The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative has announced the seventh class of 40 mayors and 80 senior municipal leaders from their cities who will participate in the yearlong professional management training program.
Florida mayors who are members of the class are:
- Mayor Dean Trantalis – Fort Lauderdale
- Mayor Harvey Ward Jr. – Gainesville
- Mayor Shannon Martin – Port St. Lucie
- Mayor John Dailey – Tallahassee.
Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School established the leadership initiative. It equips mayors and senior city leaders with the tools and expertise to expand their problem-solving capacity, strengthen their city halls, and improve resident outcomes.
The flagship program of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, the leadership initiative brings together Harvard faculty, staff and students, alongside experts from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global network, to work with the mayors and their senior officials over one year. Through intensive classroom, virtual and field-based learnings and offerings, the initiative helps leaders bolster their teams’ use of data and evidence, drive collaboration and innovation across sectors and deliver impact for communities. Each city can access:
- executive education programs for economic development, civic engagement, human resources and procurement leads
- opportunities to host a Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow for up to two years
- instructional research and materials that help city leaders improve key organization practices.
To kick off their participation, the mayors joined Harvard faculty and renowned management leaders in New York City for a four-day immersive classroom experience. Two-thirds of the mayors are from the United States, and one-third are from international cities. Forty-five percent are from cities with populations of less than 200,000; 40% are from cities between 200,000 and 1 million people; and 15% are from cities of over 1 million people.
In April 2023, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard University announced expanding the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative with the launch of three executive education programs to reach more leaders – including those who direct human resources, civic engagement and economic development efforts – from cities whose mayors participate in the flagship program.
