Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed has been selected in the latest class of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
Reed was one of 40 city chief executives selected for the program, which is designed to equip mayors with innovative leadership and management tools to tackle complex challenges and improve the quality of life in their communities.
With mayors playing a central role in driving social and economic recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s program is focused on the skills required to respond to emerging challenges with an emphasis on equity.
“It is an honor to be selected for this program, but I am even more appreciative of what it will do for our city,” Reed said in a Friday statement.
“The topics covered and the opportunity to learn from other cities’ responses to the ongoing pandemic make this program not only relevant but crucial to the work – and the challenges – taking place on the ground in Montgomery and across the nation,” he added.
The mayors selected for this year’s class will attend immersive, online classes taught by faculty from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School and featuring other renowned management experts from across the Bloomberg Philanthropies network. Virtual sessions will reportedly cover a range of topics on advancing recovery, from budget decision-making in a time of severe economic challenge and managing a remote workforce to advancing equity and leading civic and resident engagement.
Mayors will also receive additional support for their cities and senior teams, such as training on using data to confront the economic consequences of the pandemic head-on, workshops on public communication and peer-to-peer learning opportunities.
While the private sector invests more than $42 billion each year in executive development, there is no equivalent in the public sector. The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative aims to close this gap to help mayors excel.
“We launched this program four years ago because mayors have the power to make the biggest changes in America – and with cities leading the way in confronting to the COVID-19 pandemic, their jobs have never been more important,” Michael R. “Mike” Bloomberg explained.
“This year’s class was chosen because they all believe in finding creative solutions to improve people’s lives, and we’re looking forward to helping them and their teams respond to this crisis – and make their cities stronger, better, and more equitable for years to come,” the former New York City mayor concluded.
Reed, elected last year, is serving his first term as mayor of Alabama’s capital city.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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