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Fall 2023 Bulletin: Annual Report

American Institutions, Society & the Public Good

A view facing the back of crowd of people near the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Many people in the crowd wave small American flags.
Photo by iStock.com/carterdayne.

The American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences was founded by visionaries who foresaw that the nascent republic would benefit from the expertise of learned citizens to guide its development, health, and integrity through whatever challenges may arise.

Today, the clarity of that vision has never been more evident. The pandemic, the 2020 election and its aftermath, and the movement for justice and reform in the wake of repeated racial injustice have demonstrated the importance of shoring up our institutions and civil society on behalf of the public good. We find ourselves in a time of deepening divides across lines of politics, race, religion, income, and opportunity. The institutions we have long turned to for leadership and information are under fire, as trust in the media, government, commercial enterprise, and academia declines. Strong and responsive institutions and a healthy civil society can carry us through crises and are vitally important in their aftermath.

From these challenges springs an ever-greater need for innovation and reinvestment in America’s founding values and its promise. As the Ƶ’s report Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century notes, we are experiencing an age of surging civic participation, “of communities working to build new connections across long-standing divides, and of citizens suddenly awakening to the potential of their democratic responsibilities.” It is in times like these that members of the Ƶ, through projects in the American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good program, combine their extraordinary and diverse expertise to strengthen the relationships between our national institutions, civil society, and the citizens they serve and represent.

Project

Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship
 

A rendering of the American flag comprised of red, white, and blue triangles.
Illustration by iStock.com/ad_krikorian.

The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship is a multiyear project of the Ƶ. The Commission launched in 2018 to explore the factors that encourage and discourage people from becoming engaged in their communities. The Commission’s report, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, seeks to improve democratic engagement in the United States with a set of thirty-one recommendations that reach across political institutions, civic culture, and civil society to revitalize American democracy by increasing representation, empowering voters, making institutions more responsive, and reinvigorating our civic culture.

The Ƶ has committed to make significant progress on all thirty-one recommendations by 2026, the nation’s 250th anniversary. In collaboration with champion organizations and leaders from across the nation who are committed to the advancement of the recommendations, the Ƶ will host public events and targeted briefings, provide expert testimony and thought leadership, convene experts and practitioners for knowledge sharing and strategy development, create op-eds and other earned media, and in other ways stand up and support the ongoing implementation of Our Common Purpose.
 

Commission Chairs
 

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Stephen B. Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Eric P. Liu
Citizen University

 

Commission Members
 

Sayu Bhojwani
Women’s Democracy Lab

danah boyd
Data & Society

Caroline Brettell
Southern Methodist University

David Brooks
The New York Times

David Campbell
University of Notre Dame

Alan Dachs
Fremont Group

Dee Davis
Center for Rural Strategies

Jonathan Fanton
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences

Lisa Garcia Bedolla
University of California, Berkeley

Sam Gill
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

R. Marie Griffith
John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics, University of Washington in St. Louis

Hahrie Han
Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University

Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation

Wallace Jefferson
Alexander Dubose & Jefferson, LLP

Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Tufts University

Yuval Levin
American Enterprise Institute

Carolyn Lukensmeyer
formerly, National Institute for Civil Discourse

Martha McCoy
Everyday Democracy

Lynn Nottage
Playwright

Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project

Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Robert Peck
FPR Partners

Pete Peterson
School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University

Miles Rapoport
Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University

Michael Schudson
Columbia University

Sterling Speirn
formerly, National Conference on Citizenship

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of Massachusetts Boston

Ben Vinson
Howard University

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Judy Woodruff
PBS

Ethan Zuckerman
University of Massachusetts Amherst

 

Project Staff
 

Kelsey Ensign
Louis W. Cabot Humanities Policy Fellow

Zachey Kliger
Program Associate for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Jessica Lieberman
Program Officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Abhishek Raman
Program Officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Peter Robinson
Interim Chief Program Officer and Morton L. Mandel Director of Strategic Implementation

Betsy Super
Program Director for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

