The National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD) is a non-partisan organization founded in the United States to promote healthy and respectful dialogue across political and ideological divides. It was established in response to the growing polarization and decline in civil discourse in American politics and society. The NICD works to achieve its mission through various programs and initiatives that encourage respectful communication, critical thinking, and the appreciation of diverse perspectives. CommonSense American is one of those programs. Click Here to learn more about NICD.
National NICD Advisory Board
Founding Chairman
George H.W. Bush And Bill Clinton
The National Institute for Civil Discourse was established in the wake of the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, a moment that underscored the urgent need for greater civility in public discourse. The Institute takes great pride in its esteemed history, particularly in the honor of having Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton serve as its first Honorary Co-Chairs. Their leadership reflected a bipartisan commitment to fostering respectful dialogue and collaboration across political divides, embodying the core values of the Institute. This remarkable partnership set a strong foundation for the organization’s ongoing efforts to promote civility in public discourse and bridge divides in American society.
Born in Aberdeen, South Dakota, Tom Daschle graduated from South Dakota State University in 1969. Upon graduation, he entered the United States Air Force where he served as an intelligence officer in the Strategic Air Command until mid-1972.
Following completion of his military service, Senator Daschle served on the staff of Senator James Abourezk. In 1978, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served for eight years. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Senate and eight years later became its Democratic Leader. Senator Daschle is one of the longest serving Senate Democratic Leaders in history and the only one to serve twice as both Majority and Minority Leader. During his tenure, Senator Daschle navigated the Senate through some of its most historic economic and national security challenges. In 2003, he chronicled some of these experiences in his book, Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever.
Today, Senator Daschle is a Senior Policy Advisor to the law firm of DLA Piper where he provides clients with strategic advice on public policy issues such as climate change, energy, health care, trade, financial services and telecommunications. Since leaving the Senate, he has distinguished his expertise in health care through the publication of Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis and the recently published, GETTING IT DONE: How Obama and Congress Finally Broke the Stalemate to Make Way for Health Care Reform. Daschle has continued to lead on climate change and renewable energy, as well as a variety of other public policy challenges.
In 2007, he joined with former Majority Leaders George Mitchell, Bob Dole, and Howard Baker to create the Bipartisan Policy Center, an organization dedicated to finding common ground on some of the pressing public policy challenges of our time. Senator Daschle serves on the board of the Center for American Progress, acts as the Vice Chair of the National Democratic Institute, and is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
He also is a member of the Health Policy and Management Executive Council at the Harvard School of Public Health in addition to the Global Policy Advisory Council for the Health Worker Migration Initiative. He is a member of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation Board of Trustees, the GE Healthymagination Advisory Board; the National Integrated Foodsystem Advisory Board; and the Committee on Collaborative Initiatives at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In addition, Senator Daschle’s board memberships include the Blum Foundation; the Energy Future Coalition, the Committee to Modernize Voter Registration; the US Global Leadership Coalition Advisory Council and the Advisory Committee on the Trust for National Mall.
Christine Todd Whitman is the President of The Whitman Strategy Group (WSG), a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues. WSG offers a comprehensive set of solutions to problems facing businesses, organizations, and governments; they have been at the forefront of helping leading companies find innovative solutions to environmental challenges.
Governor Whitman served in the cabinet of President George W. Bush as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from January of 2001 until June of 2003. She was the 50th Governor of the State of New Jersey, serving as its first woman governor from 1994 until 2001.
As Governor, Christie Whitman earned praise from both Republicans and Democrats for her commitment to preserve a record amount of New Jersey land as permanent green space. She was also recognized by the Natural Resources Defense Council as having instituted the most comprehensive beach monitoring system in the nation. As EPA Administrator, she promoted common-sense environmental improvements such as watershed-based water protection policies. She championed regulations requiring non-road diesel engines to reduce sulfur emissions by more than 95 percent. During her tenure, the Agency was successful in passing and implementing landmark brownfields legislation to promote the redevelopment and reuse of “brownfields”, previously contaminated industrial sites.
She is the author of a New York Times best seller called “It’s My Party Too”, which was published in January of 2005 and released in paperback in March 2006.
Governor Whitman serves on the Board of Directors of Texas Instruments Inc. and United Technologies Corporation, and formerly served on the Board of S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc. She is a member of the Nuclear Matters Advisory Council and Terrestrial Energy’s International Advisory Board. She holds an Executive Masters Professional Director Certification from the American College of Corporate Directors.
Governor Whitman also serves a number of non-profit organizations including as Chairman of the American Security Project and Vice-Chairman of the Trustees of the Eisenhower Fellowships. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Responsible Shale Development. She co-chairs the Joint Ocean Commission Initiative Leadership Council and is on the Advisory Boards of the Corporate Eco Forum and The Northeast Maglev (TNEM). She serves as an advisor to the Aspen Rodel Fellowship program and on the O’Connor Judicial Selection Advisory Committee at the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System. She is a member of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University and a member of the National Advisory Committees for the Women’s Coalition for Common Sense and the Presidential Climate Action Project.
Prior to becoming Governor, she was the President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities and served on the Somerset County board of Chosen Freeholders.
Governor Whitman holds a BA from Wheaton College in Norton, MA, and was married for 41 years to the late John R. Whitman. She has two children and seven grandchildren.
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott represented the state of Mississippi in the Senate from 1989 to 2007. As the House Republican whip in 1981, Lott forged the bipartisan alliance that enacted President Ronald Reagan’s economic recovery program and his national security initiatives. He became the Senate’s 16th majority leader in 1996 and, along with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, was instrumental in passing the historic welfare reform bill of 1996. In 2006, Lott was elected Senate Republican whip for the second time in his career.
Lott served in the House of Representatives from 1973 to 1989. He served in the House Judiciary Committee as a freshman and served as House Republican whip from 1981 to 1989. He is the only member of Congress to hold this position in both the House and Senate.
After retiring from the Senate, Lott founded the Breaux Lott Leadership Group with former Senator John Breaux, a partnership offering strategic advice, consulting, and lobbying. In 2008, Lott was named honorary patron of the University Philosophical Society at Trinity College, Dublin. Lott currently serves as a senior fellow for the Bipartisan Policy Center and co-chairs its Commission on Political Reform and Energy Project.
He and fellow NICD Co-Chair Tom Daschle wrote Crisis Point: Why We Must—and How We Can—Overcome Our Broken Politics in Washington and Across America.
NICD Advisory Board Members
Kevin Beckford is the co-founder of The Hustlers Guild, a nonprofit that uses hip hop to expand access and opportunity to Black and Latinx youth in the innovation space. He also serves as the advancement manager for Urban Assembly where he supports policy and external outreach for the public school network.
A first-generation college graduate whose experiences living under the poverty line in urban America has had a personal impact, Kevin is committed to dismantling white supremacy in education and workforce development. With the Hustlers Guild, over 1,500 students in the Washington, D.C. area have been exposed to coding and workforce enrichment opportunities at organizations such as Facebook, Google, Sony Music, and Roc Nation.
