About
Dr Hochadel is an expert in global cities working with local leaders, entrepreneurs, city and national governments around the world, including the Gulf states, India, ASEAN, East Asia, Africa, and the United Kingdom.
She is Vice President of the Urban Lab at Expo City Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Dr Hochadel is the author of Local Leadership in a Global Era: Policy and Behaviour Change in Cities (2017, Palgrave Macmillan), exploring the changing role local leaders are playing in addressing local challenges through global engagement.
Dr Hochadel has over three decades of experience in politics & public policy and community, government, diplomatic and international relations. She has served as special adviser to Congressional and Presidential candidates across the United States, as well as for British Members of Parliament; and has been a guest lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
Dr Hochadel’s Doctorate is from King’s College London in International Political Economy, and she specialises in enabling local governments and leadership around the world to build globally focused, innovation-based economies.
Dr Hochadel is also certified in Advanced Public Diplomacy from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication; holds a Master’s degree in Psychology, specialising in Diversity Management from Cleveland State University; a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and Chemistry from Ohio University; and an Associateship of King’s College in Theology.
From the opening of her book... “This is a book about cities and how people position themselves in cities whilst living and engaging with a globalised world. I have written the words on these pages, but the project is only possible with the support of many people and those that have come long before me–and have enabled me to be who I am today. In this respect, it is also a story about my people and their cities and journeys in the world starting in Villa Rosa, Italy and culminating (for now) in London, England. Both sets of my great-great grandparents, Pietro Mazzarese & Rosalia Larocca and Guiseppa Lodico & Calogera Macaluso lived in the small village of Villa Rosa, Sicily. My great-grandparents, Antonino Mazzarese & Angelina Lodico, immigrated to New York City in 1910 where my great-grandfather became an immigrant entrepreneur as a vegetable cart busker. From there they followed work in the mining industry to Johnstown, Pennsylvania where my grandmother Rose Mazzarese was born in 1914. In 1954 my grandmother Rose married, Eddie Poraczky, a self-made man who taught himself electrical and structural engineering and architecture. Rose and Eddie instilled a love of learning and education as a way to thrive and survive for me and my brother, Saker Alexander. Without their early teachings, to be curious and seek to understand the world around you, I am certain my life would be much different and less fulfilling. Similarly, my parents, Diane Alexander, Michael Alexander and David Hochadel, all living and working in Youngstown, Ohio, have provided all the love and support a child needs to succeed in the world.”