Morgan has previously served as the division director for the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences at the National Science Foundation, and as an AMS/UCAR congressional science fellow, working in the office of U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin (MD) as a senior legislative fellow on energy and environmental issues. 

Dr. Morgan is a fellow of the American Meteorological Society (AMS). He earned his S.B. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Ron Nirenberg is the mayor of San Antonio, which has the 7th largest population in the United States and is one of the nation’s fastest growing cities.

Mayor Nirenberg is the first San Antonio Mayor of Asian Pacific Islander descent. His mother is Filipino and his paternal grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe who passed through Ellis Island.

Through his personal experiences, Mayor Nirenberg developed a core commitment to civic participation and the universal values of liberty, justice, and equal opportunity for every person.

First elected in 2017, Mayor Nirenberg was re-elected to a third term on May 1, 2021.

Under his leadership as mayor, the city has adopted an equity framework in budgeting to reduce poverty, improve public health, and overcome historical socioeconomic inequality. He is focused on making key investments necessary to accommodate San Antonio’s growth, which is expected to nearly double the city’s population by 2040. This forward-looking approach drives the mayor’s vision of a compassionate community with a globally competitive economy.

The Mayor’s policy priorities include workforce development. In 2020, he successfully championed SA Ready to Work, a four-year workforce development program approved by 77 percent of voters and funded without raising the tax rate.

Mayor Nirenberg also played a leading role crafting a long-term solution in 2020 for funding the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.

In 2017, Mayor Nirenberg created the Mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force seeking to ensure that all San Antonians, regardless of income level, can find quality affordable housing within the city limits. The task force recommendations were approved by City Council in 2018.

In an effort to combat the effects of global climate change, Mayor Nirenberg spearheaded a Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, which was adopted by the City Council in October 2019. Shortly thereafter, Mayor Nirenberg joined the Climate Mayors Steering Committee, a group of 24 mayors who will serve as a leading voice in efforts to further climate action in the more than 400 cities across the U.S. that make up the Climate Mayors coalition.

Grist, a nonprofit media organization, named Mayor Nirenberg one of the Grist 50 in 2020, recognizing him as an emerging leader on climate change in the United States.

In 2018, the United States Conference of Mayors honored Mayor Nirenberg with the Small Business Advocate award for his efforts to encourage entrepreneurism.

Mayor Nirenberg is the immediate-past Chairman of Sister Cities International, a nonpartisan organization that connects cities across the globe through civic, educational and cultural exchanges. The City of San Antonio enjoys active and productive Sister City relationships with 11 cities worldwide, and Mayor Nirenberg has been a participant in establishing productive, people-to-people relationships through global community partnerships and volunteer action.

He was first elected to represent District 8 on the San Antonio City Council in 2013. During his two terms, he championed smart city and regional planning, inclusive economic development, environmental stewardship, fiscal responsibility and governmental accountability. As councilman, he brought together a public-private coalition to save the world-renowned Bracken Bat Cave, the largest colony of bats in the world.

Prior to his public service, Mayor Nirenberg was the founder of two small-businesses, worked as the general manager of KRTU-FM San Antonio, and served as a program director for the Annenberg Public Policy Center where he developed and directed award-winning civic engagement programs.

Mayor Nirenberg graduated summa cum laude from Trinity University and received a Master’s Degree in Communication magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania. He grew up in Austin, Texas.

He and his wife, First Lady Erika Prosper, are the proud parents of their son, Jonah.

Ryan Coonerty is a member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the two-time former Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz.  He is also an entrepreneur, author, and educator. He is the cohost of the NewDEAL’s “An Honorable Profession” podcast. He is the cofounder of NextSpace Coworking + Innovation (now owned by Pacific Workplaces), a lecturer on law and government at UC Santa Cruz, and co-author of The Rise of the Naked Economy – How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace and wrote Etched in Stone – Enduring Words from our National Monuments. Ryan was selected by the Aspen Institute to be a Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership as one of “the nation’s most promising young elected officials.”

Kenneth T. Welch was sworn in as the 54th mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida on January 6, 2022.