From 2014-2016, Kevin worked as the domestic policy portfolio lead in the White House Presidential Correspondence Office and as a special advisor to Secretary Julian Castro at the U. S. Department of Housing and Development. While working for the White House, Kevin successfully advocated for more inclusive and responsive communication practices concerning race relations and police brutality.
Prior to serving as a political appointee under the Obama administration, Kevin taught African American history to high school students in Philadelphia. Kevin earned his B.A. in African American Studies and Political Science from Yale University, his MPhil. in African Studies from the University of Cambridge, and his MSc. in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
“Donna Brazile is hard to ignore, given her penchant for candor and 20 years’ experience in the making of Democratic presidential candidates. She feels that getting a candidate elected takes the same artful mix as cooking up a fine gumbo. And her political opinions are as fiery as Tabasco.” –The New York Times
Veteran Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile is an adjunct professor, author, syndicated columnist, television political commentator, Vice Chair of Voter Registration and Participation at the Democratic National Committee, and former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute. Last, but never least, she is a native of New Orleans.
Aside from working for the full recovery of her beloved New Orleans, Ms. Brazile’s passion is encouraging young people to vote, to work within the system to strengthen it, and to run for public office.
A New Orleans native, Ms. Brazile began her political career at the age of nine when she worked to elect a City Council candidate who had promised to build a playground in her neighborhood; the candidate won, the swing sets was installed, and a lifelong passion for political progress was ignited. Four decades and innumerable state and local campaigns later, Ms. Brazile has worked on every presidential campaign from 1976 through 2000, when she served as campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore, becoming the first African-American woman to manage a presidential campaign.
Author of the best-selling memoir Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics, Ms. Brazile is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, a syndicated newspaper columnist for United Media, a columnist for Ms. Magazine and O Magazine, and an on-air contributor to CNN, NPR, and ABC, where she regularly appears on This Week.
In August 2009, O, The Oprah Magazine chose Ms. Brazile as one of its 20 “remarkable visionaries” for the magazine’s first-ever O Power List. In addition, she was named among the 100 Most Powerful Women by Washingtonian magazine, Top 50 Women in America by Essence magazine, and received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s highest award for political achievement. A former member of the board of directors of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, responsible for leading the state’s rebuilding process in the aftermath of two catastrophic hurricanes, Ms. Brazile is the proud recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Louisiana State University and Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically Black, Catholic institution of higher education in the United States.
Ms. Brazile is founder and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a general consulting, grassroots advocacy, and training firm based in Washington, DC.
John Bridgeland is Founder & CEO of Civic, a social enterprise firm in Washington, D.C. He is also Co-Founder and CEO of the COVID Collaborative, a national platform that marshals top leaders and institutions in health, education and the economy to work with state and local leaders to combat COVID. He is also the Co-Founder of ACT NOW, a ground-up effort to re-envision policing and public safety across 14 communities representing the diversity of the United States. He is also Vice Chairman of UNITE, a national platform that brings leaders across sectors and political parties together to tackle public challenges. Bridgeland is Vice Chair of Service Year Alliance at The Aspen Institute to make a service year a common expectation and opportunity for all 18-28 year olds, Co-Convener of GradNation to reach a 90 percent high school graduation rate by 2020, and Vice Chairman of Malaria No More, a nonprofit working to end malaria deaths in Africa.
Previously, Bridgeland was appointed by President Obama to serve on the White House Council for Community Solutions. He also served as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, Assistant to the President of the United States, and first Director of the USA Freedom Corps after 9/11 under President George W. Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law and has given commencement addresses at the College of William & Mary, Johns Hopkins University, Saint Anselm College, Averett University, Hamline University, and Ripon College. In addition, he founded Tennis for America in 2020 with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which awarded him their “Lifetime Achievement Award,” presented by Wimbledon Champion Stan Smith.
Sylvia M. Burwell is American University's 15th president and the first woman to serve as president. Burwell has held two cabinet positions in the United States government. She served as the 22nd secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services from 2014 to 2017. During her tenure, she managed a trillion-dollar department that includes the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Food and Drug Administration, and the Medicaid and Medicare programs; oversaw the successful implementation of the Affordable Care Act; and led the department’s responses to the Ebola and Zika outbreaks. Before that, she served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, working with Congress to negotiate a two-year budget deal following the 2013 government shutdown. In both roles she was known as a leader who worked successfully across the aisle and focused on delivering results for the American people.
Her additional government experience is extensive and includes roles as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, deputy chief of staff to the president, chief of staff to the secretary of the Treasury, and special assistant to the director of the National Economic Council.
Burwell has held leadership positions at two of the largest foundations in the world. She served 11 years at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, including roles as the chief operating officer and president of the Global Development Program. She then served as president of the Walmart Foundation and ran its global Women’s Economic Empowerment efforts. Her private sector experience includes service on the Board of Directors of MetLife.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
A second-generation Greek American, Burwell is a native of Hinton, West Virginia. She and her husband Stephen Burwell are the parents of two young children.
Katie Couric is an award-winning journalist, author of the best-selling book The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons From Extraordinary Lives, and popular TV personality. She also writes a monthly column for Glamour magazine, which features an interview with a dynamic female role model every month, and is active on Twitter, @katiecouric. Couric served as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, a 60 Minutes correspondent and anchor of CBS News primetime specials for the past 5 years.
During the last four and a half years, Couric has reported on and anchored newscasts and broadcasts for some of the biggest domestic and international stories and has conducted numerous exclusive newsmaker interviews including the historic 2008 Presidential election. Couric has been honored with many awards including the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in both 2008 and 2009, Walter Cronkite Award for Special Achievement for “National Impact on the 2008 Campaign,” the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media, and the Alfred I. duPont Award for political reporting for her 2008 interviews with Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Couric also conducted two special series of in-depth and incisive interviews during the Presidential campaign for the CBS Evening News series “Primary Questions” and “Presidential Questions.”
Couric has developed several online content initiatives including her notebook and YouTube channel, among others. Couric is also a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, and in March 2000, Couric launched the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance with the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Lilly Tartikoff to fund cutting-edge research in colorectal cancer and generate awareness about the life-saving value of screening.
Couric graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a focus on American studies.
Former Congressman Artur Davis represented Alabama's 7th District from 2003 to 2010. As a member of the Ways and Means, Judiciary, and Financial Services Committees, Davis built a record of bipartisan accomplishment that led to Esquire Magazine recognizing him as one of the 10 Best Members of Congress in 2008. After an unsuccessful run for Governor of Alabama in 2010, Davis returned to the legal and public policy arena. He has consulted with national organizations advocating in state legislatures, run the state of Alabama's legal services program, and currently represents victims of employment discrimination in federal court.
