Arman Hirose-Afshari is a native of San Francisco, CA and earned his B.A. in Criminology, Law and Society from the University of California, Irvine with minors in Conflict Resolution and Civic and Community Engagement. As an undergraduate student, Arman received a grant from the School of Social Ecology to study the federal government’s response to the financial crisis including the effectiveness of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). After graduating, he interned for Global Action to Prevent War, where he both attended and conducted research for meetings of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in New York. Arman has also worked at the W. Haywood Burns Institute where he helped develop initiatives to reduce racial and ethnic disparity in county jails and state prisons across the country. Arman is currently pursuing his Masters of Public Administration at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU. In his current role at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Arman will be conducting policy research on sanctuary cities, as well as strategies for cities to addresses climate change in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.