Growing up in the Gas Plant area, Ken worked summers and after school on his grandfather’s woodyard that sat on property later displaced by the interstate. His father was a city council member who helped lay the foundation for St. Petersburg’s resurgence. Ken saw first-hand the uprooting of hundreds of businesses, homes and churches for what eventually became Tropicana Field. He also saw the unfulfilled promises of jobs and economic development in return for that sacrifice.

After receiving his BA from USFSP and MBA from Florida A&M, Ken returned to St. Petersburg as an accountant for Florida Power Corporation. He also served as Technology Manager for his father’s small accounting firm. After years of community service, Ken became the first Commissioner elected to represent County Commission District 7 in St. Petersburg, only the second African American commissioner in the history of Pinellas County. Ken proudly served on the County Commission for 20 years, where he brought a focus to the issues of economic development, transportation, equity, housing, criminal justice reform and fighting poverty.

A third generation St. Pete resident, Ken lives in St. Petersburg today with his wife of 30 years, Donna, and their two daughters.

Zabe Bent has nearly 20 years of experience in multimodal planning and urban development. She is skilled at conceptual design, transit planning, and communications. As a Principal Planner at the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, Zabe managed a range of efforts including advancing two of San Francisco’s key bus rapid transit corridors, its congestion pricing feasibility study, the update to SF’s long range countywide transportation plan, as well as several neighborhood transportation plans. Zabe also worked across the country as a Principal at Nelson\Nygaard and independently in cities like Boston, Addis Ababa, and Nairobi, focusing on complete streets design and policy, and bus rapid transit. Her efforts have focused on a combination of multimodal accessibility and demand management strategies, with a view to blending the person-level of analysis and design with that of system-level planning in order to balance an efficient network with safe access and mobility.

Zabe has served on the boards of Imprint.City, the San Francisco Museum of the African Diaspora Vanguard, and, most recently, One Island Media. She spends her free time pursuing creative interests, from silversmithing to cooking to creative writing. She holds a BA from Barnard College, as well as a Master in City Planning and Master of Science in Transportation from MIT.

Lena Geraghty is the Director of Sustainability and Innovation in the Center for City Solutions at the National League of Cities. In her current role, Lena and her team lead research and provide technical assistance on all things data, technology and the future of cities, ensuring a focus on sustainability, resilience and equity.

Lena has a Master of Public Administration from the School of Government at UNC Chapel Hill, specializing in local government and performance. Previously, Lena was the first Director of Innovation and Performance Management for the city of Portland, ME. She was responsible for creating efficiencies and improving processes in departments across the city and ensuring Portland’s position as a smart and sustainable community.

Rochelle’s multi-sector career has a common thread of focusing on policies and programs that seek to identify solutions to ending the cycle of poverty in vulnerable communities. She has had the privilege to serve individuals, families, and children through work in government, nonprofit and philanthropic sectors with an expertise in anti-poverty programs that span from birth to adulthood.

Rochelle began her career at the United Spinal Association working on legislation in the areas of affordable, accessible housing for people with disabilities. While her career in New York City government extends from affordable housing to social services where she worked to guide policies and improve operations for public benefit programs including a tenure as Chief of Staff at NYC’s Department of Homeless Services. As Chief of Staff, she secured over $20M in funding to provide additional social support services to families experiencing homelessness. After 10 years in municipal government, Rochelle joined 100 Resilient Cities -Rockefeller Foundation, where she led global operations and strategy for the City Practice Management team and was responsible for the delivery of the 100RC core program which included leveraging global partnerships and practices to ensure successful implementation. In her most recent role, she served as Vice President of the US Social Impact team at Sesame Workshop, where she developed and led the scaling strategy of the Sesame Street in Communities initiative which expanded from 3 to 13 cities and regions serving over 75,000 vulnerable kids and families with resources to foster healthy development. Rochelle also works as an independent consultant with a specialty in social impact, strategic planning, policy, and government affairs where she advises on anti-poverty and economic mobility policies, programs, and initiatives.