Mickey Edwards is Vice President of the Aspen Institute and serves as Director of the Aspen Institute’s Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership. Mr. Edwards was a Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma from 1977 to 1992, serving as a member of the House Republican Leadership and as a member of the Appropriations and Budget Committees. After leaving the Congress, he taught for 11 years at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was the John Quincy Adams Lecturer in Legislative Practice, and for five years as a lecturer at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Maryland Law School and at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School.
Early in his career he was a newspaper reporter and editor, worked in advertising and public relations, and served as a magazine editor. Mr. Edwards co-chaired task forces on judicial independence and the war power, and served on the American Bar Association Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the American Society of International Law Task Force on the International Criminal Court. He and former White House Counsel Lloyd Cutler co-chaired Citizens for Independent Courts, a task force dedicated to preserving judicial independence, and he and Federal Judge Abner Mikva co-chaired a task force on the constitutional amendment process.
Mr. Edwards is the author or co-author of four books, including "Reclaiming Conservatism," published in 2008 by Oxford University Press. His latest book, "The Parties Versus the People," was published by Yale University Press. He has been a regular political commentator on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” and a weekly political columnist for The Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, as well as other major newspapers. His articles have appeared in magazines ranging from The Atlantic to The Public Interest. Mr. Edwards is a frequent public speaker and has been a guest on many of the nation’s leading radio and television news and opinion broadcasts. He received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Oklahoma and a J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law.
Gabrielle Giffords represented Arizona’s 8 Congressional district form 2007 - 2012. She is the third woman in Arizona’s history to be elected the US Congress and the youngest woman elected to the Arizona State Senate. As a Member of the House, she participated in the Blue Dog Democrat Coalition and the New Democrat Coalition. Giffords won in 2006 against Republican Randy Graf. In 2008, she won reelection against Republican Tim Bee, a childhood classmate and former colleague from the Arizona State Senate. In 2010, she once again won reelection against Republican and Tea Party candidate Jesse Kelly.
While in Congress, Giffords voted in favor of raising the minimum wage, endorsing the 9/11 commission recommendations, new rules for the House of Representative targeting ethical issues, the repeal of $14 billion of subsidies to big oil reserves and for subsidies for renewable energy. She has also worked tirelessly for border control and veteran affairs.
Prior to her time as a Congresswoman, she was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives from 2001-2003 and the Arizona Senate from 2003-2005. Aside from her political work, Giffords worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City and as CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local automotive chain owned by her father.
Giffords is a native Tucsonan. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology and Latin American History from Scripps College in 1993. Giffords then spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico. She also graduated with a Master’s degree in Regional Planning from Cornell University in 1996. She is married to US Navy Captain and NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.
Giffords was a victim of the January 8 shooting in Tucson, Arizona. She has made great progress in recovering with the help from friends, family and supporters. She resigned from the US Congress on January 25, 2012 to focus on further recovery.
Dan Glickman is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Congressional Program, a nongovernmental, nonpartisan educational program for members of the United States Congress. The program provides lawmakers with a stronger grasp of critical public policy issues by convening high-level conferences and breakfast meetings in which legislators are brought together with internationally-recognized academics, experts and leaders to study the issues and explore various policy alternatives.
He served as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from March 1995 until January 2001. Under his leadership, the Department administered farm and conservation programs; modernized food safety regulations; forged international trade agreements to expand U.S. markets; and improved its commitment to fairness and equality in civil rights.
Before his appointment as Secretary of Agriculture, Glickman served for 18 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the 4th Congressional District of Kansas. During that time, he was a member of the House Agriculture Committee, including six years as chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over federal farm policy issues. Moreover, he was an active member of the House Judiciary Committee; chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; and was a leading congressional expert on general aviation policy.
Glickman is also a Senior Fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The BPC was formed in 2007 by former Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell to develop and promote bipartisan solutions to the country’s problems and to promote civility in government.
Glickman served as Chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. (MPAA) from 2004 until 2010.
Prior to joining the MPAA, he was the Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002-2004).
Before his election to Congress in 1976, Glickman served as president of the Wichita School Board; was a partner in the law firm of Sargent, Klenda and Glickman; and worked as a trial attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He received his Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from The George Washington University. He is a member of the Kansas and District of Columbia Bars.
Glickman is also on the board of directors of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange; Communities in Schools; Food Research and Action Center, a domestic anti-hunger organization; National 4-H Council; and the Center for U.S. Global Engagement, where he is Chair of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. He co-chairs an initiative of eight foundations, administered by the Meridian Institute, to look at long-term implications of food and agricultural policy. He chairs an initiative at the Institute of Medicine on accelerating progress on childhood obesity. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a senior fellow of the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, the Council on American Politics at The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University, and is Vice-Chair of the World Food Program-USA. He is the co-chair of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' global agricultural development initiative. He is the author of “Farm Futures,” in Foreign Affairs (May/June 2009).
Dr. Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer was the first Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, an organization that works to reduce political dysfunction and incivility in our political system. As a leader in the field of deliberative democracy, she works to restore our democracy to reflect the intended vision of our founding fathers.
Dr. Lukensmeyer previously served as Founder and President of AmericaSpeaks, an award-winning nonprofit organization that promoted nonpartisan initiatives to engage citizens and leaders through the development of innovative public policy tools and strategies. During her tenure, AmericaSpeaks engaged more than 200,000 people and hosted events across all 50 states and throughout the world. Dr. Lukensmeyer formerly served as Consultant to the White House Chief of Staff from 1993-94 and on the National Performance Review where she steered internal management and oversaw government-wide reforms. She was the Chief of Staff to Ohio Governor Richard F. Celeste from 1986-91, becoming the first woman to serve in this capacity. She earned her PhD in Organizational Behavior from Case Western Reserve University and has completed postgraduate training at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.
Frank Luntz is one of the most honored communication professionals in America today. “The Nostradamus of pollsters,” said Sir David Frost, while Time magazine named him one of “50 of America’s most promising leaders aged 40 and under,” and Newsweek magazine identified him as No. 24 on their American Power Elite survey. He finished 87th in a Time magazine global poll of the “most influential people in the world.” Frank was named one of the four “Top Research Minds” by Business Week, “the hottest pollster” by The Boston Globe, “pollster extraordinaire” by the BBC, and was a winner of The Washington Post’s coveted “Crystal Ball” award for being the most accurate pundit, and “the person you turn to for the truth” by Bloomberg News. His focus groups have become so influential that Barack Obama had this to say following the PBS presidential debate: “When Frank Luntz invites you to talk to his focus group, you talk to his focus group.”
More media outlets have turned to Dr. Luntz to understand the hopes and fears of Americans than to any other political pollster; he is also among the most quoted pollsters globally. The “Instant Response” focus group technique he pioneered has been profiled on 60 Minutes, Good Morning America (on Election Day), the BBC, and on PBS’s award-winning Frontline. He has been a guest on virtually every talk show in America, including multiple appearances on Meet the Press, Nightline, The Today Show, HBO, The PBS News Hour, Face the Nation, Good Morning Britain, and Bill Maher.