 

Funders
 

S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

The Suzanne Nora Johnson and David G. Johnson Foundation

The Clary Family Charitable Fund

Alan and Lauren Dachs

Sara Lee Schupf and the Lubin Family Foundation

Joan and Irwin Jacobs

Patti Saris

David M. Rubenstein
 

Commission Publications
 

The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits, U.S. Supreme Court Working Group (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2023)

The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives, Lee Drutman, Jonathan D. Cohen, Yuval Levin, and Norman J. Ornstein (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2021)

Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2020)

The Political and Civic Engagement of Immigrants, Caroline Brettell (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2020)

The Data Driving Democracy, Christina Couch (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2020)

The Internet and Engaged Citizenship, David Karpf (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2019)
 

Commission Meetings
 

Supreme Court Term Limits Working Group

June 2022–February 2023

One of the recommendations in the Our Common Purpose report is to implement eighteen-year term limits for Supreme Court justices. While this idea has received bipartisan support, there remain many important and open questions about how the reform would operate. In June 2022, the Ƶ convened a working group, including Commission members Diane P. Wood and Norman Ornstein and leading legal scholars, to answer these questions and assess the constitutionality of implementing eighteen-year term limits for Supreme Court justices by statute. The working group met monthly from June 2022 through February 2023 to develop a paper that presents a complete, feasible statutory model and an argument for the constitutionality of that model. The working group’s final paper, The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits, was released in October 2023.

U.S. Supreme Court Working Group Members
 

Akhil Reed Amar
Yale Law School

Guy-Uriel Charles
Harvard Law School

Seth Davis
UC Berkeley School of Law

Daniel Epps
Washington University School of Law

Caroline Fredrickson
Georgetown Law School & Brennan Center for Justice

Charles Fried
Harvard Law School

Amanda Hollis-Brusky
Pomona College

Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Kermit Roosevelt III
University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Maya Sen
Harvard Kennedy School

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

 

America250 Cross-City and Context Sharing Meeting

September 27, 2022; December 15, 2022; May 8, 2023

In 2022, the Ƶ began convening multiple discussions with representatives from organizations that are planning to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. These representatives came from museums, libraries, local history agencies, state humanities councils, and other organizations. This group has sought to identify both the opportunities and challenges that commemorating the 250th anniversary presents, especially at a time of increased division and polarization. Group members collaborated on how to use this anniversary to get Americans to reflect openly and honestly about our nation’s history. All members agreed that the 250th anniversary commemoration represents an opportunity for Americans to engage with one another as fellow citizens and share their aspirations for the future of our democracy.

 

Ƶ Member Roundtables on Democracy

September–October 2022

As part of the ongoing work to advance democracy reform and the ideas and recommendations presented in the Our Common Purpose report, the Ƶ convened eleven virtual member roundtable discussions on democracy. The 137 members who participated in these discussions are influential leaders in biomedical research and public health, science and engineering, media and journalism, business, and law. The participants explored how democracy benefits their sectors, and what they can do within their own institutions to strengthen democracy.

Roundtable Discussion Moderators
 

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Daniella Ballou-Aares
Leadership Now Project

Sam Gill
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Stephen B. Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Eric P. Liu
Citizen University

Martha McCoy
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity

David W. Oxtoby
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Judy Woodruff
PBS NewsHour

 

OCP in Lexington, Kentucky

October 18, 2022

Lexington, Kentucky, was the site of six listening sessions conducted by the Commission in 2019 to shape the Our Common Purpose report. In fall 2022, Cochair Stephen B. Heintz and Commission member Caroline Lukensmeyer returned to Lexington for a full day of events to highlight the contributions made by Kentucky residents to the work of the Commission and to engage with local leaders on strategies for implementing Our Common Purpose recommendations. The events included an interview with Renee Shaw for the KET program Connections, meetings with Kentuckians who participated in the Commission’s listening sessions in 2019 and with local leaders from the Blue Grass Community Foundation and CivicLex, meetings at the Council of State Governments, and a reception with Kentucky leaders, including Michael Adams, Kentucky’s Secretary of State, and Linda Gorton, Mayor of Lexington, to discuss the Our Common Purpose report. The reception featured a panel discussion moderated by Renee Shaw and a Q&A session with audience members.

