Newark mayor Cory Booker describes his background, growing up as a "black boy in a vanilla world," and his decision to live in public housing while serving as mayor.
Cory Booker was elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey in 2006 after serving on the City Council from 1998 to 2002. Booker is a former Rhodes Scholar with a J.D. from Yale University Law School.
Bio
Mayor Cory A. Booker
Cory A. Booker, has spent his entire professional life in Newark. After serving as a Staff Attorney for the Urban Justice Center and as a Program Coordinator of the Newark Youth Project, in 1998, Cory rose to prominence by up setting a four-term incumbent to become Newark's Central Ward Councilman. During his four years of service, Cory earned a reputation as a leader with innovative ideas and bold actions, from increasing security in public housing to building new playgrounds.
Cory ran for mayor of Newark in 2002, narrowly losing to the incumbent. For his work, he has been recognized in numerous publications, including, among others, U.S. News and World Report (naming him one of America's Best Leaders in April, 2006), Time magazine, Esquire magazine (naming him as one of the country's 40 Best and Brightest in December 2002), New Jersey Monthly (naming him as one of New Jersey's top 40 under 40) and Black Enterprise in December 2005 (naming him to The Hot List, America's Most Powerful Players Under 40).
Cory is a member of several boards including the Executive Committee of Yale Law School, Columbia University Teachers' College Board of Trustees, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, North Star Academy, Integrity Inc. and the International Longevity Center. He received a B.A. in political science in 1991 and an M.A. in sociology in 1992 from Stanford University. He then traveled to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received an honors degree in Modern history in 1994. In 1997, he earned his law degree from Yale University.
Peter Reiling
Peter A. Reiling is the Aspen Institute's Executive Vice President for Leadership and Seminar Programs, and Executive Director of the Henry Crown Fellowship Program. In this role, he oversees the Institute's growing portfolio of leadership initiatives (the Aspen Global Leadership Network) and seminars (including The Aspen Seminar, offered at the Institute since 1950) as well as its flagship leadership program.
Reiling is a trustee, officer and senior moderator of the Aspen Institute, a Henry Crown Fellow (Class of 1998), and the founder of the Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), a joint venture between the Aspen Institute and five African business leaders. ALI has since been replicated in Central America as "CALI" and in India as "ILI" with plans to expand into China, the Mideast and Central Europe.
Similar programs have also been launched in the fields of politics, education and the environment with plans to expand into health and social entrepreneurship. The goal of all these ventures is to stimulate a new generation of accomplished, entrepreneurial leaders to play a greater role in the social and political development of their communities and countries.
Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, from 1996 to 2004, Reiling was President and CEO of TechnoServe, an international organization helping entrepreneurs across Africa, Latin America, and Central Europe to build businesses in their communities (www.tns.org).
Reiling is co-founder of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs and currently serves as chairman of the board of the CALI Foundation as well as on the boards of ALI/East Africa, ALI/West Africa, ALI/South Africa, Agora Partnerships and the Energy Access Foundation.
Reiling is a former adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and guest lecturer at the Institute for Developing Economies in Tokyo.
He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as the Bretton Woods Committee, and was named "Outstanding Social Entrepreneur" by the Schwab Foundation in Geneva.
A graduate of Georgetown University (BSFS) and the University of California/Berkeley (MBA), with additional studies at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Reiling is married to Denise Byrne and is the father of two children, Dylan and Eva Luna.
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