Nussdorf Urban Prize Winners Announced

The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2022 Lawrence C. Nussdorf Urban Leadership Prize, which recognizes leaders who are guiding cities toward a sustainable and vibrant future. The 2022 awardees are Emilia Saiz Carrancedo, Secretary General, United Cities and Local Government (UCLG), and Claudio Orrego, Governor, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile.

The annual prize, formerly known as the Penn IUR Urban Leadership Award, recognizes exemplary leaders who have demonstrated the vision to revitalize urban centers, respond to urban crises, and champion urban sustainability in the United States and around the globe. “Our awardees, with their leadership, have shown the way forward in how local and regional governments can transform the lives of citizens in emerging economies,” said Penn IUR Co-Director Susan Wachter.

“Both have had long and impactful careers in advancing sustainable urban development,” added  Penn IUR Co-Director Eugénie Birch. “Emilia Saiz Carrancedo has been a tireless advocate in global discussions for some 250,000 subnational leaders’ interests while Claudio Orrego has promoted urban causes at the national-ministerial and city-metropolitan levels as an innovative and imaginative multi-term mayor.”

Emilia Saiz Carrancedo is the current Secretary General of UCLG since her appointment in Hangzhou in December 2017. She has worked with the international movement of local and regional governments in different capacities since 1998, leading programs and initiatives on institutional capacity building, the participation of women in local decision-making and decentralized cooperation.

Claudio Orrego is the first elected Governor of the Santiago Metropolitan Region in Chile. Previously, he served as Mayor of Peñalolén for two terms and later as Intendant of the Metropolitan Region from 2014-2018. Orrego received a law degree from the Catholic University of Chile and holds a master's degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government.

Penn IUR will celebrate the awardees’ accomplishments at the 17th annual Urban Leadership Forum (ULF), on April 20 at 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT. The event will include an introduction by Eugénie Birch followed by the awardees’ remarks and a discussion moderated by Susan Wachter.

Click here to register to attend the ULF. For a comprehensive list of innovators in urban affairs that Penn IUR has recognized since the award’s inception in 2005, click here.