Sister Cities

Sister Cities Programs I am involved in.

Chair of Young Professionals Committee

“A People to People Program”

Bakersfield Sister City is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization that serves as Bakersfield’s link to the international community and especially to the governments and citizens of Bakersfield’s six Sister Cities:

Wakayama, Japan (1961)
Partisan District of Minsk, Belarus (1995)
Cixi, China (1996)
Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico (2005)
Bucheon, Republic of Korea (2006)
Amritsar, India (2011)

The Sister City program provides the opportunity both for cultural, educational, municipal, business, professional and technical exchanges between different cities and for local community development and volunteer action by motivating and empowering private citizens, municipal officials and business leaders to conduct long-term programs of mutual benefit.

Chair of Marketing and Member of Young Professionals Committees

SOCAL Sister Cities promotes understanding and respect among people of different cultures, locally and globally. Citizen diplomats are reaching out, one-on-one, to citizens in other communities in Southern California and around the world. SOCAL oversees 88 Sister Cities from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, organizing conferences to inform, engage, and empower all members with opportunities for citizen diplomacy. It is the largest chapter of Sister Cities International.

Founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Sister Cities International serves as the national membership organization for individual sister cities, counties, and states across the United States. This network unites tens of thousands of citizen diplomats and volunteers in programs in 136 countries on six continents.

Sister Cities International helps advance peace and prosperity through cultural, educational, humanitarian, and economic development efforts, and serves as a hub for institutional knowledge and best practices to benefit citizen diplomats. Sister Cities International empowers individual citizens to become diplomats and represent their community and their country in new and meaningful ways.

We also strive to strengthen the sister cities network through strategic institutional partnerships, grants, programs, and support for our members. We motivate and empower private citizens, municipal officials and business leaders to conduct long-term, mutually beneficial, sister city, county or state relationships.