{"id":1143,"date":"2026-09-28T11:05:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/?post_type=speaker&#038;p=1143"},"modified":"2026-09-28T12:00:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:00:52","slug":"mayor-john-cowen","status":"publish","type":"speaker","link":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/speaker\/mayor-john-cowen\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor John Cowen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Honorable Mayor John Cowen, Jr. is a distinguished public servant whose vision and dedication have significantly impacted the City of Brownsville. He is a 6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">th generation Brownsvillian, who comes from a family with a history of service to the Brownsville community. He is dedicated to advancing the City\u2019s prosperity, competitiveness, and quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr. Cowen was elected Mayor of Brownsville in 2023 after serving as City Commissioner At-Large \u201cA\u201d starting in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In addition to his role as Mayor, Mr. Cowen is President of Cowen Group, Ltd., a company specializing in customs brokerage, warehousing and distribution, real estate, and development. His expertise in economic development and cross-border trade has positioned him as a respected voice at national and international forums, including the Texas Tribune Festival, Yale School of Management, and the North Capital Forum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mayor Cowen serves in key leadership roles across regional and national organizations, including the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative; the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Criminal &amp; Social Justice Standing Committee; the South Texas Alliance of Cities (STAC); the Border Trade Alliance (BTA); the Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization; the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council; and the Brownsville Public Utilities Board (BPUB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A licensed U.S. Customs Broker, Mayor Cowen is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in business administration and finance. Through his work, he continues to champion initiatives that strengthen Brownsville as a hub for business, investment, and binational cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1145,"template":"presenter","meta":{"_acf_changed":true},"event":[74],"speaker_type":[58],"class_list":["post-1143","speaker","type-speaker","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","event-welcome-ceremony","speaker_type-featured-speaker"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/speaker"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"event","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"speaker_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinxvoces.org\/summit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker_type?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}