The Flourishing Cities Initiative

Julián Castro, ’96

Julián Castro serves as Chief Executive Officer of the Latino Community Foundation, the nation’s largest Latino-serving foundation.

Mr. Castro's deep commitment to the future of this nation is woven into his DNA. Raised by his mother Rosie Castro, a civil rights and Chicana activist, and his grandmother, Victoria Castro, on the westside of San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Castro grew up with a profound understanding of what it meant to love and serve community.  Inspired by a legacy of leaders working to safeguard our democracy and strengthen community, Mr. Castro has dedicated his life to public service.

Mr. Castro was elected to the San Antonio City Council in 2001 at age 26, then was elected Mayor of San Antonio in 2009. In 2014, President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Castro U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, where he served until the end of the Obama administration, and in 2020, Mr. Castro ran for the Democratic nomination for president.

Mr. Castro earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Harvard Law School.  Access a Stanford Magazine piece about Mr. Castro.

Mayor David Holt

Mayor David Holt is the 38th Mayor of Oklahoma City, and is also the current President of the United States Conference of Mayors. He was first elected Mayor in 2018 with 78 percent of the vote and was re-elected in 2022 with the second-most votes for a mayoral candidate in OKC history. Mayor Holt also currently serves as Dean of the Oklahoma City University School of Law.

Mayor Holt is a member of the Osage Nation and is Oklahoma City’s first Native American mayor. In 2023, Mayor Holt was named by TIME as one of its “100 Next” most influential people in the world.

Mayor Holt’s achievements include:

• The development, passage and implementation of MAPS 4, a $1.1 billion investment in the city’s quality of life;
• Securing the NBA’s Thunder in OKC through at least 2053 thanks to the development and passage of a $1 billion new arena, set to open in 2028;
• Securing two sports and seven events from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics;
• The development and passage of a $2.7 billion investment in OKC’s core infrastructure; and
• Presiding over an unprecedented period of economic stability, city investment and elevated international profile for OKC, fueled by an inclusive approach that has made Oklahoma City a unique model of effectiveness and unity.

Mayor Holt previously served in the Oklahoma Senate for eight years. He received his B.A. from the George Washington University and his J.D. from the Oklahoma City University School of Law. His wife Rachel is the President & CEO of the United Way of Central Oklahoma and they reside in OKC with their two children.Mayor David Holt became Oklahoma City’s 38th mayor in 2018.  Access Mayor Holt's full biography.

Diana Gameros

Ms. Gameros is a singer, guitarist, pianist, composer, songwriter, music instructor, lead teaching artist with the Lullaby Project, and core band member of the Movement Immigrant Orchestra. Based in San Francisco, California, she was born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, México, and immigrated to the United States as a teenager to study music in Michigan. Over the last decade in the Bay Area, she has released two albums of original songs written in Spanish and English, and Mexican classic songs. In 2014, Ms. Gameros received the Emerging Leader Award from the Chicana/Latina Foundation. In 2015, she was named one of YBCA’s 100, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' award for "creative minds, makers, and pioneers that are asking the questions and making the provocations that will shape the future of American culture." NPR Music gave Ms. Gameros an honorable mention for Arrullo in a listing of the best Latin albums of the year in 2017. Ms. Gameros was named one of SF Magazine’s 100 Artists: Artists Putting The East Bay On The Map in 2018.

Ms. Gameros is currently a lead and teaching artist in San Francisco for the Lullaby Project, a project of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute that pairs new and expecting parents and caregivers with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting parental health, aiding childhood development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Access Ms. Gameros' website.