FutureFirst SA Announces Appointment of Inaugural Research Fellow

Objective #1: Sound Leadership

In order to achieve the level of success we seek for our city; we first need to ensure that we have the right and proper leadership in place at City Hall. Considering the rising complexity of the job of mayor specifically, and municipal government in general, we need to establish our own objective guidelines for qualifying mayoral candidates.

This will allow us to identify with those future candidates who ultimately show themselves to be objectively qualified for the job. Our belief is that any mayoral candidate would embrace this approach given that it will provide the certainty to San Antonio voters need about their candidates by ensuring they possess the acumen and wherewithal to govern effectively under any circumstance that might present itself to the next mayor of the 7^th largest city in the US.

Objective #2: Unified Policy Development

Just as important as having the properly qualified leadership in place, policy development stands out simply because San Antonio needs a unified plan of policy priorities going into the future. We need to understand what matters the most to our community and what doesn’t matter right now when establishing and prioritizing our priorities as a city.

We convene experts to help guide the research and analysis of policy priorities. The obligation of future-proofing San Antonio for posterity rests on us. It is the obligation of our entire community to define a unified path forward and settle on top policy priorities to champion together. Our entire community is responsible for laying out the vision and priorities for our city, not the individual candidates through their paid consultants and slick polling.

Dr. Varun Rai is a distinguished public policy expert who is leading the organization’s policy research and guiding FutureFirst SA’s mission of driving impactful public policy initiatives for San Antonio. Dr. Rai brings a wealth of experience from his ongoing faculty role at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has held several prestigious roles including Associate Dean for Research at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Director of the University of Texas Energy Institute. Dr. Rai holds a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and has been deeply involved in extensive research on energy innovation and climate policy.

In his role, Dr. Rai also helps to lead initiatives aimed at developing sustainable energy policies that not only address today’s environmental issues but also prepare CPS Energy for future challenges. His work particularly focuses on leveraging his vast knowledge in solar energy advancements and storage technology adoption to foster sustainable growth and innovation for San Antonio’s city owned electric utility.