Mary W. Rowe is President and CEO of the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI). For over 30 years, Mary has acted as an impassioned civic leader and a leading urban advocate championing place-based approaches to building livable and resilient cities. Living in Canada and the United States, Mary has supported a wide range of policy transformation efforts and has led local, national and international urban initiatives such as the self-organizing initiatives that emerged in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, the initial development of Re-Imagining the Civic Commons in key cities across North America, and the engagement components of HUD-supported Rebuild by Design that informed the creation of the 100 Resilient Cities program of the Rockefeller Foundation. She is also Senior Fellow with Shorefast and is a frequent contributor to national and international city-building programs such as UN Habitat, Ottawa City Building Summit, Livable Cities Forum, Mansueto Institute Summit, the Art of City Building, and the inaugural meeting of the G7 Urban Development Ministers in Potsdam, Germany. Under Mary’s leadership, CUI has expanded its work to include an international network from government, industry, community and city-building professions to advance research and collaborate on solutions to some of our greatest urban challenges.

Natasha Salonen was elected Mayor of Wilmot in October 2022. Natasha is Wilmot’s first female Mayor, and Ontario’s youngest elected female mayor. In addition to her role as Mayor, Natasha also serves as a councilor for the Region of Waterloo. She brings professional knowledge from working for various Members of Parliament Federally and Provincially, most recently being the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs, before being elected Mayor. Natasha has a BA in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford, UK. Where she was very active in student government. Apart from her years of study abroad, Natasha is a lifelong resident of Wilmot Township, currently residing in her family home in Baden.

For the last 10 years Rose Sicoli has focused on building her successful career as a Real Estate Sales Professional. Driven to improve industry standards, and advocate for home ownership, Rose began serving on the Board of Directors for the Brantford Regional Real Estate Association. Having served on the board since 2014 she leads the association as President and Spokesperson in 2019 & 2020. She concurrently advocated provincially while serving 4 terms on the Government Relations Committee with the Ontario Real Estate Association. Rose Sicoli co-founded 2 Cats Investor Services Inc. a Property Management company specializing in offering a Guaranteed Rental Income Program. In 2021, She was successfully selected from amongst 21 candidates to fill a vacancy on Council in the City of Brantford. October 2022, Rose was elected for new term as Ward 1 City Councillor. As a natural communicator with a keen business sense, strong leadership skills, and extensive advocacy experience, Councillor Sicoli is driven and committed to improve the quality of life within the community.