Mayor Arceaneaux selected to Harvard City Leadership Initiative

July 15, 2024

Mayor Arceneaux announced he has bee selected for the eighth class of the Bloomberg Harvard Leadership Initiative, joining 39 mayors total from 11 countries across five continents to participate in the yearlong professional management training program.

Established by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Harvard Kennedy School, and Harvard Business School as a first-of-its-kind program to help close the gap in executive development for the public sector, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative equips mayors and senior city leaders with the tools and expertise to expand their problem-solving capacity, strengthen their city halls, and improve outcomes for residents as cities confront increasingly global challenges. With today’s announcement, the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative will have provided training to 314 mayors and over 540 senior city leaders across 33 countries and six continents since its launch in 2017.

Mayor Arceneaux, who is thrilled to be a part of this prestigious initiative stated, “I am honored to have been chosen to represent the City of Shreveport at the Bloomberg Harvard Leadership Initiative. I will have the opportunity to collaborate with and gain knowledge from mayors from across the world and bring that knowledge back to Shreveport to help make our community stronger.”

A program of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University, the Bloomberg Harvard City 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 the course of one year. Through a combination of intensive classroom, virtual, and field-based learnings and offerings, the Initiative helps these leaders bolster their teams’ use of data and evidence, drive collaboration and innovation across sectors, and deliver impact for communities.

In addition to the core coursework and convenings with peers, each city is able to access additional offerings, including executive education programs for their economic development, civic engagement, human resources, negotiation, and procurement leads; opportunities to host a Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow for up to two years; and instructional research and materials to help city leaders improve key organizational practices.

“As national governments increasingly rely on cities to help them achieve their goals, there has never been a greater need for investment in the capacity of mayors and local leaders to do big things,” said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg L.P. and 108th mayor of New York City. “Our Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is designed to help mayors become more effective managers, build strong teams, and learn from the successes of other cities. This diverse class of leaders come from 11 countries, and we’re looking forward to helping them deliver results for the millions of residents they serve.”

To kick off participation, Mayor Arceneaux will join Harvard faculty and renowned management leaders in New York City for a four-day immersive classroom experience. Two senior leaders from each of the 40 cities, including the City of Shreveport, will begin their participation in the program in August.

Highlights of the Initiative’s new eighth class of mayors include:

  • The mayors come from five continents including Africa (1), Europe (4), Oceania (2), North America (30), and South America (2)

  • The mayors hail from 11 countries including Australia (1), Canada (3), Colombia (1), Germany (1), Iceland (1), Italy (1), the Netherlands (1), New Zealand (1), and the U.S. (27), and the first-ever Initiative mayors from Argentina (1) and Kenya (1)

  • 69% (27) are from the United States and 31% (12) are from international cities

  • 49% (19) are from cities with less than 200,000 people, 38% of the mayors (15) are from cities with populations between 200,000 and 1 million people, and 13% of the mayors (5) are from cities with populations over 1 million people

“The Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative brings together city leaders from across the nation and the world,” said Harvard University Interim President Alan Garber. “They work with one another and draw on resources from throughout the University to address pressing social problems, improving the lives of millions of people. Part of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard, the Initiative represents the University’s commitments to advancing rigorous scholarship, to putting cutting-edge research into practice, and to empowering and inspiring leaders to make a difference. I am pleased to join Bloomberg Philanthropies in welcoming our eighth cohort of mayors and senior leaders to the program.”

Notable alumni of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative include Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown, Sierra Leone; Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird of Lincoln, Nebraska; Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, California; Stephen Benjamin, Senior Advisor and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and former President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, African American Mayors Association, and Mayor of Columbia, South Carolina; Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland, Ohio; Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia; Mayor Muriel Bowser of the District of Columbia; Mayor Andy Burnham of Greater Manchester, England; U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana; Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix, Arizona; Mayor John Giles of Mesa, Arizona; Mayor Todd Gloria of San Diego, California; Mayor Jyoti Gondek of Calgary, Canada; Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis of Cape Town, South Africa; Mayor Marvin Reeves of Bristol, UK; Mayor Stefano Lo Russo of Turin, Italy; Mayor Claudia López of Bogotá, Colombia; Mayor Erin Mendenhall of Salt Lake City, Utah; Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski of Warsaw, Poland; Mayor Juhana Vartiainen of Helsinki, Finland; Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham, Alabama; and Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, Massachusetts.