Michael Capuano to Serve as IOC’s Senior Urban Leadership Fellow

Former U.S. Representative Michael Capuano joined the Boston University Initiative on Cities today as a Senior Urban Leadership Fellow. A twenty year member of Congress and former Mayor of Somerville, Representative Capuano remains committed to advancing the needs and interests of urban areas. As a Fellow, he will assist the Initiative on a range of activities, engage with students, and lead a new speaker series on Urban Transformation. He will serve as a valuable resource to the Initiative’s new MetroBridge program, which links the needs of cities in the Boston region to graduate and undergraduate courses across the University. He will also serve as a guest lecturer, host office hours for students, and support the Menino Survey of Mayors team by providing insight into emerging federal priorities affecting American cities. His prior engagement with the Initiative came in 2015, when he addressed more than two hundred city officials, scholars, and business leaders as part of its conference on Fiscal Leadership and the Modern City. His term will run through December, 2019.

Representative Capuano previously served as a member of Congress for twenty years, initially representing the interest of the 8^th District. Following redistricting in 2013, he was elected to serve the 7^th District of Massachusetts including his native Somerville, parts of Boston, Cambridge, and Milton, and the communities of Chelsea, Everett, and Randolph. Capuano began his life in political office as a member of the Somerville Board of Alderman at age 25, where he would write one of the first sanctuary cities ordinances in the country. He eventually ran successfully for Mayor in 1989, a role which he held until 1999 when he was elected to Congress. During his time in Washington, Representative Capuano was a passionate advocate for urban issues, founding five Congressional caucuses including one each for former Mayors, Community Health Centers, and Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, as well as Sudan and Korea. He was also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and long-time advocate for a single-payer health care system. He served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Financial Services committee. During his tenure, he helped to secure federal funding for affordable housing redevelopment in Roxbury, increased resources for community health centers and medical research, and major transit investment like the Boston area Green Line extension. He earned his BA from Dartmouth College and JD from Boston College.

The Boston University Initiative on Cities researches, promotes, and advances the adaptive urban leadership strategies and policies necessary to support cities as dynamic centers of inclusive economic growth and sustainable development in the 21st century. Founded by a proven urban leader, the late Mayor of Boston Thomas Menino, and a highly regarded academic, Professor Graham Wilson, the Initiative serves as a bridge between academic research and the real-life practice of city governance. Since the Initiative’s inception in 2014, its team has spearheaded significant new research endeavors, engaged hundreds of Boston University faculty, ushered in meaningful contributions to the student experience, forged new institutional collaborations, and developed major new programs for the benefit of cities and those who support them. Its annual Menino Survey of Mayors remains the only nationally representative, scientifically rigorous survey of American mayors.