Michael Adams sits among the attendees at an event to promote the Our Common Purpose report. Adams holds a microphone and a copy of Our Common Purpose. Adams has pale skin and short brown hair. He wears a suit and smiles at the other attendees.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams joined Lexington, KY Mayor Linda Gorton and other local leaders for a discussion of Our Common Purpose and local efforts in Lexington to strengthen democracy. Photo by Brian Key.

 

Building Democratic Citizens Higher Education Working Group

October 2022–June 2023

Following a series of virtual roundtable discussions on building democratic citizens in higher education, the Ƶ convened a working group to develop a comprehensive guide on specific models, mechanisms, and measurements for preparing democratic citizens in higher education. The working group met monthly from October 2022 through June 2023 and is developing a guide that will be published in early 2024 and be disseminated broadly to leaders in the higher education community.

Working Group Members
 

Josh Blakely
Longwood University

Trevor Brown
The Ohio State University

David Campbell
University of Notre Dame

Jane Kamensky
Harvard University

Devorah Lieberman
University of La Verne

Fayneese Miller
Hamline University

Laurie Patton
Middlebury College

Sandra Peart
University of Richmond

Ravi Perry
Howard University

Carol Quillen
Davidson College

Eric Reveno
Oregon State University

Anthony Scott
Virginia Tech

Sarah Surak
Salisbury University

Andrew Taramykin
University of Florida

Nancy Thomas
Tufts University

Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo
Maricopa Community Colleges

Ben Vinson
Howard University

Marianne Wanamaker
The University of Tennessee

Scott Warren
Johns Hopkins University

 

National Service Focus Groups

November–December 2022

One of the recommendations in the Our Common Purpose report would establish a universal expectation of a year of national service and dramatically expand funding for service programs or fellowships that would offer young people paid service opportunities. Increased funding for service opportunities will make them more accessible but will not necessarily foster a culture in which national service is the norm. For this reason, it is important to better understand the factors that motivate Americans to participate in service, as well as the barriers that prevent them from seeking out or completing service opportunities. To begin to develop this understanding, the Ƶ partnered with California Volunteers to convene five virtual focus groups with over sixty current and former service program participants in the state of California. Feedback from these participants informed a subsequent set of focus groups and public opinion surveys conducted with our research partner, David Binder Research. Results from this research, released in late fall 2023, will help produce new strategies to build greater demand for service opportunities.

 

Reinventing Democracy: How Hometowns Are Strengthening America

December 7–9, 2022

The Ƶ hosted a three-day virtual symposium that featured panels of experts and local leaders sharing practical advice on topics such as ranked-choice voting, clean elections, civic education, civic infrastructure, and mechanisms to increase citizen participation. The event attracted participants from forty-three states, including mayors, city councilors, and other local government officials. The symposium also served as the launch of the Our Common Purpose (OCP) Communities Project. OCP Communities choose and adopt from a menu of applicable OCP recommendations to create a network of local laboratories of democracy. At the event, Lexington, Kentucky, signed on as the first OCP Community.

Speakers
 

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Jason Artman
Medota, Illinois Public Schools

Sayu Bhojwani
Women’s Democracy Lab

Kristerfer Burnett
Baltimore City Council, District 8

Jerren Chang
GenUnity

Louis Dubé
iCivics

Peggy Flynn
City of Petaluma, California

Archon Fung
Harvard University

Mark Gomez
California State University Monterey Bay

Shamichael Hallman
Cossitt Library (Memphis Public Libraries)