For more than a decade, Frank was the “Focus Group Czar” for Fox News. In both 2011 and 2015, Frank was the only non-journalist invited to host a debate of the GOP presidential contenders. Frank also served for five years as a news analyst for CBS News, focusing on corporate and business communications, moving to ABC News in 2017. He was a consultant to the NBC hit show The West Wing as well as the popular CBS drama Bull.
Dr. Luntz was a debate, election day and impeachment commentator on Bloomberg, CNBC and the BBC in 2020, CBS in 2016, Fox News in 2008 and 2012, and MSNBC in 2000. His reoccurring segments on MSNBC/CNBC, “100 Days, 1000 Voices” won the coveted Emmy Award in 2001. Frank has conducted focus groups for all three broadcast networks, two of the three cable news channels and PBS, as well as for The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The Times of London, the LA Times, and the BBC. He has worked in every British General Election from 1997 through 2015 and in the Brexit referendum, where he conducted the most accurate final poll of UK voters.
Dr. Luntz has written, supervised, and conducted more than 2,500 surveys, focus groups, ad tests, and dial sessions for more than 50 Fortune 500 companies and CEOs in more than two dozen countries and six continents over the past 30 years. His political and communication knowledge and skills are recognized globally, and he has served as a consultant and commentator in Canada, Britain, Israel, the UAE, Ireland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, and Ukraine. Over the past two years, Frank has visited more than a half-dozen countries on behalf of the U.S. State Department.
Frank is the author of three New York Times Best Sellers. Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say it’s What People Hear, explores the art and science of language creation. His second book, What Americans Really Want … Really, addresses the private hopes, dreams and fears of the American people; it reached No. 18 on the bestseller list. His most recent book, WIN, reached No. 2 on Amazon and No. 3 on The New York Times Business Best Seller List in its first month in print. He has written about the power of language for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, The Times of London, The Washington Post, and Time.
From 1989 until 1996, he was an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also taught at Harvard University and George Washington University. Since 2018, he has taught two courses a year at NYU Abu Dhabi, and he is visiting professor for USC in 2021. Frank graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with an honors BA degree in history and political science. He was awarded a Thouron Fellowship and received his Doctorate in Politics at the age of 25 from Oxford University. He spoke for 24 straight hours as part of the Oxford Union Society’s Guinness World Book of Records debate. In 1993, Frank was named a Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, the second-youngest individual ever to receive this honor at that time.
On January 7, 2011, the John F. Kennedy School of Government announced that Trey Grayson, then completing his second term as Secretary of State in Kentucky, was named Director of the Institute of Politics. Grayson began service as Director on January 31, succeeding Interim Director John C. Culver.
Secretary of State Trey Grayson was elected to office in November of 2003 in his first run for political office. At the time of his election he was the youngest Secretary of State in the country. In 2007, he became one of only two Republican state-wide elected constitutional officers to win a second consecutive term in modern history. After taking office, Grayson quickly became a national leader in elections, civics, business services, and government innovation. He served as President of the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) in 2009-2010.
A product of the Kenton County public school system, Secretary Grayson was inducted into the Kentucky Association for Academic Competition Hall of Fame for his achievements in the Governor’s Cup and other academic competitions at Dixie Heights High School. Grayson was a 1989 Governor’s Scholar and later served as President of the Program’s Alumni Association.
Secretary Grayson graduated with honors from Harvard College (A.B., Government, 1994) and from the University of Kentucky (J.D. 1998, M.B.A., 1998) where he was one of the first Kentucky MBA scholars and one of the first two Bert Combs Scholars, the College of Law’s top scholarship. He received one of the inaugural University of Kentucky College of Law Young Professional Awards. Prior to his election, he was an attorney with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald and Keating, Muething & Klekamp, where he focused on estate planning and corporate law.
Grayson is married to the former Nancy Humphrey of Lexington. Mrs. Grayson served the Commonwealth in a number of community organizations such as the Boone County Public Library Board of Trustees, the Family Nurturing Center, the United Way Impact Council for Children Prepared for Kindergarten, and Kindervelt, which raises funding for Cincinnati Children's Hospital. She also served on the Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, and was a member of Leadership Northern Kentucky (Class of 2009).
Lee H. Hamilton is the Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University and one of the nation's foremost experts on Congress and representative democracy.
Hamilton represented Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years, establishing himself as a leading figure on foreign policy, intelligence and national security. In the years since he left office in 1999, he has continued to play a leading role in public affairs.
Hamilton served as Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission. He co-chaired the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that assessed the situation in Iraq and in 2006 made recommendations on U.S. policy there. Until recently, he served as Co-Chair of the U.S. Department of Energy's Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future with General Brent Scowcroft.
Among his published works are two books on the legislative branch - "How Congress Works and Why You Should Care" and "Strengthening Congress." He writes twice-monthly commentaries about Congress and what individuals can do to make representative democracy work better. A leader in the growing national movement to expand and improve civic education, he serves as a Co-Chairman of the Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.
Hamilton was born in 1931 in Daytona Beach, Florida. His family relocated to Tennessee and then Evansville, Indiana. He graduated from DePauw University and Indiana University School of Law. A former high school and college basketball star, he was inducted to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. Before his 1964 election to Congress, he practiced law in Chicago and Columbus, Indiana. He has three children and five grandchildren.
Joseph (Joe) P. Kalt is the Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He joined the faculty at Harvard in 1978 and is a specialist in the economics of industrial organization, antitrust, economic development, and government regulation. In addition to his academic positions, Professor Kalt serves as a Senior Economist with Compass Lexecon, a subsidiary of FTI Consulting. He has also served as a mediator and arbitrator in various private and intergovernmental disputes, and as an advisor to international governments. In 1987, he founded (with Stephen Cornell) the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development. He continues to serve as the Project’s co-director and is a principal author of The State of the Native Nations: Conditions under U.S. Policies of Self-Determination (with the Harvard Project) and many other books. Professor Kalt received several awards including the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development’s First American Leadership Award in 2005 and along with Stephen Cornell, the National Congress of American Indians Public Service Leadership Award in 2010. Professor Kalt is chair of the Board of Directors of the Fort Apache Heritage Foundation, and is a member of the National Advisory Board of The Big Sky Institute, the Board of Directors of The Sonoran Institute, and the Honorary Advisory Board of the Centro Artistico y Cultural de Huachinera, Sonora, Mexico. Professor Kalt received his B.A. (1973) in economics from Stanford University, and his Ph.D. (1980) and M.A. (1977) in economics from the University of California at Los Angeles.
