San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center Announces Multi-Year Partnership with The Brookings Institution. Learn More
San Diego Regional Policy & Innovation Center Announces Multi-Year Partnership with The Brookings Institution. Learn More
Our mission is to develop, test and implement world-class research and policy-driven solutions to address our region’s most pressing challenges. We use applied research to help local leaders identify catalytic policies, programs, and interventions and attract greater capital to the region.
Meet Our TeamSee Our PartnersOur core focus is on multi-jurisdictional collaboration to solve problems that extend beyond the reach of any single agency or department. For example, sea-level rise, fire risk, barriers to broadband access, and housing affordability are no single agency’s jobs, but they are everyone’s challenges.
Through our partnership with The San Diego Foundation, we bring deep, long-standing community relationships together with best-in-class policy research from The Brookings Institution to work across sectors and jurisdictions to build consensus and directionality for the region. This multi-issue, multi-jurisdictional, coordinated approach is essential to transformational systems change.
We understand that data and research are only helpful when they are connected to better outcomes for communities in need. Our immediate focus is supporting the recovery from the cascading effects of COVID-19. We are already co-designing new programs to bring large-scale federal recovery and infrastructure funds to the region by working with local municipalities and regional agencies.
Over the longer term, our vision is to craft new policy solutions, drive large-scale private partnerships and investment opportunities, and enhance regional development.
Our core work is organized around four anchors—People, Ideas, Resources, and Impact—based on deep, outcome-oriented partnerships with governments, corporations, and philanthropies.
We know collaboration is essential for developing effective, practical, and equitable solutions for improving critical infrastructure, creating stable high-paying jobs, and generating measurable long-term socio-economic and environmental benefits.
Affordable housing, homelessness, health equity, broadband access, climate resilience, infrastructure, quality jobs – these are not just regional challenges. Through The Brookings Institution, we will learn from other cities and states and share lessons and successes from our work with a national audience of policymakers and practitioners.
Our team has years of experience working in and with the public sector. We have strong relationships with local, state, and federal officials and a vast network of private, philanthropic, and community leaders and innovators. Join our growing network of supporters and partners.
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Alliance Healthcare Foundation
San Diego & Imperial Small Business Development Center
Health Net Community Solutions
David C. Copley Foundation
County of San Diego
City of San Diego
City of Carlsbad
City of Chula Vista
City of Coronado
City of Del Mar
City of El Cajon
City of Encinitas
City of Escondido
City of Imperial Beach
City of La Mesa
City of Lemon Grove
City of National City
City of Oceanside
City of Poway
City of San Marcos
City of Santee
City of Solana Beach
City of Vista
San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG)
Metropolitan Transit System (MTS)
Port of San Diego
San Diego Airport Authority
We are already hard at work with the County of San Diego and other regional partners. To date, our team has developed and submitted several million dollars in federal funding applications and provided insight into how COVID-19 recovery funding can lay the groundwork for significant large-scale federal grants and projects to address critical needs. Here’s a snapshot of a few of our projects:
We are exploring where and how to extend cost-effective broadband services to underserved communities by aligning investments in streets and water system upgrades and integrating fire and flood risk monitoring for at-risk areas across the County.
We are building partnerships to create a new platform for testing, demonstrating, and accelerating essential infrastructure upgrades to enhance region-wide resilience.
Our team is developing a model to help families who have been struggling to afford their water and electricity bills get property upgrades that improve affordability and regional sustainability.
We are working with national partners through a grant funded program to increase the capacity of cities in federal grant writing, green infrastructure project delivery, and equity-focused collaboration.
Check out our latest activities, events, and milestones. For media inquiries, please email Ashley Bendas or Sandy Young at J. Walcher Communications, or call (619) 295-7140.
Susan Guinn
Audra Herrmann-Hayes
Jamal Russell Black
Rachel Lozano Castro
Tedi Doychinova
Josh Jacobsen
Victoria Vasquez
Niloufar Nasrollahzadeh
Andrew Bourne
Adie Tomer
Jenny Schuetz
Joe Kane
Kay Coleman
Constance Carroll
Jim Howell
Ben Haddad
Lisa Cuestas
Mel Katz
Ernest Rady
Mark Stuart
Susan Guinn
