David partners with community-based organizations, governments, regional agencies and international organizations to ensure that those affected by decisions help shape and deliver meaningful responses and solutions. He served for eight years as Boulder, Colorado’s Executive Director of Planning, Housing and Sustainability, overseeing strategic planning, affordable housing and redevelopment projects as well as energy, climate and zero waste initiatives. He also served for four years as Seattle’s Deputy Director of Planning and Community Development, helping build a new department focused on equitable development and integrated cross-department planning and action. Prior to his years in local government, he was UNESCO Chair for Growing Up in Cities at Cornell University, leading an international action-research program, teaching, and working directly with community-based organizations in New York and Nairobi. He authored Creating Better Cities with Children and Youth as well as book chapters and journal articles on youth engagement, and has led planning initiatives and training programs across the US as well as in Canada, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa. He is a graduate of Stanford University and MIT; serves on the national board for ICLEI-USA; was a founding member of the Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance; and is a lead author for the Urban Climate Change Research Network’s Third Assessment Report on Climate Change and Cities.
