Episode 073: Architecture, And: Civic Leadership

How are individuals using their training in architecture to explore diverse career paths in government and public service?

The Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) is a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors. Since 1986, the Mayors’ Institute has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. MICD has hosted over 1,200 mayors representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

This week we’ll interview Trinity Simons, the Executive Director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, and Jake Day, the Mayor of Salisbury, Maryland. Trinity and Mayor Day both started their careers in architecture. We’ll interview them to learn more about their current leadership responsibilities, the path from architecture to civic leadership, and how their foundational education informs their work.

Guests:

Trinity Simons helps local leaders across the nation improve their communities, bringing together her advanced training in architecture and planning with a conviction about the importance of the built environment and respect for the democratic process. For the last decade, she has served as the executive director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD). At MICD, she works with mayors across the country on the nation’s most pressing urban planning and design challenges. During her tenure, she has led the expansion of leadership development and learning opportunities for mayors, building off the successful MICD Institute model, to now include virtual seminars for mayors, advanced technical assistance, and the innovative MICD Just City Mayoral Fellowship. She speaks and writes frequently about the intersection of design and politics, and how design is a tool that can help mayors creatively address numerous challenges simultaneously, including equity, affordability, and sustainability. Under her leadership, in 2021, MICD was awarded the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Founders’ Award, its highest honor for organizations.

Trinity previously directed the Enterprise Rose Architectural Fellowship, a prestigious fellowship program for emerging architects and landscape architects to achieve design excellence in affordable housing through work with community development corporations.

Trinity has a Bachelor of Architecture from the Fay Jones School at the University of Arkansas and a Master of City Planning with a focus on city design and real estate development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jake Day is the Mayor of Salisbury, Maryland. Born and raised in Salisbury, he was elected to the City Council at the age of 30 and unanimously elected President. First elected Mayor in 2015, he was reelected in 2019 with 86% of the vote. Under his leadership, Salisbury has established a Housing First program to reduce chronic homelessness, opened its first 2 youth community centers and recreation programs, borne witness to Maryland’s fastest declining rate of opioid overdoses, and the fastest dropping crime rate of any US city in the last decade. The renaissance of Downtown Salisbury has helped Salisbury become Maryland’s fastest-growing City, America’s 7th fastest growing job market, and America’s 16th fastest-growing metro area. As Mayor, Jake oversaw the complete reorganization of the Salisbury government; restoring employee morale, customer service, efficiency, and transparency.

Jake earned a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Maryland, a Master’s Degree in Urban Design from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Master of Science in Environmental Policy from Oxford University where he graduated with distinction for his dissertation on the American lawn. Jake has spent his career revitalizing downtowns and making them more vibrant, livable places. His work with the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, most recently as the Director of the Center for Towns, employed design, planning, and implementation assistance to establish vibrant, sustainable small cities and towns on the Eastern Shore. Before moving back to the land of pleasant living, Jake served as national President of the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) and later as Editor-in-Chief of CRIT: a journal of architecture. A Richard Upjohn Fellow, he served on the American Institute of Architects (AIA) national Board of Directors and in various capacities with each of the national architectural organizations (NCARB, NAAB, ACSA) as well as Urban Dialogues.

📍 Show Links:

Mayors’ Institute on City Design

Salisbury, Maryland

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