Good afternoon, everyone:

The Brookings Metro program has been one of Kresge’s most creative, stalwart, and effective partners as we seek to bridge between good policy, innovative ideas, and local implementation. They helped us shape and carry out the Shared Prosperity Partnership, played a large role in executing our American Cities convenings over the years, and generally been a powerful thought partner as we imagine the next iteration of urban policy and practice.

Amy Liu has been with Brookings Metro since she co-founded it with Bruce Katz thirty years ago. She took over leadership from Bruce in 2016. In 2022, she was asked to serve as the interim president of the Brookings Institution, where she led with distinction and grace. When Cecilia Rouse was selected as the permanent president in 2024, Amy continued on as a senior advisor. She is now leaving that position to explore her next chapter.

The team at Brookings asked if I might tape some brief reflections about Amy. Here is what I offered. She is an extraordinary talent, a thoughtful and kind human being, and a gift to all of us who have had the privilege of working with her.

Rip

"We in philanthropy have the enormous privilege of continually being presented with brilliant and audacious ways of approaching society’s most gnarly, wicked problems. But as we dig into these big ideas, rarely do we find that they carry with them the essential underpinnings around the "how" — how the idea will land in place . . . how to build a coalition to support and sustain and fund it . . .  how to adjust and pivot when hard reality crashes into the dazzling plan . . . how to keep going when the newness has worn off and you're left with the grind of incremental progress.

Amy’s 30-year career is a living, breathing, transforming example of how to crack that code.

Amy's great gift, and her gift to all of us who work in the field of community and economic development, has been to show time and time again that it is possible to weave together both the big ideas and the hard realities of implementation. She understands that the idea is only as good as the system that receives it and brings it to life – that it is the civics of the work that truly matters.

Her embrace of the power of bridging between rigorous research and hard-nosed community change – whether in post-Katrina New Orleans or Detroit or Fresno . . . her visionary reimagination of economic development through the lens of equity and opportunity . . .  her nuanced sophistication in advocating for cities at the state and national levels . . . . have changed the next generation of urban practice.

One of the wondrously admirable things about Amy is that she has persisted even when the work was not glamorous . . . even when it was clear that progress would realized only a long way down the road.    She has kept the faith and inspired others to do so as well.

The Brookings Amy leaves has been indelibly shaped by her contributions. It's not an exaggeration to say she and the team at Metro have reinvented the model of a think tank by continually reinvigorated its relevance beyond Washington.  

We at Kresge have been honored to be a witness, a supporter, and a partner to this work. And I have had the distinct honor of having watched her growth and her impact from the time she first stepped foot in Brookings.

I’m so glad to be able to say not that I will miss her, but instead that I so look forward to cheering her on in what comes next. It will be spectacular. It will be impactful. It will be Amy."

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