Collaboration, resilience, and strong leadership: Key notes from AFA’s Advisory Council Meeting in Nashville

Dear Friends of AFA:

Time well spent together has a way of revitalizing our spirits and focusing our minds around our mission — to create greater economic opportunity for all. Our Fall 2025 Advisory Council meeting in Nashville this week did just that as we caught up with longtime friends, built new connections, shared in the collective challenges cities and organizations are facing, and celebrated each other’s triumphs.A heartfelt thank you to Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell who hosted us and joined Advisory Council Co-Chairs, Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix and Mayor Quinton Lucas of Kansas City, to kick off the event by sharing how their cities are adapting amid the rapidly changing federal landscape, including leaning on their fellow mayors for support and innovative solutions and using the AFA platform to share and replicate.

We also welcomed new Advisory Council members — Mayor Bryan Barnett of Rochester Hills, Mayor Andre Dickens of Atlanta, Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson of Riverside, Mayor Lauren McLean of Boise, Mayor Steven Reed of Montgomery, Mayor Daniel Rickenmann of Columbia, Mayor Corey Woods of Tempe, as well as Mayor O’Connell. We sent well wishes to Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland who also joined our Advisory Council this fall but needed to stay home in anticipation of Election Day next week!

Much of the conversation at the Nashville Advisory Council meeting centered around collaboration, resilience, and strong local leadership as economic uncertainty, federal policy changes, and the expansion of new technologies such as AI are reshaping the way we live and work.

“The problems that all of us face in this room: no elected official, no government department, no foundation, no nonprofit can solve on their own. There’s a hunger and a willingness to come together in a way that we haven’t in the past, to be vulnerable, to lean into the discomfort, to stay at the table when it gets messy, and to recognize that trust is the most important currency in the room,” said Hal Cato, CEO of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

Examples include public-private partnerships (P3s), collaboration with universities, and engagement with national and local foundations.

• Mayor Lock Dawson described how the city is collaborating with the California Air Resources Board, UC Riverside, and private manufacturers to build a clean and green tech ecosystem. Riverside puts “skin in the game” by purchasing electric vehicles from a local manufacturer and deploying them in city fleets, demonstrating a direct partnership between government, academia, and industry.
• Josh Humphries, Senior Advisor to the President of the California Community Foundation, spoke about the Foundation’s new “guarantee fund” that is designed to monetize public sector subsidies for affordable housing by partnering with banks and investors. This fund takes a first-loss position to unlock more financing for housing projects, showing how philanthropy can work with government and private finance to solve local challenges.
• Jenna Johnson, Executive Director of Heartland Women in Trades, emphasized that resilience in workforce development means preparing for the cyclical nature of industries like construction. While there may be a current boom and high demand for labor, she noted that it’s crucial to ensure that workforce strategies are sustainable so “there’s still going to be jobs for these individuals … in the next 5 to 10 years.” This involves ongoing support, training, and planning to help individuals adapt and thrive as industry needs fluctuate.
• David Briggs, Regional President of Fifth Third Bank in Tennessee, spoke about the bank’s planned $20 million investment in North Nashville and how it partnered with Affordable Housing Resources Inc., Pathway Lending, and United Way of Greater Nashville to meet with residents and understand the underserved community’s unique needs. “You have to build that trust, and money alone doesn’t do it.”
• Mayor O’Connell showcased Nashville’s East Bank project, a public-private partnership with the Titans organization reclaiming over 100 acres for redevelopment. Plans include a performing arts center, transit center, and new stadium, and nearby, technology company Oracle plans to build its new world headquarters.

The meeting emphasized the critical role of mayors and local leaders to set the tone and drive action through bold leadership. Mayors have a unique opportunity to establish priorities, frame difficult issues for residents, and lead by example with improvements to government services – cutting red tape, delivering excellent services, and embracing innovation. A significant portion of the meeting focused on best practices and lessons learned to address the national housing crisis.

Recognizing that layered policies and lengthy approval processes were stalling progress, Mayor Dickens implemented a “whole of government” approach in Atlanta to increasing housing affordability, fostering a proactive, solutions-oriented culture across all departments. He established the Atlanta Housing Strike Force and the Atlanta Urban Development Corporation, a quasi-governmental public-private partnership seeded with city funds, to provide the flexibility and resources needed to collaborate with developers, plug funding gaps, and keep projects moving forward.

“When you are the CEO, you set the tone, you set the agenda, you elevate the conversations that need to be elevated,” said Mayor Dickens, co-chair of the National Housing Crisis Task Force. “Leadership is setting the tone and making sure that people understand the ‘why’.”

The innovations implemented by Mayor Dickens were highlighted in the Task Force’s recently released State and Local Housing Action Plan. National housing expert Bruce Katz called out the need for the United States to shift how it does housing from a mostly federally driven model to a model led by mayors and other local leaders.“We’ve got to design, finance, and deliver affordable housing solutions from the ground up,” Katz said. “What Chattanooga is doing, what Atlanta is doing, what Nashville is doing. We’re going to have to take those innovations. We’re going to have to codify them. We’re going to have to basically put public asset corporations in a box, capital innovation in a box, and move it from 1 to 5 to 50 to 500 cities.”

The trip to Nashville also gave us the chance to celebrate the success of Nashville’s “Choose How You Move” ballot measure, supported by Accelerator for America Action, that will generate $3.1 billion in new investments in transportation and transit infrastructure.

“With Accelerator’s support and thinking about everything from messaging to understanding research and policy around the country, we were able to succeed with voters. For us, Accelerator has been a sounding board. It’s been a place to exchange ideas, make new connections, and strengthen our network as a city,” said Mayor O’Connell.

We are grateful for the opportunity to convene our Advisory Council members and partners in Nashville and look forward to continuing the hard work of connecting communities to solutions and resources that can help them address their most pressing challenges.

Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible!  

Mary Ellen Wiederwohl
President and CEO | Accelerator for America