MIAMI LEADER:
Rebecca Fishman-Lipsey is a proud Miami girl. As a Miami Leader she finds inspiration in shaping the city and believes that our “inner strength trumps our perfect smile.”

WHY MIAMI?
Miami is alive. Diverse. Beautiful. There’s a reason everyone wants to visit…and for those of us who get to live here, we get to shape a world-class city.

WHAT IS THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE TO SOLVE ON YOUR LIST? WHY?
Don’t make me choose! I want to see Miami become a hub for social innovation. Our city has immense creative power because of our diversity and innovative culture, and we’ve got to leverage it to tackle the most pressing issues of our generation. I’m investing a lot of my time these days in scouting for local leaders who have launched organizations that solve key social issues in innovative ways. People tackling homelessness. Building coding programs for children. Launching genre-bending orchestras. Innovators on a mission, who have great ideas that are worth scaling. I want our city to invest in those leaders…to cultivate a nurturing space for them to build, to scale their ideas, and to impact global change from right here in Miami.

HOW CAN WE SOLVE IT?
We’ve got to invest in our people, and we’ve got to continue to foster an innovative local culture. On my end, I run bootcamp a for high-potential social entrepreneurs, focused on sustainability and growth. I also run a crazy initiative called “100 Great Ideas”, where I facilitate large-scale community brainstorms focused on solving pressing local issues, in an effort to bring thousands of people to the table as local innovators. We have tremendous power as a city to generate solutions to the challenges our communities face. And it’s a blast to try to harness that power.