John Giles was elected the 40th Mayor of Mesa, Arizona in August, 2014. Mayor Giles is committed to taking Mesa to the next level with his NextMesa vision. Giles earned degrees from Brigham Young University in Political Science and Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He has managed his own law firm in downtown Mesa for the past 20 years. In 1996, Giles was elected to the Mesa City Council and from 1998 to 2000, he served as Vice Mayor. After his service on the City Council, he remained active in the community and served on 25 boards and committees. Giles has been very involved in interfaith relations throughout the Phoenix-metro area, including serving on the Board of the Arizona Interfaith Movement for the last 8 years. As Mayor, he serves on numerous local and regional boards and committees. Born and raised in Mesa, he graduated from Westwood High School in 1978. Giles is a marathoner and triathlete who has completed two full Ironman competitions, 20 marathons and four Boston Marathons. In 2013, he was named “Mesa Man of the Year.” Giles and his wife Dawn have been married for more than thirty years. They have five children and five grandchildren.

Trinity Simons is the Director of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design. In that capacity, she works with mayors from across the country, assisting them in addressing some of our nation’s most pressing urban planning and design issues. In addition, she speaks about the intersection of design and political activity at events and symposia across the country.
She has served on the Board of Directors of the Association for Community Design, the National Architectural Accrediting Board, the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the American Institute of Architecture Students, and the DC chapter of the AIA. She has a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Arkansas and a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.