Former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith was presented with a 50th Anniversary Chancellor’s Medallion by Chancellor Nasser H. Paydar at IUPUI’s Report to the Community on January 24, 2019. This award recognizes Mayor Goldsmith’s significant contributions to IUPUI, the city of Indianapolis and the higher education community more broadly, and for the role he has played in the 50 years of impact IUPUI has had on a local, national, and global scale.
Born in Indianapolis in 1946, Goldsmith graduated from Wabash College and the University of Michigan Law School. He began his political career in 1979 as Marion County prosecutor, a position he held for the next 12 years. Following an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor, Goldsmith was elected the 46th mayor of Indianapolis, serving from 1992 to 2000 and earning a reputation as a leader in forging public-private partnerships.
Goldsmith was chief domestic policy advisor to President George W. Bush during his 2000 campaign and then served as Bush’s special advisor on faith-based and not-for-profit initiatives.
Goldsmith is currently the Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government and the Director of the Innovations in American Government Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He previously served as Deputy Mayor of New York and was the Chair of the Corporation for National and Community Service. He has written several books, including The New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed Governance, published in 2017.