Local is Global

Cory Alpert is a democracy researcher at the University of Melbourne.

He previously served in the Biden-Harris White House, and prior to that as a senior advisor to Mayor Steve Benjamin, including his tenure as President of the US Conference of Mayors.

He is a regular columnist for The Age/Sydney Morning Herald and the Straits Times, and a regular contributor on all major Australian television and radio networks.

Paul Costello is a senior program manager for the German Marshall Fund’s Cities program, based in the organization’s Berlin office.

He leads the team’s work on city diplomacy and co-created the City Directors of International Affairs (CDIA) Network, which includes participants from almost ninety cities across Europe and North America.

Paul also works on democracy, disinformation, climate migration, and sustainable local recovery in Ukraine.

Paul has a background in public policy and prior work experience in sustainability and public diplomacy programs. He is fluent in English, French, Spanish, Catalan, and an intermediate level of German.

Paul is a graduate of the Master of Public Policy program at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin and has a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Montreal.

Dr. Lorenzo Kihlgren Grandi is a leading expert in city diplomacy and the Founding Director of the City Diplomacy Lab.

He lectures at Sciences Po–PSIA, École Polytechnique, and Columbia University in Paris, and is the author of City Diplomacy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), the first handbook dedicated to the field.

His work explores how cities and local governments address global and regional challenges such as climate change, migration, rising inequality, and geopolitical tensions.

He has delivered policy recommendations on multilevel global governance to the United Nations and UNESCO, and serves as Scientific Coordinator of the Urban7 International Mayors Summit 2026.

He has also coordinated cities' collective advocacy at major international gatherings such as the UN Forum of Mayors, World Urban Forums, and COP summits.

Lorenzo has designed and led numerous training programs for municipal leaders and curates international knowledge-exchange initiatives with partners including UNEP, UNHCR, WHO, GIZ, and Eurocities.

A multilingual author and speaker, his work has been featured in major academic and policy platforms, including IFRI, IAI, IEMed, and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

He holds a dual PhD in Political Studies from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS, Paris) and LUISS Guido Carli (Rome).

List of publications

Kelly Grigsby joined the MAV as CEO in July 2023 following successful stints as CEO at the City of Hobart and Wyndham City Council.

Kelly's background includes city shaping, organisational transformation, service reform and, as a respected sector-leading CEO, is experienced in intergovernmental influencing at state, national and international levels.

A Senior Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne School of Government, Kelly is also a member of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) State Advisory Council.

Daniel Pejic is a Research Fellow in International Urban Policy at the Melbourne Centre for Cities, University of Melbourne.

He leads the City Diplomacy research and education portfolio and his research explores the role of cities in global affairs, particularly focusing on city diplomacy, cities in multilateral systems and the governance of global challenges such as migration and climate change.

Daniel’s work has been published in leading journals such as Nature Cities, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Studies and the Scientific American.

He is the author of City Agency and Global Governance (Bristol University Press, 2026).

Daniel has significant experience working to translate research into policy having done so for national, state and local governments and international organisations such as the Organization for Economic Development (OECD), UN-Habitat and United Nations University.

He has also worked with leading thinktanks globally and city networks such as C40, Metropolis, Mayors Migration Council, ICLEI, Global Parliament of Mayors and Eurocities.

Ika Trijsburg is Head of Democracy and Diplomacy at Municipal Association of Victoria and Director of Urban Analytics at the ANU Institute for Infrastructure in Society in the Crawford School for Public Policy.

She also holds a Visiting Fellowship with the German Marshall Fund of the United States and is a Research Associate with the Initiative for Peacebuilding at the University of Melbourne.

Ika draws on diverse sector expertise to assist cities to address complex challenges to democracy.

She leads the Disinformation in the City project across five Australian universities and was lead author of the world first Disinformation in the City Response Playbook in 2024, co-created with 40 cross-sector experts globally.

Ika has provided policy guidance to key actors globally including cities, national governments, G7 RRM, Council of Europe and UN-HABITAT.

Ika has a professional background in local government, community health and community sector and has worked in the United States, The Netherlands, Indonesia and Australia.

Caroline Twigg is an experienced international relations and city diplomacy practitioner with a track record of shaping how cities engage on the global stage.

She leads relationships with global cities for the Mayors Migration Council, working with mayors and their advisors so they can influence international processes, access resources, and lead locally and globally on migration and inclusivity.

Based in the UK, Caroline authored Bristol's first international strategy, positioning the city as a confident and purposeful global actor.

She led Core Cities UK's collective international work, driving collaboration across 11 of the UK's largest cities to speak with a unified voice to national government and European institutions.

A respected voice in subnational diplomacy, she brings strategic thinking and practical experience to the most pressing questions in urban international affairs.

Earlier in her career, Caroline was a start-up Director at the Future Cities Catapult, established the WBCSD's first international office in Delhi, and holds degrees from Cambridge, Forum for the Future, and Oxford.