Washington, DC, and San Diego, CA (April 6, 2021) – The Atlas for Cities (The Atlas), a cutting-edge online community and market intelligence platform for state and local government leaders part of Government Executive Media Group, announced today the appointments of two state and local government veterans Clarence Wittwer as Director of Community and Erik Caldwell as Director of Data Strategy. 

“Both Clarence and Erik come to The Atlas with established backgrounds in innovation and public administration leadership,” said Ellory Monks, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President of The Atlas. “Their expertise perfectly aligns with our mission to further peer-to-peer learning among those working in government.”

Prior to taking on the Director of Community position, Clarence Wittwer worked for nearly 30 years as a leader in local government. Along with serving on the Board of Directors for the Gulf Coast Water Authority, Wittwer was the Director of Public Works for the City of Pearland, Texas, and Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Houston. In his role as Director of Community, Wittwer will manage engagement efforts for local government officials and staff, including securing and executing nonprofit partnerships and other special initiatives like the Local Government New Normal Survey.

Erik Caldwell joins The Atlas after having served as Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer among a career of other leading roles for the City of San Diego. During this time, Caldwell guided implementation of San Diego’s renowned efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and exploration of how technology, renewable energy, mobility, climate resilience, and creative financing can come together to create a more sustainable city. 

As Director of Data Strategy for The Atlas, Caldwell will apply his experience in innovation to set the vision for the data products offered by the organization. In addition to overseeing the development of future data products and data sources, Caldwell will also be responsible for executing the rollout of market intelligence, supporting the systems that predict the behavior of state and local government markets, and managing the team of engineers and analytics specialists.

The welcoming of Caldwell and Wittwer to The Atlas team follows a period of great expansion for the company. Since launching in 2019, The Atlas has built a community of 21,000 local government leaders across 3,400 cities. In December, the startup was acquired by Government Executive Media Group, demonstrating the goals of both organizations to grow and deepen their connections across the public sector and provide cutting edge information to the leaders and agencies operating in the market.

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About Government Executive Media Group

Government Executive Media Group is dedicated to providing federal, state, and local government leaders with trusted and useful insights and best practices to help them advance their organizations’ missions. Through its market-leading publications Government Executive, Nextgov, Defense One, and Route Fifty, GEMG reaches nearly two million government influencers nationwide each month across digital, print, and event offerings.

About The Atlas for Cities

The Atlas for Cities (The Atlas) is an online community for local government officials and staff to browse city case studies, follow trending local government topics, and post questions to colleagues. Since its official launch in April 2019, The Atlas has grown to 3,000+ monthly active city members. Its database includes more than 500 member-published case studies that cover topics as diverse as scooters, homelessness, and green infrastructure. The Atlas has been featured in Route Fifty many times for its work with local government leaders around the world. It is a recent graduate of Silicon Valley’s premier tech accelerator, 500 Startups.

Media Contact
Liz Stein
lstein@govexec.com | (240) 461-3053