H. Brinton (Brint) Milward is the Director of the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. He holds the Providence Service Corporation Chair in Public Management. He has been president of two national associations: the Public Management Research Association and the National Association of Schools of Public Administration and Affairs. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and in 2010 won the Distinguished Research Award given by the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and the American Society for Public Administration for a "coherent body of work over a career." Dr. Milward's research interests revolve around networks and collaboration. The focus of his work has been on understanding how to efficiently and effectively manage networks of organizations that jointly produce public services like health and human services. He has conducted studies of what happens when governments privatize public services, which he terms "governing the hollow state." Since 9/11 he has studied illegal and covert networks that pursue grievances or greed. His articles on "Dark Networks," have been widely cited for their application of network analysis and management theory to terrorist networks, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and other illegal activities. Milward received his B.A. from University of Kentucky and his Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
Jim Pitofsky serves as the Managing Director, Strategic Alliances for the $3B+ John Templeton Foundation. He plays a vital role in the creation and management of new strategies for connecting and engaging with entrepreneurial philanthropic and business leaders around the world. His primary goals are to increase enthusiasm and engagement among highly influential people in specific areas already supported by the Foundation’s programmatic activities and to forge mutually beneficial alliances.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Mr. Pitofsky was Chief Strategy Officer at the $500M+ Arizona Community Foundation (ACF) where he oversaw strategic planning and execution, public policy, education, and strategic alliances, as well as ACF’s Center for Business Philanthropy. Prior to that, he served as the ACF’s Director of Education where he led education grantmaking and advised high net-worth donors on their education grantmaking. Mr. Pitofsky has also served as the Vice President and Acting President of the Echoing Green Foundation, supporting hundreds of social entrepreneurs around the world; the Deputy Director of the National Youth Leadership Council, one of the leading service-learning organizations in the U.S. and the world; and the Executive Director for Hands on Bay Area, the leading manager of corporate volunteerism in the Bay Area. Additionally, Mr. Pitofsky founded and directed an organization that worked internationally to create school/community and business/education partnerships and was adopted by the National Association of Partners in Education. During that time, he also served as the elected President of the National and Community Service Coalition and led their federal public policy efforts.
Throughout his career, Mr. Pitofsky has worked closely with CEOs, foundation executives, philanthropists, celebrities, policy-makers, and nonprofit leaders to advance philanthropy, education reform, leadership development, social entrepreneurship, community service, and racial and economic equity. He has been a speaker at the World Economic Forum (Davos), FORTUNE Magazine CEO Forum, the White House Conference on Philanthropy, the Milken Institute and hundreds of other convenings of corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit leaders. He has also organized meetings around the world in places such as the White House and the Vatican. Mr. Pitofsky earned his B.A. from Stanford University and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a Public Interest Law Scholar.
Robert B. Reich has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He also served on President-Elect Obama's transition advisory board.
He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages; the best-sellers The Future of Success and Locked in the Cabinet; and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. Mr. Reich is co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine. His commentaries can be heard weekly on public radio's "Marketplace."
In 2003, Reich was awarded the prestigious Vaclav Havel Vision Foundation Prize, by the former Czech president, for his pioneering work in economic and social thought. In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the ten most successful cabinet secretaries of the century. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.
Scott B. Simon is one of America’s most admired writers and broadcasters. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.
His radio show, NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon, has been called by the Washington Post, “the most literate, witty, moving, and just plain interesting news show on any dial,” and by Brett Martin of Time-Out New York “the most eclectic, intelligent two hours of broadcasting on the airwaves.” Scott has won every major award in broadcasting, including the Peabody, the Emmy, the Columbia-DuPont, the Ohio State Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Sidney Hillman Award. He received the Presidential End Hunger Award for his coverage of the Ethiopian civil war and famine, and a special citation from the Peabody Awards for his weekly essays, which were cited as “consistently thoughtful, graceful, and challenging.” He has also received the Barry M. Goldwater Award from the Human Rights Fund. Recently, he was awarded the Studs Terkel Award.
He has hosted many television specials, including the PBS’s State of Mind, and Voices of Vision. The Paterson Project, won a national Emmy, as did his two-hour special from the Rio earth summit meeting. He co-anchored PBS’s Millennium 2000 coverage in concert with the BBC, and has co-hosted the televised Columbia-DuPont Awards. He also became familiar to viewers in Great Britain as host of the continuing BBC series, Eyewitness, and a special on the White House press corps. He has appeared as a guest and commentator on all major networks, including BBC, NBC, CNN, and ESPN.
Scott has contributed articles to the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, the Sunday Times of London, The Guardian, and Gourmet among other publications, and won a James Beard Award for his story, “Conflict Cuisine” in Gourmet. He has received numerous honorary degrees.
Sports Illustrated called his personal memoir Home and Away, “extraordinary…uniformly superb…a memoir of such breadth and reach that it compares favorably with Fredrick Exley’s A Fan’s Notes.” It was at the top of several non-fiction bestseller lists. His book, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball, was Barnes and Nobles’ Sports Book of the Year. His novel, Pretty Birds, the story of two teenage girls in Sarajevo during the siege, received rave reviews, Scott Turow calling it, “the most auspicious fiction debut by a journalist of note since Tom Wolfe’s. . . always gripping, always tender, and often painfully funny. It is a marvel of technical finesse, close observation, and a perfectly pitched heart.” Windy City, his second novel, is a political comedy set in the Chicago City Council. Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other, an essay about the joys of adoption, was published in August 2010.
Scott is a native of Chicago and the son of comedian Ernie Simon and Patricia Lyons Simon. His hobbies are books, theater, ballet, British comedy, Mexican cooking and “bleeding for the Chicago Cubs.” Simon appeared as Mother Ginger in the Ballet Austin production of The Nutcracker. He is married to Caroline Richard, a fan of the Yankees and the French national soccer team. They have two daughters, Elise and Lina.
Kirk Emerson is Professor of Practice in Collaborative Governance in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona. Emerson was the founding director of the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution of the Udall Foundation, is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and serves on the board of the National Institute for Civil Discourse. She is the co-author with Tina Nabatchi of Collaborative Governance Regimes (Georgetown University Press, 2015) and her research focuses on collaborative governance and conflict management, particularly related to public lands management, climate change, and border security.
With a distinguished record of public service spanning nearly forty years, Senator Snowe holds the distinction of being only the fourth woman in U.S. history to be elected to both houses of Congress – and the first woman to serve in both houses of a state legislature and both houses of Congress.
A tireless advocate in the U.S. Senate on behalf of Maine, Senator Snowe has garnered national recognition as a consensus-builder. The first Republican woman to secure a full-term seat on the powerful Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Snowe is also the current Ranking Member and former Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Additionally, she sits on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
In focusing her attention on key issues that matter to Maine and America, such as economic growth and deficit reduction, Senator Snowe is widely-regarded as a results-oriented leader and problem solver. Time and again, she has been a vigilant champion for legislative breakthroughs enacted into law, including the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. She is also a recognized leader on the challenges of energy independence and job creation. In her position on the Small Business Committee, Senator Snowe has taken the lead on introducing common sense to the federal regulatory structure, working to require federal agencies to regularly review regulations to ensure that they are fair, effective, and efficient use of government resources.