Linda Harris
City of Decatur, Georgia

Chris Hughes
Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center

Joseph Kahne
Civic Engagement Research Group

Malka Ranjana Kopell
Civity

Kevin Kosar
American Enterprise Institute

Tom Latkowski
Los Angeles for Democracy Vouchers

Eric P. Liu
Citizen University

Martha McCoy
Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity

Anu Natarajan
Meta

Carmen Ortiz
City of Durham, North Carolina

David W. Oxtoby
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences

Kathleen Patterson
Washington, D.C., Auditor

Maria Perez
Democracy Rising

Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University

Rosemonde Pierre-Louis
NY McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research

Kelleen Leishman Potter
Utah Ranked Choice Voting

Alex Renirie
Healthy Democracy

Max Resnik
City Bureau

Cynthia Richie Terrell
RepresentWomen

Lynn Ross
Spirit for Change Consulting

Hollie Russon Gilman
New America

Dave Smith
X Sector Labs

Palma Joy
StrandCivity

John Sweat
Concord, North Carolina City Council

Judy Woodruff
PBS NewsHour

Richard Young
CivicLex

A screenshot of the panelists of a webinar called Reinventing Our Democracy.
A virtual panel discusses civic education at the symposium for local leaders. From left to right: Jason Artman (Mendota, Illinois Public Schools), Joseph Kahne (Civic Engagement Research Group), Mark Gomez (California State University Monterey Bay), Louise Dubé (iCivics), and Danielle Allen (Harvard University).

 

OCP in Phoenix, Arizona

February 3, 2023

Phoenix was the site of several listening sessions conducted by the Commission in 2019 to shape the Our Common Purpose report. Cochairs Stephen B. Heintz and Eric P. Liu and Commission member Steven Olikara returned to Phoenix for a series of events to connect with listening session participants, local civic leaders, and Ƶ members, and to socialize Our Common Purpose recommendations to advance local implementation. The events were cohosted by the Arizona Civic Life Partnership, which includes the Center for the Future of Arizona, Vitalyst Health Foundation, and the Flinn Foundation.

A group of cochairs and Ƶ staff at the event to promote Our Common Purpose in Phoenix, Arizona stand in front of the Arizona flag and the American flag.
From left to right: David Martinez (Vitalyst Health Foundation), Stephen Heintz (Rockefeller Brothers Fund), Tania Munz (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences), Eric Liu (Citizen University), Steven Olikara (Millennial Action Project), Dawn Wallace (Flinn Foundation), and Kristi Tate (Center for the Future of Arizona) in Phoenix, AZ. Photo by Elaine Kessler.

 

Commission Meeting

February 10, 2023

Members of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship convened virtually to reflect on the events that have occurred since the release of the Our Common Purpose report, to consider how the recommendations and strategies have fared, and to discuss priorities for the Ƶ’s outreach and implementation in the coming year.

 

Democracy Reform in the New Congress

March 8, 2023

This luncheon for congressional staff featured members of Congress as well as a bipartisan panel of experts who discussed potential areas for cooperation on democracy reform. The panelists focused on several ideas recommended in the Our Common Purpose report, including expanding the U.S. House of Representatives, ranked-choice voting, and campaign finance reform. Bipartisan staff from the House Committee on Administration and from fifteen congressional offices attended the event.

Speakers
 

Sayu Bhojwani
Women’s Democracy Lab

Earl Blumenauer
U.S. House of Representatives, Oregon’s Third Congressional District

Sean Casten
U.S. House of Representatives, Illinois’s Sixth Congressional District

Yuval Levin
American Enterprise Institute

Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Two dozen people sit around a table, including Ƶ staff and congressional staff, to discuss policy reform.
Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Sean Casten joined Sayu Bhojwani, Yuval Levin, and Norman Ornstein for a discussion with congressional staff of potential areas for cooperation on democracy reform in the 118th Congress. Photo by Morgan Jacobs.

