John Rutherford Seydel III (John R.), an Atlanta native, is the Director of Sustainability for the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Resilience. Seydel works with department leads within the City of Atlanta, as well as with external community partners, organizations, and leaders to achieve Atlanta’s sustainability and resilience goals.

While in his role, Seydel has worked through two administrations, currently working under Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on sustainability efforts including projects supporting waste diversion, urban agriculture, energy and water efficiency, alternative fuel vehicles, and renewables. The Mayor’s Office of Resilience was tasked to create a resilience strategy, representing a means to address the shocks, stresses, and greatest vulnerabilities in Atlanta based on feedback from thousands of Atlantan stakeholders. Seydel shares the responsibility with the Mayor’s Office of Resilience team to implement the actions listed from the Resilient Atlanta Strategy.