Congratulations — You Are Now a GMA Ambassador

You are not an ordinary GMA Ambassador.

You are also a valued co-founder of Living Cities Earth - someone who said yes to a much bigger vision long before this program came into being.

You joined this movement because you believed in the possibility that together, by bringing our talents, methodologies, lived experience, networks, and collective wisdom into relationship, we could help create the conditions for 10,000 cities around the world to become places where all life can thrive.

Together, we committed to inspiring, interconnecting, and empowering one million leaders of positive change capable of helping create those conditions.

The Global Mayors Academy is one of the first major expressions of that shared vision becoming real. And the City Leaders program is the first flagship step in bringing that mission into the world.

So before anything else, we want to say clearly:

We also know that many of you are carrying extraordinary bodies of work, lived experience, methodologies, tools, and wisdom developed over decades - work that absolutely has a place within the wider architecture of what we are building.

Many co-founders have already begun finding meaningful ways to contribute directly to the Global Mayors Academy, and today more than 70 co-creators are actively helping bring this vision to life.

And for those of you whose work has not yet found its moment of integration - that moment will still come. As this ecosystem evolves, we fully intend to continue discovering how each of us can contribute in ways that are meaningful, mutually beneficial, and genuinely aligned with the value we each bring.

But first, we need to launch. And that is where your invitation begins.

One of the most powerful ways you can support this founding moment is by helping us bring this opportunity into the networks and relationships you have spent years building.

Because of the trust you placed in this shared vision - and because of the strategic value of the ecosystem you helped co-create - we wanted to honour you differently.

This is only one part of how we intend to recognise and value your contribution as we grow. It is simply our way of beginning to say thank you - and inviting you to help us bring this shared vision more fully into the world.

We are deeply grateful that we get to build this together.

Global Mayors Academy is an educational movement for mayors and city leaders of small and medium cities — the cities Harvard and Stanford programs overlook, yet where most people live and where decisions shape everyday life.

In July 2026, the first cohort of the City Leaders Program launches — a seven-month living laboratory where participants transform their cities while they learn.

You are joining more than 70 practitioners already across four continents who are contributing to make GMA a reality — people like you, who change cities, working in the field.

and others…

The Founding Cohort is the first step of something we're building together — a serious, peer-rooted program for the cities that have long been the blind spot of leadership education. You're here as a co-author of this beginning.

A mission you already carry

The future of small and medium cities is a question you were holding before we met. Joining as an ambassador is less about taking on a new role and more about lining up the work you already do with the work we're starting.

A cumulative effect, by design

Each conversation you open, each city this program touches, multiplies into the next. The network you bring delivers participants and expands the field of what's possible.

A founding moment that stays

The first cohort, the first methodology, the first wave of cities — what we shape here will be referenced for years. Your name, your way of doing it, your voice in shaping it — these become part of how GMA remembers its beginning.