Local Progress and the Local Progress Impact Lab’s Managing Director of Membership and Organizing, Francesca Menes, remembers Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer.
If there was anybody who embodied collaborative governance and fearless leadership, it was Nancy Metayer. The Local Progress network grieves her passing and remembers Nancy Metayer as not only a dedicated LP member that cultivated our community with joy and compassion, but a dear friend, sister, and confidant.
I first met Nancy when she joined Local Progress back in 2017. It was an instant connection. We bonded over being two Haitian women active in social movements and politics in Florida. Almost ten years ago, she was serving as the Broward County Soil & Water Supervisor, a job that, for some, might mean attending a few meetings every year, but for Nancy, it was real work. After successive hurricane seasons left her community in an acute water crisis, Nancy took this role to help her community do more than just survive, but thrive. She helped spearhead policies for renewable energy adoption, electric vehicle integration, waste reduction, and green infrastructure investment. Nancy was an organizer and a scientist who understood what it meant to share power and organize alongside her community.
Not long after, Nancy made history by becoming the first Haitian American and the first Black woman to serve as city commissioner. She continued to pave the way in 2024, becoming the Vice Mayor of Coral Springs, and again becoming the first Haitian American and Black woman to be elected in the city’s history.
Her work as Vice Mayor focused on systemic and structural transformation of her community, including affordability, protecting democracy, and continuing to champion the just environmental transition her community needed. As Vice Mayor, she created the City’s first Office of Sustainability, institutionalizing climate action and environmental stewardship across municipal operations.
She was a fierce champion of climate justice, recognizing that our relationship to the Earth is inextricably intertwined with the human experience. Which is to say, in Nancy’s words, we must care for and protect the planet.
Beyond her own community, she was a dedicated advocate for local leaders in Florida and across the country. She was an integral member of Local Progress Florida, a leader in our Black Caucus, and a founding member of the Women’s Caucus. She was not only a friend to so many in our network but also deeply influenced the curriculum, policies, and programs our network shares with nearly 1,800 local elected officials across the country.
I consider myself lucky to have been able to spend the last decade with Nancy. As two Haitian women who cared deeply for our community, we became friends and sisters –spending time in the kitchen cooking traditional Haitian meals in my small apartment in Miami Shores, weekends enjoying a rooftop day party in downtown Miami with our girls, listening and dancing to Haitian Konpa, hosting educational TV specials on the census to ensure our community was counted, to late night calls about her future and how she could continue serving her community, and celebrating the birth and the first birthday of my daughter – Nancy was always there. She was passionate about the work, but equally passionate about being in relationship with everyone she encountered. With distinct calmness and loving energy, Nancy did so much for the people of her city, her Haitian community and her loved ones.
As we remember her, I ask that we continue her legacy by leading as Nancy did. Organizing with care, integrity, and passion for people, the environment, and a just society.
