James Brainard

James R. Brainard
5th Mayor of Carmel, Indiana
In office January 1, 1996  – present
Preceded by	Ted Johnson
Personal details
Born	1954 (age 62–63) Bristol, Indiana
Political party	Republican
Residence	Carmel, Indiana
Alma mater	Butler University, Claude W. Pettit College of Law
Occupation	Lecturer, Politician
Website	http://www.carmel.in.gov
Nickname(s)	Jim

James Brainard is the six-term mayor of Carmel, Indiana, a principal city in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Brainard has served 5 consecutive 4 year terms as the mayor of Carmel spanning 20 years. In the Primary Election of 2015, he won his sixth term. With his victory, Mayor Brainard is one of Indiana’s longest serving mayors. For the past 20 years, he has led a city whose population has grown from 25,000 to more than 80,000. His keynote projects have been the creation of a new downtown called City Center, where a new 1,600-seat concert hall, the Palladium, opened five years ago, the redevelopment of the oldest part of town into a new Arts & Design District and building several more city parks and trails. Brainard is frequently asked to speak around the world about city planning, redevelopment and roadway networks. Under his administration, the City of Carmel has eliminated dozens of traffic signals and dangerous intersections, replacing them with roundabouts. Carmel, with 97 roundabouts as of October 2016, has more roundabouts than any other city in the United States.

Raised in Bristol, Indiana, the son of Jack and Dortha, he was always interested in Music. He considered majoring in it but since he wanted to go to law school, he chose to follow his parents to Butler University because of their history department's reputation. After graduating in 1976, he went on to the law school at Ohio Northern University. He graduated in 1980, having supported himself as a cab driver.

Brainard is a moderate Republican who has earned a national reputation for defending efforts to fight against the effects of climate change. Brainard is serving as a Trustee and co-chair of the Energy Independence and Climate Protection Task Force for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. In November 2013 he was appointed to the Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience by the President of the United States. He traveled in 2015 to four cities in India to represent the United States as part of the US State Department’s speaker’s bureau. Also, in 2015 he was asked to speak on energy and climate policy at the German-American Centers in five German cities. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer for Georgetown University, Butler University, Indiana University and Purdue University among others. He often speaks to city councils and planning commissions across the United States about city design and development.Because of his views, Brainard "was tapped to be on President Obama's Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience. He [also] won first place honors from the 2008 Mayor's Climate Protection Awards Program." In 2013, it was announced he would be "one of 26 local government representatives who make up a new task force to help communities deal with the effects of climate change"

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