The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) held its 2021 Annual Meeting and Leadership Awards in person on December 8 at the Renaissance Washington, D.C. Downtown Hotel where area leaders reflected on recent achievements and recognized five local leaders and organizations with awards for outstanding service to the region.
In remarks, officials touched on the region’s perseverance in the face of COVID-19 and how cross-border partnership and information sharing has continued to be key to the response. This commitment to collaboration will be key as the region works to shape a better new normal and recover from the pandemic. COG Corporate President and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, who led the meeting, noted opportunities for regional partnership on the horizon, such as new federal infrastructure funding being made available.
In COG's 2021 video, local leaders share the ways they are working together at COG to build a better future for the region.
In his recap of the year’s achievements, COG Board of Directors Chair and District of Columbia At-Large Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr. pointed to several ways the COG Board was able to advance key regional priorities. Most notably, crafting and unanimously approving two resolutions endorsing High-Capacity Transit Station Areas and Equity Emphasis Areas as key planning principles through 2030.
“If we are going to unlock our region’s full potential, we need communities that are mixed-use and mixed-income,” said White. “We need communities that are more accessible and affordable to all residents.”
“It’s very gratifying to see how these robust conversations we’ve been having...helped shape these direction-setting resolutions.”
Also key to the region’s achievements and direction-setting work this year was COG’s policy boards and committees. The chair of each committee was recognized for their leadership during the program by COG Corporate Vice President and Montgomery County Council Member Nancy Navarro.
2021 Regional Leadership Awards
COG was also honored to present several area leaders and organizations with awards recognizing their leadership, partnership, and service to region.
Prince George’s County Council Member Derrick L. Davis was awarded COG’s Elizabeth and David Scull Metropolitan Public Service Award for prioritizing transit-oriented communities in regional planning work and helping establishing equity as a fundamental COG value, among other key achievements.
Fairfax County Chief Equity Officer Karla Bruce received the Ronald F. Kirby Award for Collaborative Leadership for being a leader on racial equity in her own county and regionwide.
D.C., Maryland, and Virginia Hunger Solutions, and their respective Executive Directors, Dr. Beverley Wheeler, Michael J. Wilson, and Salaam Bhatti, jointly received the inaugural Stuart A. Freudberg Award for Regional Partnership for their work to address food insecurity across metropolitan Washington.
Gearing Up for 2022
During the business section of the meeting, COG elected its corporate officers for 2022. Nancy Navarro was elected COG Corporate President, Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler and Robert White were elected Corporate Vice Presidents, and Fairfax County Supervisor Rodney Lusk was elected Secretary-Treasurer.
In his remarks, White also mentioned several additional initiatives the region will remain engaged with at COG in 2022 in addition to its continued focus on creating transit-oriented communities—including the update to the region’s long-range transportation plan, Visualize 2045, the Regional Housing Equity Plan, and additional research and coordination to combat climate change, among many other efforts.