Nine in 10 Americans live in metropolitan areas. These cities offer great opportunities, but they they also face grand challenges. Throughout Texas and the rest of the country, our cities require fresh ideas, innovative partnerships, and feasible and affordable policies to address growing challenges. Meet the Mayors series at the LBJ School brings together the Mayors building the cities of the future.
The 61st Mayor of Houston Annise Parker visits the LBJ School in recognition of Austin Pride. Parker was Houston’s second woman mayor and one of the first openly gay mayors of a major US city. As Mayor she fought to cover sexual orientation and gender identity in employment and housing discrimination and services in one of the most comprehensive non discrimination orders in the nation. Parker is currently the President and CEO of Victory Institute, a national organization dedicated to building a pipeline of LGBTQ public leaders.
This event is hosted by the LBJ Urban Lab and the LBJ School Office of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.
Speakers
Annise Parker
Victory Fund and Victory Institute President & CEO Annise Parker is the first former elected official to lead the organizations, having served six years as a Houston City Council member, six years as City Controller, and six years as Mayor of the city. She is one of only two women to have been elected mayor, and is the only person in Houston history to have held the offices of council member, controller and mayor. She was the first openly LGBTQ mayor of a major American city.
She currently serves on the Policy and Global Affairs Committee of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine and the boards of Houston Botanic Garden, Houston BARC Foundation, Patient Care Intervention Council, and the Climate Disclosure Project (CDP).
Prior to joining Victory Fund and Victory Institute, she was Senior Vice-President and Chief Strategy Officer of BakerRipley, a community development non-profit. She was also a Fellow at the Doerr Institute for New Leaders and Professor in the Practice at Rice University. She served on the boards of FirstNet – created by Congress to implement a nationwide broadband network for first –responders and the Airbnb Mayor’s Advisory Board.
Mayor Parker and her wife Kathy Hubbard have been together for more than 28 years and are advocates for adoption, with three daughters, a son and a grandson.
Steven Pedigo
Steven Pedigo is a professor of practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and the director of the LBJ Urban Lab.
As an expert in urban economic development, regional cooperation and placemaking, Pedigo has developed strategies for more than 50 cities and regions in the United States and other countries, including New York, Jerusalem, Vancouver, Dallas, Washington, DC, Brisbane, the Yukon, Tulsa, Austin, Portland, Newark, San Diego-Tijuana, Miami, Sao Paulo, Monterrey, Mexico City and many others.
Prior to joining the LBJ School, Pedigo was clinical professor at the Schack Institute of Real Estate at New York University.
Earlier in his career, he served as vice president for the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), a national research organization founded by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter to encourage private-sector investment into U.S. distressed urban areas.
Pedigo holds a bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Austin and graduate degrees from the H. John Heinz III School for Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.