Cities Confront Climate Change

Speakers for this event

• Naheed Nenshi

  Naheed Nenshi

  Naheed K. Nenshi served as Calgary’s mayor for three terms between 2010 and 2021. During his time, Calgary became one of the greatest cities in the world, named as the best city in which to live in the Western Hemisphere. His leadership saw an unprecedented investment in quality of life including transit, roads, recreation centres and libraries including the magnificent Central Library, while keeping taxes the lowest in Canada. His time as mayor also saw the City of Calgary through four states of emergency, including devastating flooding in 2013 floods and the COVID-19 pandemic. He also became an international voice on urban issues, with audiences across Canada and around the world, including the World Economic Forum in Davos. Naheed was awarded the World Mayor Prize as the best mayor in the world in 2014 by The City Mayors Foundation. He also has received the President’s Award from the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Psychological Association for his contribution to community mental health. Maclean’s magazine once called him the second-most influential person in Canada, after the Prime Minister, much to the amusement of his mother. Prior to his election, Naheed served as Canada’s first tenured professor of nonprofit management at the Bissett School of Business at Mount Royal University. Before entering academia, he was a management consultant for global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, and ran his own firm, Ascend Group, where his client list included the United Nations, where he worked on how corporations can help the world’s poorest people, and The Gap. Naheed is a graduate of the University of Calgary, where he served as President of the Students’ Union, and holds a Master of Public Policy Degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he studied as a Kennedy Fellow. He is a proud first-generation Canadian of Indian ancestry, whose parents immigrated from Tanzania. His family and his Ismaili Muslim faith instilled in him the ethic of seva – service to the community, something he tries to live every day.

• Peter Kageyama

  Peter Kageyama

  Peter Kageyama is the author of For the Love of Cities: The Love Affair Between People and Their Places, the follow ups, Love Where You Live: Creating Emotionally Engaging Places and, The Emotional Infrastructure of Places. In 2021, he released For the Love of Cities REVISITED, a revised and updated version of the award winning book. Peter is a Senior Fellow with the Alliance for Innovation, a national network of city leaders and a special advisor to America In Bloom. He is the former President of Creative Tampa Bay, a grassroots community change organization and the co-founder of the Creative Cities Summit, an interdisciplinary conference that brings citizens and practitioners together around the big idea of ‘the city.’ He is an internationally sought-after community development consultant and grassroots engagement strategist who speaks all over the world about bottom-up community development and the amazing people who are making change happen.

• Rick Kriseman

  Rick Kriseman

  Rick Kriseman was sworn in as the 53rd mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida on January 2, 2014, ushering in a new era for the Sunshine City. He was re-elected in November 2017. As mayor, he leads an organization of 3,500 employees and a city of approximately 270,000 residents. Under his leadership, St. Pete has been ranked as Florida’s best-managed and fiscally strongest city and has received numerous accolades, including being named one of the top places to visit in the world by the New York Times and one of the 20 best places to live by Southern Living. In his first term, Mayor Kriseman delivered on his promise to build a new pier and police station, establish community-oriented policing, implement curbside recycling, and elevate St. Pete’s profile in the world. His work to prepare St. Pete for a changing climate, transition the city to 100 percent clean energy, and expand and preserve green space has continued into his second term. In 2019, the global network ‘Apolitical’ named Mayor Kriseman one of the world’s 100 most influential climate policy leaders. He was subsequently asked to lead the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Environment Standing Committee. A proponent of alternative transportation, Mayor Kriseman spearheaded the Cross Bay Ferry and worked with the St. Petersburg City Council to adopt a Complete Streets policy, implement the city’s bike share program, and introduce Bus Rapid Transit to the Sunshine City. Mayor Kriseman’s top priority – to provide more opportunity for residents through training, employment, higher wages, grants, and second chances – helped to reduce St. Pete’s African-American poverty to an all-time low. And, inspired by former President Barack Obama’s ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ initiative, Mayor Kriseman launched ‘My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper’ to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by young men and women of color and to ensure that all young people can reach their full potential. Programs under the MBSK umbrella, such as the Cohort of Champions and the anti-gun violence ‘Not My Son’ campaign, have made St. Pete a better and safer place. A pro-growth progressive, Mayor Kriseman has been a champion for small business owners, entrepreneurs, artists, and our main streets, while ensuring the continued success for our largest employers. Prior to becoming mayor, Rick Kriseman served for six years in the Florida House of Representatives and as his caucus's policy chairman from 2011-2012. From 2000-2006, he represented District 1 on the St. Petersburg City Council and served as the council chairman in 2005. Mayor Kriseman earned a B.S. in broadcasting from the University of Florida and a J.D. from the Stetson University College of Law. He is married to Kerry, a St. Petersburg native, and they have two children, Jordan and Samuel.