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President of CEOs for Cities to Visit Chattanooga Tuesday, April 14, 2009
We’re honored to host Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, a cross-sector network of urban leaders. Coletta comes to Chattanooga on Wednesday, April 15 as part of the CEOs for Cities’ “Talent Dividend Tour,” and will also participate in a roundtable discussion with CreateHere fellows and local leaders. Hosted in Chattanooga by UTC Chancellor and CEOs for Cities member Roger Brown, this project brings experts in urban planning and culture to 24 different American cities, offering local leaders solutions to major development questions regarding education’s economic impact.
“We know that educational attainment is the biggest predictor of success for cities and metro areas today. The research is unassailable,” reports CEO for Cities. “However, few urban leaders are focused on the relationship between education and the economy. In fact, producing more college-educated citizens is rarely found in any city’s economic development plan.”
This tour is part of City Dividends, a larger research project spearheaded by CEOs for Cities. The City Dividends project calculates the monetary value gained by setting development goals that focus on one of three areas. The Talent Dividend quantifies the value of increasing college attainment rates; the Opportunity Dividend calculates the benefit of reducing poverty rates; and the Green Dividend assesses the value of reducing vehicular traffic.
Coletta’s work has been enormously influential in the development of CreateHere’s projects. Prior to her tenure at CEOs for Cities, Coletta served as president of Coletta & Company in Memphis. The producer and host of “Smart City,” a nationally syndicated public radio broadcast, Coletta is frequently interviewed as an expert on urban issues by national media and is an active speaker on the success formula for cities and creative communities. This year she was named one of the world’s 50 most important urban experts by a leading European think tank.
In July 2008, Coletta interviewed CreateHere co-founders Helen Johnson and Josh McManus. Listen to the interview here. For more information on CEOs for Cities, visit their website.
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