Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, City Manager Yi-An Huang and Community Development's Melissa Peters to Participate in 10th Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative Class

Cambridge, Mass – July 16, 2026 – Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui today announced being selected as one of the 46 mayors from 15 countries for the tenth class of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative. Through the nine-month professional management program, Mayor Siddiqui—alongside City Manager Yi-An Huang and Assistant City Manager of Community Development Melissa Peters who will begin in August—will gain strategies to improve how local government works and move residents’ chief priorities forward.

"It's an honor to join this program, especially given that Harvard is in our own backyard here in Cambridge,” said Mayor Siddiqui. “I'm proud to represent our city both nationally and internationally alongside such an accomplished group of mayors, and I'm looking forward to exchanging ideas with, and learning from, my fellow leaders as we work to bring the best strategies home to improve Cambridge for our residents across issues from housing and affordability to economic growth and mobility, artificial intelligence, public safety, and sound governance."

“We are really looking forward to this experience, sharing our valuable insights, and strengthening the work we’re doing to support our community,” said City Manager Huang. “Working alongside Harvard faculty, policy experts, veteran managers, and mayors, we will focus on how to more effectively organize around outcomes, further decision-making based on evidence, and collaborate across departments and sectors—applying learning directly to the issues that matter most to our residents.”

The flagship Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is at the center of more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies through its Government Innovation program to strengthen mayoral leadership and local government across the globe. Today, it is where the world’s mayors come to learn—and to lead. Mayor Siddiqui and City of Cambridge will join them.

Established with Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, and housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard, the Initiative will have now served 447 mayors—including eight in ten of America's big-city mayors and nine of England's mayoral strategic authorities—alongside over 3,000 municipal chiefs.

Through the Initiative, Mayor Siddiqui, City Manager Huang, and Assistant City Manager Peters will be involved in period work in classrooms, virtual sessions, and in the field—beginning with Mayor Siddiqui’s participation in a multi-day convening in New York City this week. Once the coursework ends, the City of Cambridge remains eligible for more: professional education for senior officials in economic development, human resources, procurement, and civic engagement; a Bloomberg Harvard City Hall Fellow, placed for up to two years on a priority the mayor sets; and research and instructional material developed across the program's first decade.

“Leading a city is among the hardest jobs in public service anywhere as the demands on mayors—and the complex challenges they face—continue to grow," said Jorrit de Jong, Director of the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University and Emma Bloomberg Senior Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School. “Meeting those challenges requires city halls to continually strengthen how they work, and with Michael R. Bloomberg’s unwavering backing, we built the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative to help them do just that—and every mayor teaches us in return. With a decade of that insight and research behind this tenth class, we expect their city halls to deliver at home and push the program’s work—and the field itself—further still.”

The tenth class of mayors and City leaders represents 28 U.S. and 18 international cities, home to more than 22 million residents. 

Alumni of the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative include Pete Buttigieg, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation and mayor of South Bend, IN; Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and mayor of Atlanta, GA; Mayor Muriel Bowser of the District of Columbia; Andy Burnham, Member of Parliament for Makerfield and former Mayor of Greater Manchester, UK; Mayor Misty Buscher of Springfield, IL; Mayor William Cogswell of Charleston, SC; Uruguay Vice President Carolina Cosse and former mayor of Montevideo, Uruguay; Mayor Patrick Farrell of Huntington, WV; John Giles, former mayor of Mesa, AZ; Claudia López, former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia; Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell of Cedar Rapids, IA; Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore, MD; and Mayor Paul TenHaken of Sioux Falls, SD.

The flagship Initiative has also informed parallel efforts worldwide. The most recent is the Bloomberg LSE European City Leadership Initiative, whose inaugural class included 30 mayors and 60 senior officials from 17 countries.

Through these leadership programs, the City of Cambridge enters Bloomberg Philanthropies’ broader Government Innovation portfolio and global community of practice, tens of thousands of mayors and municipal officials strong, who draw on each other’s work to better the lives of the hundreds of millions of residents they collectively serve.

About Bloomberg Philanthropies:

Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in 700 cities and 150 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on creating lasting change in five key areas: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation, corporate, and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg Associates, a philanthropic consultancy that advises cities around the world. In 2025, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $4.3 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org, sign up for our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Threads, Facebook, and X.

About the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative:
The flagship Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative is at the center of more than 10 years of work led by Bloomberg Philanthropies to strengthen mayoral leadership and local government across the globe. Established with Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School, housed at the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard, the Initiative will have now served 447 mayors and over 3,000 senior municipal officials, including 8 in 10 of America’s big city mayors and 9 of England’s mayoral strategic authorities. Today, it is where many of the world’s most accomplished mayors come to learn—and to lead. For more information, please visit cityleadership.harvard.edu or visit us on LinkedIn and X.

About the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University:
Founded in 2021 with Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bloomberg Center for Cities at Harvard University serves a global community committed to improving public management, leadership, and governance. The Center’s cross-Harvard collaboration unites expertise focused on cities across disciplines and schools to produce research, train leaders, and develop resources for global use. The center is designed to have widespread impact on the future of cities, where more than half of the world’s people now live, by informing and inspiring local government leaders, scholars, students, and others who work to improve the lives of residents around the world. For more information, please visit cities.harvard.edu or follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.