Rochelle earned dual Masters’ degrees in Public Affairs and Urban Planning from Princeton University as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University at Albany. She currently resides as a Board Member of the University at Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy and as an Advisory Council Member of the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Todd C. Helmus is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation and a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School faculty. He specializes in disinformation, terrorism, and social media. Helmus’ latest research focuses on ways to counter Russian disinformation campaigns in the United States and Europe and assess the impact of international counter violent extremism campaigns. His research also focuses on preventing violent extremism in the U.S. military, identifying ways to enlist key influencers in support of U.S. strategic communications, and detecting and countering online conspiracy theories. Helmus has served as a deployed advisor to U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan and led studies on U.S. efforts to train Afghan special operations forces. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Wayne State University.

Kian Kamas serves as the Executive Director of PartnerTulsa, leading Tulsa’s comprehensive community and economic development strategy and a team of talented professionals dedicated to increasing economic opportunity for Tulsa residents. Prior to this role, she served as Mayor G.T. Bynum’s Deputy Chief and then Chief of Economic Development. Before her work at the City, Kian spent six (6) years at the Tulsa Regional Chamber, in various roles in Economic Development and Government Affairs. Kian is passionate about creating long-term, institutional change in how Tulsa pursues its economic and community development objectives, and is committed to building a world-class and sustainable operating model that provides Tulsa with strong and stable long-term revenues for this work. She loves crazy ideas and tries to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and a collaborative approach to problem-solving among TAEO’s staff. Kian holds a Bachelors Degree in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma, a Masters Degree in Comparative Public Policy from the University of Edinburgh, and has completed the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute. She and her husband Lathen have lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma since 2009, and are raising their son Leith as a proud Tulsan.

Shannon C. McGregor (PhD, University of Texas – Austin) is an assistant professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina, and a senior researcher with UNC’s Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life. She is an award-winning and internationally recognized communication scholar whose research addresses the role of social media in political processes. In particular, she examines how social media shapes political communication, journalism, public opinion, and epistemologies of public life in democracies. Shannon’s interdisciplinary and mixed-method research has been published across fields including communication, political science, and sociology – including in top-tier journals Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Political Communication, and Information, Communication & Society. She is co-editor of a book (with Dr. Talia Stroud), Digital Discussions: How Big Data Informs Political Communication. Shannon writes often for the popular press, and her work appears in outlets like The Washington Post, Wired, Slate, and The Guardian. 

Jennifer Park is the Executive Director of the Opportunity Accelerator at Results for America. She previously served as Vice President and Managing Director of the Opportunity Accelerator, and as the Director of Certification and Community for What Works Cities. Before joining RFA, she was the Coordinator for the Work on Purpose program at Echoing Green, a nonprofit with the mission to unleash next generation talent to solve the world’s biggest problems. In this role, she supported the design and execution of multiple process-based projects to improve the program’s goal to transform the way people make their biggest life and work decisions that are both right for them and good for the world. She also helped to develop and launch the first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary pro-social conference, Purpose360, that hosted 80 leaders and experts in the emerging purpose field. Prior to joining Echoing Green, Jennifer inhabited the world of political and advocacy campaigning, working with Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Organizing for America and the Presidential Inaugural Committee. Jennifer attended the University of Southern California and Villanova University.

Brooks Rainwater serves as President and CEO of the Urban Libraries Council, an outcomes-driven research and innovations network of more than 160 leading North American public libraries. Under his leadership, ULC champions the future of public libraries by engaging and uplifting members, focusing intently on equity and inclusion and leading on core policy issues that drive communities forward. Throughout his career, Rainwater has worked to advance urban policies that expand local democracy and provide funding for local programs related to economic opportunity, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and sustainability. Prior to joining ULC in July 2022, Rainwater served as Senior Executive & Director, Center for City Solutions at the National League of Cities where he drove the organization’s research agenda and oversaw technical assistance efforts and leadership education. Brooks holds a Master of Public Administration from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Chris Thompson is the Director of Strategic Housing at Virginia Housing.  He leads a team charged with developing and managing relationships with the Commonwealth’s Housing Services Delivery Network.  Mr. Thompson coordinates the design and delivery of trainings intended to strengthen the ability of local officials, land use planners, planning entities, and housing developers to better address local affordable housing and neighborhood revitalization issues.  He also identifies strategic opportunities to provide technical assistance to individuals and organizations seeking to undertake transformational revitalization projects.  Prior to joining VHDA he served as Deputy Director for Housing at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).