With a can-do spirit and work-ethic emblematic of the great State of Maine she is so proud to represent in the United States Senate, Senator Snowe is widely regarded as one of the leading champions of bridging the partisan divide to solve the enormous challenges confronting the people of Maine and the nation, especially during these difficult economic times. In 2008, Esquire magazine cited Senator Snowe as one of the Ten Best Members of Congress – and, in 2006, Time named her one of America's 10 Best Senators.
Senior Advisors
ROBERT C. BORDONE is an internationally-recognized expert, author, speaker, and teacher in negotiation, conflict resolution, mediation, and facilitation. Currently a Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School and the Founder and Principal of The Cambridge Negotiation Institute, he served on the full-time faculty at Harvard Law School for more than twenty years as the Thaddeus R. Beal Clinical Professor of Law, Director, and Founder of the Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program before launching his consulting, advisory, speaking, and training practice. He has also taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Visiting Clinical Professor of Practice at Georgetown University Law Center and the Boston University School of Theology.
At Harvard Law School, Bob led the school’s flagship Negotiation Workshop, more than doubling its enrollment. He also developed several new classes at Harvard including an Advanced Workshop on Multiparty Negotiation and Group Decision-Making and a Facilitation Workshop. He continues to teach in the Harvard Program on Negotiation Global executive education seminars and for the Center for Workplace Development at Harvard University.
During his career Bob has received many awards for teaching, research, and innovation. These include The Albert Sacks-Paul Freund Teaching Award at Harvard Law School, presented annually to a single member of the Harvard Law School faculty for teaching excellence, mentorship of students, and general contributions to the life of the Law School. The International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution’s (CPR) awarded Bob its Problem Solving in the Law School Curriculum Award for his innovative work in creating and building the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program. Four graduating classes of Harvard Law School selected him to deliver a Last Lecture prior to their graduation, a recognition reserved for only four faculty members each year.
After graduating from law school, Bob clerked for The Honorable George A. O’Toole, Jr. of the United States District Court for Massachusetts. In addition to his many years at Harvard Law School, Bob also worked at the Washington D.C.-based law firm of Crowell & Moring, LLP, the New York-based law firm of Cravath, Swaine, & Moore, CBS News, the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Boston Consulting Group.
Bob received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and his A.B., summa cum laude, from Dartmouth College where he majored in Government.
Marcus Coleman leads at the intersection of religious affairs, community capacity building, public-private partnerships and crisis management to help people before, during and after disasters. As a Manager at HWC, Marcus co-leads the behavioral science and communications practice to help clients from various sectors focused on changing the world for good through resilience and homeland security related projects. Prior to HWC served in various capacities, including Acting Director for the Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
During his time at the DHS Center, Marcus supported more than 15 disaster activations and special mission responses including Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the 2015 influx of unaccompanied children, and post-incident national outreach and messaging after several active shooter incidents. Marcus received a FEMA Administrator’s award for his leadership in building a national outreach and effort to help faith leaders collaborate with local first responders to develop emergency operations plans. From 2010 – 2013 Marcus was a national Program Manager, National Partnerships and Outreach for FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division (formerly the Citizen Corps office).
Marcus’ experience in emergency management has afforded opportunities to make substantial contributions toward strengthening equity in emergency management. This includes developing, managing and strengthening national partnerships with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; AARP; Institute of the Black World Black Family Summit’s Emergency Management Taskforce and the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters.
Marcus also co-developed FEMA’s guidance for Engaging Faith-based and Community Organizations: Planning Considerations for Emergency Managers; and was a contributor to FEMA’s course on Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disasters in partnership with University of Southern California and National Disaster Interfaith Network.
Marcus continues to lead various efforts to promote interfaith dialogue and cooperation as a means to advance national security interest. Marcus’ community contributions to emergency management and homeland security continue through his community leadership as an Advisory Board Member of the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, the Diversity in National Security Network, Co-Director of the Truman National Security Project DC Chapter and National Co-Chair of the Historical Black College and University COVID Awareness and Resilience Day.
Marcus is a proud Alum of Howard University, American University, and is an active member of Harvard University National Preparedness Leadership Initiative. Marcus lives in Washington, DC with his wife Amber Coleman where they attend New Bethel Baptist Church led by Rev. Dexter U. Nutall.
Courtney Simmons Elwood served as General Counsel of the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency from June 2017 to January 2021. From 2001 to 2007, she held
a number of senior positions in the federal government, including as Associate
Counsel to the President, Deputy Counsel to the Vice President, and Deputy Chief of
Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General. Before and after that stint in the
government, Courtney was a partner at the law firm Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel &
Frederick, PLLC. She joined the firm in 1996, after clerking for Chief Justice William
H. Rehnquist on the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge J. Michael
Luttig on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Intelligence Agency from June 2017 to January 2021. From 2001 to 2007, she held
a number of senior positions in the federal government, including as Associate
Counsel to the President, Deputy Counsel to the Vice President, and Deputy Chief of
Staff and Counselor to the Attorney General. Before and after that stint in the
government, Courtney was a partner at the law firm Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel &
Frederick, PLLC. She joined the firm in 1996, after clerking for Chief Justice William
H. Rehnquist on the Supreme Court of the United States and for Judge J. Michael
Luttig on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Courtney is a graduate of Yale Law School and a summa cum laude graduate
of Washington and Lee University. She has served as a member of the D.C. Circuit’s
Advisory Committee on Procedures and a member of the Yale Law School
Association Executive Committee.
Courtney is married to John Elwood, also a lawyer. They have two children,
and live in Courtney’s hometown, Alexandria, Virginia.
Thomas B. Griffith was appointed to the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D. C. Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2005. A native of Washington, D. C., Griffith graduated from Brigham Young University and the University of Virginia School of Law. Immediately prior to his appointment to the bench, Griffith was Assistant to the President and General Counsel of BYU. At BYU, he worked primarily on religious liberty issues in American higher education. Most of his professional career has been spent in Washington, D. C. where he was a litigation partner at a law firm and for four years served as Senate Legal Counsel, the chief legal officer of the U. S. Senate. In that capacity, Griffith advised the Senate’s leadership and committees on a variety of legal matters and participated in the impeachment trial of President Clinton. Griffith is a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School and is involved in rule of law projects in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
He is the author of “Civic Charity and the Constitution” which appeared in the Summer 2020 issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Erica Powell is an attorney with almost two decades of policy experience.
As a government relations professional, Erica has developed strategies to successfully initiate and build partnerships between non-profit organizations, members of Congress, and Executive Branch agencies. She successfully planned and directed national campaigns to mobilize grassroots supporters and train individuals on how to conduct government outreach.
As a senior advisor to multiple members of Congress, Erica has played a critical role in drafting and successfully passing important legislation on civil rights, environment, health care, and government oversight. As a staff counsel, Erica successfully facilitated the resolution of conflicts between the federal government and multimillion-dollar economic development projects. As Legislative Director for a senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives, she helped pass legislation to improve the criminal justice system, including work on police training and accountability.
