East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sid Edwards has completed the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, a professional management training program for mayors, according to an April 20 announcement from Harvard University.
The initiative is designed to help city leaders learn new strategies and share ideas on how to improve their communities. The program brings together mayors from around the world for in-person classes at Harvard’s campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as online sessions and exercises.
“This was an opportunity of a lifetime to be part of the Harvard Business School and its vast expertise. As a newly elected mayor, I found this program to be extremely helpful as I joined mayors from across the United States and 16 countries to share ideas, discuss issues, and explore solutions,” said Mayor-President Edwards.
Edwards applied for the initiative shortly after taking office in January 2025 and was accepted last July. The training also included his top assistants: Christel Slaughter, William Daniel, Kelly LeDuff, Lon Vicknair, and Rachel Lambert. All expenses for travel and course materials were covered by the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
Since its founding in 2017 by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Harvard Business School, the initiative has provided research-based problem-solving training for hundreds of mayors and senior municipal officials worldwide. Each participating mayor is required to identify one issue facing their city on which they focus during the program.
“I chose to focus on blight, which was a major platform of my campaign,” said Mayor-President Edwards. “In 2025, we took decisive action, demolishing 200 blighted properties and putting hundreds more on the list to be cleaned up or demolished. We also recently announced a $6 million community development initiative to rehabilitate neglected properties that can be put back into commerce, such as refurbished homes for first-time buyers.”
The recent class included mayors from cities such as Oakland; Las Vegas; Raleigh; Richmond; Sacramento; Tucson; St. Louis; Buenos Aires (Argentina); Athens (Greece); Brisbane (Australia); and Guadalajara (Mexico).
Looking ahead, officials say participation in programs like this helps cities address complex challenges by drawing on shared knowledge from leaders around the globe.