MARY ELLEN WIEDERWOHL is the President and CEO of Accelerator for America, a national nonprofit that works with Mayors and economic development leaders to develop solutions to economic insecurity and share them with cities across the country. She has more than two decades of experience in business, civic leadership, and public affairs. She was the founding leader of Louisville Forward, the city’s economic and community development arm; under her leadership from 2014-2020, Louisville Forward was named a Top Economic Development Organization six times by Site Selection Magazine. During her city tenure, Louisville experienced more than $17 billion of new capital investment, made substantial new investments in affordable housing, and introduced industry leading innovations in talent development and the future of work. She recently served as Interim President & CEO of LHOME, Louisville’s homegrown CDFI.

Zach Katz is an artist who lives in Brooklyn, New York. He’s led multiple campaigns for car-free streets and bike lanes in Portland, Oregon, and has lived in Amsterdam, where he learned a lot about good (great) urban design. He currently runs the Twitter account @betterstreetsai and is building transformyour.city

Jake Purcell has over a decade of technology sales distribution, operations and strategy experience in telecommunications.  Currently, at Comcast, he is tasked with driving IoT innovation at scale, transforming today’s resources into a connected digital infrastructure to make businesses, municipalities, and communities safer, smarter, and more sustainable.  Previously, he focused on new business strategies and growth initiatives for Smart Home Security & Automation product solutions.  Prior to Comcast, Jake held the role of regional general manager of sales and operations at Clearwire, a telecommunications company eventually acquired by Sprint Co (not t-mobile). Jake received a Bachelor of Science in Business & Physics from Southern Oregon University, and is a graduate from the Temple University Executive MBA program.

Albert Shen is a strategy leader on the Verizon Public Sector Strategy Team to develop new digital transformation strategies for the public sector utilizing 5G and other public domain solution use cases in the Federal and State, Local, Education (SLED) market.  He is currently leading the public sector strategy for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

In 2014, he was appointed by President Obama to be the National Deputy Director of the U.S Department of Commerce, Minority Business Development Agency.  His role was to create U.S. jobs by developing federal polices; new impact investment models and other new business innovation initiatives that promote the growth and global competitiveness of businesses owned and operated by minority and immigrant business owners. Before he joined the Obama Administration he leveraged his background as a minority business owner himself for 15 years where he operated a small successful transportation & civil engineering consulting firm that managed large-scale airport capital programs & heavy civil, transportation & environmental programs in the Pacific Northwest. 

In 2012 he was awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration Region 10 Minority Champion of the Year Award.  He is a dedicated community leader and has volunteered his time to lead educational institutions, community organizations, business organizations and political advocacy groups. He served as Board Chair of the Seattle Community College Board of Trustees, and as Vice Chair of the Washington State Commission on Asian and Pacific American Affairs. In 2013 he was a candidate for Seattle City Council.   Shen earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry and environmental science from the University of Washington.

Alisha Powell Gillis is the senior editor at Route Fifty where she is responsible for programming live and online events content, moderating panel discussions, soliciting, editing and writing analytical pieces and overseeing the annual Navigator Awards program. Before joining Route Fifty, Alisha was the director for community impact at the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) where she worked to connect urban public libraries to critical issues in state and local government and led event programming. Prior to ULC, Alisha served the nation’s governors for nearly a decade at the National Governors Association where she specialized in homeland security, emergency management and cybersecurity issues. Alisha holds a master’s degree in global security studies from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Hofstra University.

Richard Greene, a principal at Barrett and Greene Inc., has done much-praised analysis, research and writing about state and local governments for decades. 

He is a columnist, senior advisor and co-chair of the advisory board for Route Fifty, a special project consultant for the Volcker Alliance, a columnist and advisor for the Government Finance Officers Association, a visiting fellow at the IBM Center for the Business of Government, a senior advisor at the Government Finance Research Center at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a fellow in the National Academy of Public Administration.

Greene has also been named chair of The Center for Accountability and Performance at the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA).

His website is GREENEBARRETT.COM.

Bill Lucia is a senior editor for Government Executive’s Route Fifty. He previously covered Seattle city government for Crosscut.com and holds a master’s in public administration from the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Affairs.