Penn IUR Announces the 2023 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize Winners

The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2023 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize, which recognizes leaders who are guiding cities toward a sustainable and equitable future. This year four pathbreaking urban leaders from around the globe will be honored. The 2023 awardees are Steve Adler, Former Mayor of Austin; Manuel A. Alculete Lopes de Araújo, Mayor, Municipality of Quelimane, Mozambique; Eleni (Lenio) Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer, UN Habitat & Arsht-Rock, and Chief Heat Officer, Athens, Greece; and Sheela Patel, Founding Director, Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC).

Penn IUR will honor the work of these exceptional leaders on April 21, 2023 at its 18th annual Urban Leadership Forum, entitled Accelerating Urban Climate Solutions for All. To attend the Urban Leadership Forum, please register at the Penn IUR website.

About the Awardees

On April 21, 2023 Penn IUR will award the 2023 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize to four pathbreaking urban leaders from around the globe.

Steve Adler most recently served as Austin’s 52nd Mayor, term limited after completing his second term at the start of 2023. During his tenure as Mayor of Austin, TX, his top priorities included mobility, affordability, climate change mitigation and equity for all Austinites. Mr. Adler served as a trustee of the United States Conference of Mayors, Past Chair of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) policy board, Executive Board of Climate Mayors, and Past Vice President of the National Council of Democratic Mayors. During his time in office, the City of Austin passed the largest mobility and affordable housing bonds in its history. He shepherded Austin through COVID with one of the lowest mortality rates in the country, less than half that nationally and in Texas. Focused on equity, the city raised its minimum city wage to $20 per hour, passed city-wide sick leave, and enabled second chance hiring protections. Mr. Adler helped launch and raise $500 Million to fund FindingHomeATX with a goal to reaching net zero homelessness in Austin after having achieved that status for veterans. The city continued as a world leader on climate change action. Mr. Adler received broad recognition for innovative leadership. Foreign Policy named him a Global reThinker and Living Cities included Mr. Adler on its list of 25 Disruptive Leaders (along with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and author Ta-Nehisi Coates) to mark that organization’s 25th anniversary.

Manuel A. Alculete Lopes de Araújo, mayor, Municipality of Quelimane, Mozambique has held the position since 2011. Mayor de Araújo’s extensive experience spans civil society, academics, business, and politics, and he is deeply involved in advocacy for issues linked to active mobility and climate change. He plays a key role within institutions such as United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) as well as ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, where he is a member of the Global Executive Committee and Global Co-Chair for Resilience. In 2019, Araújo was elected Deputy Chair of the National Council of the Mozambican Mayors Association (ANAMM) Congress. He also serves as an Executive Committee Member of Global Parliament of Mayors and an Executive Member of the Convenant of Mayors for SubSaharan Africa.

Eleni "Lenio" Myrivili is global chief heat officer to UN Habitat and the Arsht Rock Resilience Center, building heat resilience in cities around the world. Myrivili is senior advisor for urban heat and a senior fellow at the Arsht-Rock Center at the Atlantic Council. She is also a member of the EU Mission Board for Adaptation at the European Commission. Myrivili served as elected Deputy Mayor for the City of Athens as well as Athens’ Chief Resilience Officer and as Athens’ Chief Heat Officer. She also co-chaired the Resilience Cities Network Steering Committee. She holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University and was a tenured professor for over a decade. 

Sheela Patel is a grassroots urban activist who has spent the last four decades working in partnership with vulnerable communities living in informal settlements, both in India as part of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers’ (SPARC) partnerships with Mahila Milan and the National Slum Dwellers Federation, and globally through Slum/Shack Dwellers International. On behalf of these organizations, Patel advocates especially for vulnerable women living in informal settlements, seeking a seat at the table in national, regional, and global debates about poverty. Recently, she has been working on the challenges of climate change and how they impact cities’ most vulnerable people, seeking to highlight their role as first responders to natural disasters and the urgent need to include urban, rural, indigenous, and other networks in a just transition to a more sustainable world.  

About the Penn IUR Urban Leadership Award

Since 2005, Penn IUR has recognized leaders in urban affairs through its Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize (formerly known as the Urban Leadership Award). Past recipients include (titles and affiliations current at time of award):  

• Claudio Orrego, Governor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region in Chile (2022)
• Emilia Saiz Carrancedo, Secretary General of UCLG (2022)
• Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone (2021)
• Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, England (2021)
• Inga Saffron, Journalist and Architecture Critic, Philadelphia Inquirer (2020)
• Egbert Perry, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Integral, LLC (2019)
• Mauricio Rodas, Mayor, Quito, Ecuador (2019)
• Elizabeth Julian, Founder and Senior Counsel, Inclusive Communities Project; former Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2018)
• Rose Molokoane, Coordinator, South African Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP); Deputy President and Management Committee; Member, Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI); Co-Chair, UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign (WUC) (2017)
• Victor Santiago Pineda, President, World ENABLED; Adjunct Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California-Berkeley (2017)
• Angela Glover Blackwell, President & CEO, PolicyLink (2016)
• Jeremy Nowak, President, J Nowak and Associates (2016)
• Michael A. Nutter, Mayor, City of Philadelphia (2015)
• Renée Lewis Glover, Chair, Board of Directors, Habitat for Humanity International; former President and CEO, Atlanta Housing Authority (2015)
• Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon, Co-Founders, Project HOME (2014)
• Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland (2014)
• Joan Clos, Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT) (2013)
• Yael Lehmann, Executive Director, The Food Trust (2013), Founder and Principal, Urbane Indonesia (2013)
• Derek R.B. Douglas, Vice President for Civic Engagement, University of Chicago and former Special Assistant to President Barack Obama, White House Domestic Policy Council (2012)
• Paul Levy, President and CEO, Philadelphia’s Center City District (2012)
• Lily Yeh, Global Artist and Founder, Barefoot Artists (2012)
• Raphael Bostic, Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2011)
• Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView, and former Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2011)
• Jane Golden, Executive Director, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (2011), former Miami Chief of Police and author, Beat Cop to Top Cop: A Tale of Three Cities (2011), Senior Fellow Emeritus, Urban Land Institute; former Mayor, Indianapolis, Indiana (2010)
• Shirley Franklin, Mayor, City of Atlanta, Georgia (2009)
• Parris Glendening, President, Smart Growth Leadership Institute; former Governor, Maryland (2009)
• Bruce Katz, Vice President and Founding Director of the Metropolitan Policy Program, The Brookings Institution (2009)
• Edward J. Blakely, Executive Director, Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Development Administration, City of New Orleans (2008)
• M. Susan Savage, Secretary of State, Oklahoma (2008)
• Donna E. Shalala, President, University of Miami; former Secretary, US Department of Health and Human Services (2008)
• Joseph P. Riley, Jr., Mayor, City of Charleston, South Carolina (2007)
• James Lee Witt, Chairman and CEO, James Lee Witt Associates, a Part of GlobalOptions Group (2006)
• Brent Warr, Mayor, City of Gulfport, Mississippi (2006)
• Loree D. Jones, Secretary of External Affairs, Office of the Mayor, Philadelphia (2006)
• Manuel A. Diaz, Mayor, City of Miami (2005)
• Stephen Goldsmith, Former Mayor, City of Indianapolis (2005)
• Marc H. Morial, Former Mayor, City of New Orleans (2005)
• John F. Street, Mayor, City of Philadelphia (2005)