Erica received a B.A. in Political Science from Butler University before graduating from Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
Dale has a 37-year career as a data and technology strategist, in diverse settings such the US Air Force, the START Treaty, the National Security Agency, Intel Corp, Intermountain Healthcare, Northwestern University Medicine, the Cayman Islands National Health System, the Canadian healthcare system; and as Chief Product and Technology Officer of Health Catalyst. His full bio and background can be found on LinkedIn.
Former Board Members
Madeleine K. Albright was Chair of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and Chair of Albright Capital Management LLC, an investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets. Dr. Albright was the 64th Secretary of State of the United States.
In 1997, she was named the first female Secretary of State and became, at that time, the highest ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government. As Secretary of State, Dr. Albright reinforced America’s alliances, advocated for democracy and human rights, and promoted American trade, business, labor, and environmental standards abroad.
From 1993 to 1997, Dr. Albright served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and was a member of the President’s Cabinet. From 1989 to 1992, she served as President of the Center for National Policy.
Previously, she was a member of President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Council and White House staff and served as Chief Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Edmund S. Muskie.
Dr. Albright was a Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She chaired both the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the Pew Global Attitudes Project and served as president of the Truman Scholarship Foundation.
Dr. Albright served on the Boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Institute and the Center for a New American Security. In 2009, Dr. Albright was asked by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Chair a Group of Experts focused on developing NATO’s New Strategic Concept.
Dr. Albright is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: Her autobiography, Madam Secretary: A Memoir (2003); The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs (2006); Memo to the President: How We Can Restore America’s Reputation and Leadership (2008); and Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box (2009).
Dr. Albright received a B.A. with Honors from Wellesley College, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from Columbia University’s Department of Public Law and Government, as well as a Certificate from its Russian Institute.
Throughout his distinguished life, George Bush was always reaching out and helping others. He launched his "Points of Light" initiative as president to promote volunteerism and community service across America, but long before he entered the political arena he demonstrated his belief that "there could be no definition of a successful life that does not include service to others." In the early 1950s, for example, he helped establish the YMCA in Midland, Texas and served as chairman of the founding board. The Bushes also started the Bright Star Foundation to support cancer research following the death of their three year-old daughter, Robin, from leukemia on October 12, 1953.
A diverse array of other experiences contributed to George Bush's historic tenure as president as well -- service in the United States Navy, a career in the oil industry, two terms as a U.S. Congressman, service as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, tenure as Chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China, appointment as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and, finally, two terms as vice president to Ronald Reagan.
Clayton Christensen was the Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, where he taught one of the most popular elective classes for second year students, Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise. He is regarded as one of the world’s top experts on innovation and growth and his ideas have been widely used in industries and organizations throughout the world. A 2011 cover story in Forbes magazine noted that ‘’Everyday business leaders call him or make the pilgrimage to his office in Boston, Mass. to get advice or thank him for his ideas.’’ In 2011 in a poll of thousands of executives, consultants and business school professors, Christensen was named as the most influential business thinker in the world.
Clay was the best-selling author of nine books and more than a hundred articles. His first book, The Innovator’s Dilemma received the Global Business Book Award as the best business book of the year (1997); and in 2011 The Economist named it as one of the six most important books about business ever written. His other articles and books have received the Abernathy, Newcomen, James Madison, and Circle Prizes. Clay was a five-time recipient of the McKinsey Award, given each year to the two best articles published in the Harvard Business Review; and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tribeca Films Festival (2010).
Kenneth M. Duberstein was chairman and CEO of The Duberstein Group, an independent strategic planning and consulting company advising leading corporations and a select group of trade associations.
Mr. Duberstein served as a key member of the Reagan Administration during his various assignments as White House Chief of Staff (1988-89), Deputy Chief of Staff (1987) and Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs (during the first term).
Among the Board of Directors on which Mr. Duberstein served are: The Boeing Company (Lead Director and Chairman of the Governance, Organization, and Nominating Committee), ConocoPhillips, Inc. (former Presiding Director/Chair of Director Affairs Committee (governance) during the first 5 years of the merger, then serving on Public Policy Committee), The Travelers Companies, Inc (Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee) and Mack-Cali Realty Corp. Mr. Duberstein was previously on the boards of NASD and Fannie Mae.
Mr. Duberstein serves as well on a wide range of commissions, task forces, and cultural, educational and volunteer boards, including the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution, Harvard University/Kennedy School's Institute of Politics Senior Advisory Committee, the National Endowment for Democracy, the American Security Project, the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the newly formed National Institute for Civil Discourse. He is also a lifetime Trustee of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Prior to joining the Reagan Administration, he was Vice President and Director of Business-Government Relations of the Committee for Economic Development. He returned to the private sector between his various White House assignments as Vice President of Timmons & Company Inc, a government relations firm. His earlier government service included Deputy Under Secretary of Labor during the Ford Administration and Director of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. General Services Administration. He began his public service on Capitol Hill as an assistant to Senator Jacob K. Javits.
From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Duberstein was a consultant for storyline and accuracy for the Emmy award winning TV series ‘West Wing.’ He also regularly appeared as a commentator on network and cable news programs including Meet the Press, Nightline, This Week, Inside Politics, The News Hour, Nightly News and the Charlie Rose Show.
He was awarded the President's Citizens Medal by President Reagan in January 1989. Mr. Duberstein graduated from Franklin and Marshall College (A.B., 1965) and American University (M.A., 1966). He received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Franklin and Marshall in 1989.
He is married to the former Jacquelyn Fain and he has four children: Jennifer, Jeff, Andy, and Samantha.
Former United States Senator Richard G. Lugar was the first President of The Lugar Center, a non-profit organization focusing on global food security, WMD nonproliferation, aid effectiveness, and bipartisan governance. Senator Lugar served as a Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar at the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University. He also served as a distinguished faculty member in the Department of History and Political Science and led the Richard G. Lugar Symposium for Tomorrow’s Leaders at the University of Indianapolis.
A fifth generation Hoosier who left the United States Senate as the longest serving member of Congress in Indiana history, Senator Lugar was recognized as a gifted local and state leader, as well as a respected national and international statesman. During his tenure in the United States Senate, he exercised leadership on critical issues such as food security, nuclear non-proliferation, energy independence, and free trade. He earned 46 honorary degrees from colleges and universities in 15 states and the District of Columbia, and he was the fourth person ever named Outstanding Legislator by the American Political Science Association. He was the 2005 recipient of the American Foreign Service Association Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award and the 2016 recipient of the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. Her Majesty The Queen of England bestowed upon Senator Lugar the rank of honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in honor of his work to make the world more secure from weapons of mass destruction and his commitment to the U.S.-U.K. alliance. President Barack Obama named Senator Lugar a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Sandra Day O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas, March 26, 1930. She married John Jay O’Connor III in 1952 and has three sons - Scott, Brian, and Jay. She received her B.A. and LL.B. from Stanford University. She served as Deputy County Attorney of San Mateo County, California from 1952–1953 and as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market Center, Frankfurt, Germany from 1954–1957. From 1958–1960, she practiced law in Maryvale, Arizona, and served as Assistant Attorney General of Arizona from 1965–1969. She was appointed to the Arizona State Senate in1969 and was subsequently reelected to two two-year terms. In 1975 she was elected Judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court and served until 1979, when she was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals. President Reagan nominated her as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and she took her seat September 25, 1981. Justice O’Connor retired from the Supreme Court on January 31, 2006.
