Events

A New Metropolitan Vision

Urban development efforts have long focused on neighborhood-by-neighborhood investment, concentrating resources in key areas. Today, the Ford Foundation is exploring a broader approach, one that begins with a vision of widespread metropolitan opportunity that connects people to affordable housing, good jobs and transportation. The promise of this approach is emerging across the Gulf Coast, where an unprecedented collaboration among the public, private and nonprofit sectors has demonstrated the potential to connect people to opportunity.

In June 2009, we hosted a Ford Foundation Forum bringing together a distinguished group of speakers on this subject—including Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) and White House Aide Derek Douglas, who serves as Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs—and an audience drawn from local and regional government, nonprofits, developers and academia. It provided an opportunity to engage leaders in the field on smart, regional solutions to revitalizing America's cities.

About the Participants

The Honorable Mary Landrieu
U.S. Senator from Louisiana
Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) has been the leading voice in Washington for the Gulf Coast recovery effort in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike and Gustav. She has secured billions in recovery dollars and worked to jump-start rebuilding projects. As chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's Disaster Recovery Subcommittee, Landrieu has pushed for reform of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. From her seat on the Appropriations Committee, she has been committed to economic development investments, job creation and boosting recovery funding.

Derek R.B. Douglas
Special Assistant to the President for Urban Affairs
Derek Douglas serves as special assistant to President Obama and on the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he leads the council's work on urban and metropolitan policy issues. Prior to joining the White House, he was Washington counsel to New York Governor David A. Paterson serving as his chief architect for federal policy development and advocate on domestic, economic and urban issues for the state of New York. Douglas formerly served as associate director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress and founded its Economic Mobility Program.

Amy Liu
Deputy Director of the Metropolitan Program, Brookings Institution
Amy Liu co-founded the Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, which produces research and policy ideas that advance the health and prosperity of metropolitan areas. She has been a frequent speaker on the rebuilding efforts in greater New Orleans and southern Louisiana since Hurricane Katrina. Liu has co-authored a number of Brookings publications including "The New Orleans Index: Tracking Recovery of New Orleans and the Metro Area." Prior to joining Brookings, Liu was special assistant to the Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and a staff member of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

Derrick Johnson
President, Mississippi NAACP
Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP, is the national organization's youngest state president. He was recently elected to the NAACP's National Board of Directors and serves on the boards of the Mississippi ACLU, Hope Community Credit Union and the Advisory Council of the Mississippi Economic Policy Center. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Johnson was appointed vice chair of the Governor's Commission for Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal in Mississippi, where he has become a leading voice for the equitable rebuilding of communities.

James Perry
Executive Director, Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center
James Perry is head of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, a private, nonprofit civil rights organization, which focuses on eliminating housing discrimination throughout the greater New Orleans area. He serves on the board of directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center, which he founded when he was 26 years old. He is also chair of the Louisiana Housing Alliance Board of Directors.

Camille Manning-Broome
Director of Planning, Center for Planning Excellence
Camille Manning-Broome is an urban and regional planner with the Center for Planning Excellence. She directs its Louisiana Community Planning Program and works closely with citizens and local leaders to help communities grow and develop. She has been involved in the statewide recovery activities since the hurricanes in 2005, establishing a comprehensive coastal restoration and protection program for the state.

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