Muñoz Joins Congress of Cities Lineup

October 31, 2011

by Cyndy Liedtke Hogan

Cecilia Muñoz, deputy assistant to the president and director of intergovernmental affairs at the White House, will be among the speakers at the opening general session at the Congress of Cities in Phoenix next week.

In her position at the White House, Muñoz oversees the Obama Administration’s relationships with state and local governments.

Muñoz joins author and actor Hill Harper, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and eco-entrepreneur Majora Carter for what will be a thought-provoking session that will demonstrate where future growth for cities will come from despite current economic struggles.

This session will bring together speakers to address economic growth and development through the lenses of topics such as infrastructure, sustainability, immigration and improving prospects for young people and their families.

Muñoz is expected to address the topic of immigrant integration and the goals of the Obama administration during the general session, as the lead staff to the President on immigration reform.

Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Muñoz served as senior vice president for the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization. Her particular area of expertise is immigration policy, which she covered at NCLR for 20 years. She supervised NCLR’s policy staff, covering a variety of issues of importance to Latinos, including civil rights, employment, poverty, farmworker issues, education, health, housing and immigration.

Muñoz has testified numerous times before Congress and appears regularly in the Spanish- and English-language media. She is the former chair of the Board of Center for Community Change, and served on the U.S. Programs Board of the Open Society Institute and the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Philanthropies and the National Immigration Forum.
She was born in Detroit, the daughter of immigrants from Bolivia. Muñoz has received numerous other awards and recognitions from various sources, including the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and a variety of local non-profit organizations.

The general session will take place the afternoon of Thursday, November 10. The themes from this session will be woven throughout the conference content — including four concurrent conferences on Green Cities, Economic Development, Infrastructure and Your City’s Families — to take place November 10-12. NLC will also explore the impact that immigration has on communities and constructive local action in cities across the country across all conference programming.

The opening general session will set the tone for the learning and networking that will follow throughout the conference. The speakers will explore how economic growth is spurred by:

• investing in infrastructure,
• sustainability,
• integrating immigrants into economic and civic life and
• human talent — through investing in education, children, etc.

NLC President James E. Mitchell Jr., council member, Charlotte, N.C., will also speak during the opening general session, reflecting on his year as president.

Urban economist Edward Glaeser will provide the capstone for the conference with a speech during the Delegates Lunch on Saturday, November 12. The author of “Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier and Happier” will show how cities bring all of these topics together to improve the lives of citizens.

Details: For the latest information on the Congress of Cities, visit www.nlccongressofcities.org.