General Colin L. Powell, founder, advisory council chair, and distinguished scholar of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, was born in Harlem and raised in the South Bronx. He graduated from The City College of New York in 1958 and went on to earn an MBA from The George Washington University, and to build a distinguished military career in Vietnam, Korea, and the United States. His military career includes service as President Ronald Reagan's National Security Advisor, and as Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Army Forces Command.
General Powell was the first African-American and the youngest officer ever to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking officer in the United States military, under both President George H. W. Bush and President William Jefferson Clinton. In 1995, General Powell wrote and published his autobiography, My American Journey, and in 1997, founded America’s Promise, a collaborative network that builds on the collective power of communities and volunteerism to assist American youth to meet their potential. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him Secretary of State, a position that placed him at the head of America's foreign policy and in which he served from 2001–2005.
Alice Rivlin was a trailblazer in the field of economic policy and a long-time civil servant. She was the founder of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Board.
In 2010, President Obama appointed Rivlin to the Simpson-Bowles Commission on the federal budget. She also chaired, with former Senator Pete Domenici, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Debt Reduction Task Force. Ms. Rivlin is considered an expert on fiscal and monetary policy as well as social policy and urban issues. She founded the Congressional Budget Office in 1975 and served as its director until 1983, creating an independent agency that continues to provide high-quality, nonpartisan analysis to Congress as it works on spending and revenue legislation. In 2008, Rivlin received the inaugural Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize from the AAPSS. Rivlin has received a MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship, and has taught at Harvard, George Mason and New School Universities.
Jim Kolbe served as a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and as a Senior Advisor to McLarty Associates, a strategic consulting firm. He advised on trade matters as well as issues of effectiveness of US assistance to foreign countries, on US-EU relationships, and on migration and its relationship to development. President Obama appointed him to the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, where he provided policy advice on trade matters.
He formerly co-chaired the Transatlantic Taskforce on Development with Gunilla Carlsson, the former Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation. The Taskforce consists of experts from both sides of the Atlantic from governments, NGOs, foundations and corporations - it made strategic recommendations on development for the new American administration as well as to European audiences. He also serves as an adjunct Professor in the College of Business at the University of Arizona.
For 22 years, Jim Kolbe served in the United States House of Representatives, elected for eleven consecutive terms, from 1985 to 2007. He represented the Eighth (previously designated the Fifth) congressional district, comprising the southeastern part of Arizona with Tucson as the main population area.
While in Congress, Jim served for 20 years on the Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives, responsible for deciding the allocation of the budget and the terms for spending appropriated funds. He was chairman of the Treasury, Post Office and Related Agencies subcommittee for four years, and for the last six years in Congress, he chaired the Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Agencies subcommittee.
Education:
Kolbe graduated from Northwestern University with a BA degree in Political Science and then from Stanford University with an MBA and a concentration in economics.
Honors:
He has received numerous awards and tributes, but notable among them is the George Marshall Award for Distinguished Service from the United States Agency for International Development and the Order of the Aztec from the President of Mexico.
Bill Richardson completed his second term as Governor of New Mexico in December 2010. After entering life as a private citizen, Governor Richardson was named chairman of APCO Worldwide's executive advisory service Global Political Strategies (GPS). In January 2011, Richardson was named Special Envoy for the Organization of American States (OAS), adding another platform for initiatives within peace and reconciliation in the Western hemisphere. In addition, the Governor joined several non-profit and for profit boards. The Governor also gave speeches on domestic and foreign policy through the Washington Speakers Bureau.
Governor Richardson was first elected to office in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 with the support of 69 percent of voters, representing the largest margin of victory for any Governor in state history.
Prior to being elected governor, Bill Richardson enjoyed a very successful and fulfilling career in public service, academia and the private sector - few can match his wide-ranging experience and his level of dedication to protecting the rights and improving the quality of life of people in New Mexico, the United States and around the world.
In 2008, Governor Richardson sought the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
Governor Richardson served for 15 years in northern New Mexico representing the 3rd Congressional District. Governor Richardson served in 1997 as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and in 1998, he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy.
While a congressman, Richardson served as a special envoy on many sensitive international missions. He successfully won the release of hostages, American servicemen, and prisoners in North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan. Governor Richardson was nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2001, Richardson assumed the chairmanship of Freedom House, a private, non-partisan organization that promotes democracy worldwide. He also worked as a business consultant in Santa Fe and served on several boards including the Natural Resource Defense Council and United Way International.
Bill Richardson was married to his high school sweetheart, Barbara, for 51 years. Richardson received a BA from Tufts in 1970 and a MA from Tuft's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in 1971.
A trusted bipartisan leader to whom President Obama turned to with Erskine Bowles, President Emeritus of North Carolina University, to co-chair America’s debt reduction commission, Alan Simpson provided his candid views on politics, the economy and the hard and tough choices that lie ahead for America’s leaders.
In a career hallmarked by a fearlessness of confronting the most intractable issues of our times, Alan Simpson served as the co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, a bi-partisan group looking to erase the United States’ multi-trillion dollar debt. Describing himself as someone who hates hypocrisy and pretense and has the temerity to say so, this was only the latest challenge taken on by Simpson who is best known for being a forceful voice for common-sense policy throughout his nearly two decades in the Senate. With quick wit and a straightforward style, Simpson tackled the most controversial of topics on the national agenda—bringing both honesty and sensible solutions for moving the country forward in these most uncertain of political times. Formerly a visiting lecturer in Political Science at the University of Wyoming—his alma mater—and formerly the director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Simpson provided audiences with anecdotes, humor and cutting-edge commentary on politics, the media, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid reform, the economy and much more. He is remembered for his joy of taking questions from any audience.
CommonSense American Foundation Board of Directors
The work of the four steps we take together to bring common sense to American politics is clearly divided into education and advocacy. Partnering organizations handle each division. CommonSense American, a program of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), works with the support of CommonSense American Foundation, Inc. (CSAF), its predecessor, to identify practical policies that have the potential to attract broad support among American voters, develop the briefs that educate our members, voters generally, and politicians on these policies, and poll members to determine which policies are, in fact, supported by a sense held in common. These organizations are 501(c)3 organizations.
Keith Allred
Founder & President
Virgi Blaine
Steve Parry
CommonSense American In Action Board of Directors
As we move beyond education and into advocacy, the work is carried out by CommonSense American in Action, Inc. (CSAIA), which is a 501(c)4.
Keith Allred
Founder & President
Wendy Jaquet
