Speaker

Harriet is the Director of NUMO, the New Urban Mobility alliance, hosted by WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. NUMO is a new collaborative effort that aims to guide policymakers, the private sector and people toward a shared vision of cities and urban mobility.

Harriet has been deeply engaged on planning, smart mobility, disaster resilience, housing and community development issues for the past 2 decades. She has been working with organizations around the country to help states and localities prepare for a range of future challenges, including smart mobility; climate change; disaster recovery and resilience; housing affordability; and community development. She served in the Obama Administration as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Community Planning and Development at the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development. She initiated the first ever $1 billion National Disaster Resilience Competition. Her work encompassed helping states, regions, cities, counties and towns across the country build a strong foundation for resilience in the face of a changing climate, and for a diverse and prosperous economy based on enhancing community quality of place, economic opportunity, fiscal stability, transportation choice, and affordability. She was the Director of the District of Columbia Office of Planning under the past 2 Mayors, where she worked to make DC a walkable, bikeable, eminently livable, globally competitive and thriving city.