Mayors of Honolulu, Indianapolis, Memphis and Portland Named as Fellows by the ULI Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership

 Clockwise from top left: Mayor Kirk Caldwell of Honolulu, Mayor Gregory Ballard of Indianapolis, Mayor Charlie Hales of Portland, and Mayor A. C. Wharton, Jr. of Memphis

News Release from Urban Land Institute October 2, 2013

WASHINGTON (October 2, 2013) – The mayors of Honolulu, Indianapolis, Memphis, Tenn., and Portland, Ore. have been selected as the 2013-2014 class of fellows for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership.  The mayor of each city will lead a team of three fellows and a coordinator, who together will select a local land use challenge for which they will receive technical assistance from faculty experts assembled by ULI and their peers from the other three fellowship cities.

The purpose of the fellowship program is to provide city leaders with the insights, peer-to-peer learning, and analysis needed to successfully improve their cities. The fellowship begins with the selection of four city mayors. Each mayor then nominates three additional fellows to serve on their city’s fellowship team. The mayors’ team members are made up of city department leaders or public agency directors with land use decision-making authority.  The fellowship’s program of work includes a study tour of another U.S. or foreign city, a working retreat, and study visits to each of the four fellowship cities.

The 2013-2014 Daniel Rose Fellowship teams are as follows:

• Honolulu: Mayor Kirk Caldwell; George I. Atta, director, Department of Planning and Permitting; Ember Lee Shinn, managing director, Office of the Mayor; and Robert Iopa, president & principal, WCIT Architecture.  Renee Espiau, senior planner, Department of Planning and Permitting, will serve as the team’s coordinator.

• Indianapolis: Mayor Gregory Ballard; Adam Thies, director, Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD); Michael Huber, chief executive officer, Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce; and an additional team fellow with the Division of Planning to be named at a later date by Ballard. Derek Naber, senior project manager, Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) will serve as the team’s coordinator.

• Memphis: Mayor A. C. Wharton, Jr.; Josh Whitehead, planning director, Planning Division; Maura Black Sullivan, deputy chief administrative Officer, Executive Division; and Reid Dulberger, president, Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE). Gregory Love, senior planner, Planning Division, will serve as the team’s coordinator.

• Portland: Mayor Charlie Hales and three additional team fellows and a coordinator to be named at a later date by Hales.

The 2013-14 Daniel Rose fellows serve as the fifth class of the program, with each class serving a one-year term.  During the five years of the fellowship program, teams have been successful in leading change in their communities after receiving technical assistance and strategic advice from ULI.

Past classes of Rose Fellows have tackled challenges including revitalization of Detroit’s Livernois Avenue; upgrading and re-branding Louisville’s Fourth Street corridor; the redevelopment of Tampa’s downtown riverfront; Kansas City’s historic livestock district; and the transformation of Sacramento’s nearly empty downtown railyard.

“In the five years of the Rose Center Fellowship program, mayoral teams have been effective in collaborating and sharing knowledge to help solve the land use challenges of our nation’s leading metropolitan areas,” said ULI Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips. “Our cities are the heart of the country’s economy, serving as the hubs for human capital and innovation. ULI is excited to work with the new class of Rose fellows to help find innovative solutions that can serve as models for other communities to grow in healthy, prosperous, and sustainable ways.”

The Daniel Rose Fellowship is the flagship program of the ULI Daniel Rose Center, established in 2008 by the ULI Foundation Governor Daniel Rose. The Center aims to empower leaders in the public sector to envision, build and sustain successful 21st century communities by providing access to information, best practices, peer networks and other resources to foster creative, efficient and sustainable land use practices.

According to Rose, the Center is unique in how it facilitates collaboration among leaders in land use “by bringing competent, honorable and knowledgeable” participants together from the public and private sector. Leaders explore community and development issues, while discussing solutions to regional land use problems. “Each has much to learn from the other. The more knowledgeable and better trained people are on both sides of the table, the more effective they (the working relationships) are. The most successful projects invariably reflect those relationships,” he said.

About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (www.uli.org) is a nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has nearly 30,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.