 

Civic Culture Working Group

Beginning April 2023

The Ƶ, in partnership with the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program and Citizen University, convened a working group to inform the national conversation about the centrality of a healthy civic culture to American constitutional democracy, build trust across lines of difference, and inspire a resilient civic faith for the twenty-first century. This work will develop a typology that will clarify the process of investing in, encouraging, and building a healthy civic culture. The working group will develop a user-friendly publication articulating a consensus on “what, why, and how” of civic culture as a practice, including the norms, narratives, values, rituals, habits, mindsets, and heartsets that are reflected in a healthy civic culture. This publication will be used to guide practitioners in building a healthy civic culture and attract new funding to civic culture initiatives. The working group met monthly from April through October 2023 and is developing a final publication that will be published in early 2024 and be disseminated broadly to civic culture practitioners and funders investing in civic culture initiatives.

Working Group Members
 

Kristen Cambell
Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE)

Sybil Francis
Center for the Future of Arizona

David French
The Dispatch

Sam Gill
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Ted Johnson
New America

Ben Klutsey
Mercatus Center

Mathieu Lefevre
More in Common

Peter Levine
Tufts University

Patty Loew
Northwestern University

Eunice Lin Nichols
CoGenerate

Suzanne Nossel
PEN America

Eboo Patel
Interfaith America

John Spann
Mississippi Humanities Council

Shanta Thake
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Natalie Tran
CAA Foundation

Jose Antonio Vargas
Define American

 

A Radical Old Idea: Expanding the U.S. House of Representatives

May 16, 2023

The first recommendation in the Our Common Purpose report is to expand the U.S. House of Representatives. A working group convened by the Ƶ issued a follow-up report, The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives, that outlined the principles that should undergird a House expansion formula, surveyed extant proposals for House expansion, and discussed the possible outcomes of expansion. In this virtual event, authors of the report, other scholars, and members of Congress discussed why increasing the number of Representatives in the House is crucial to the health of our democracy and what it will take to restore the Founders’ vision for the First Branch.

Speakers
 

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Earl Blumenauer
U.S. House of Representatives, Oregon’s Third Congressional District

Derek Kilmer
U.S. House of Representatives, Washington’s Sixth Congressional District

Yuval Levin
American Enterprise Institute

Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University

 

The Promise of Proportional Representation for Democracy

July 27, 2023

Moving to a system of multi-member districts with proportional representation could end gerrymandering, reduce polarization, and help more Americans feel their voice is represented in Congress. However, a little-known 1967 law, the Uniform Congressional District Act, prevents this reform and locks the United States into a deeply flawed electoral system. The Our Common Purpose report recommends amending this law and moving toward a proportional system. In this virtual event, Our Common Purpose champions and others discussed why a growing body of experts believe this reform would strengthen American democracy.

Speakers
 

Andy Craig
Rainey Center

Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project

Norman Jay Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Alora Thomas-Lundborg
Charles Hamilton Houston Center for Race & Justice, Harvard Law School

Grant Tudor
Protect Democracy

 

Safeguarding American Democracy: Civic Literacy for a Secure Nation

October 5, 2023

A significant number of today’s K-12 students will enter college and the workforce without the civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions that they need to fully participate in our constitutional democracy. Lack of civic readiness among young Americans undermines civil discourse, increases alienation and polarization, and makes us more susceptible to misinformation and disinformation. As a result, a growing body of civil society leaders and policy­makers have been making the case that the lack of civic readiness among Americans poses a threat to our national security. At this virtual event, sponsored by the Ƶ and iCivics, Ƶ members and Our Common Purpose champions discussed the stakes involved in fostering our civic strength and explored promising solutions to promote lifelong civic learning.

Speakers
 

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Louise Dubé
iCivics

James N. Mattis
Stanford University

 

The Legislative Path to Supreme Court Reform

Boston, Massachusetts, and Virtual
October 25, 2023

This event, hosted by the Ƶ and the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, celebrated the release of The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits, the final publication of the Ƶ’s U.S. Supreme Court Working Group. The event featured a panel of working group members and other experts who discussed the new publication, the benefits and challenges associated with establishing Supreme Court term limits, and the role the Senate might play in enacting such a reform.

Speakers
 

Akhil Reed Amar
Yale Law School

Charles Fried
Harvard Law School

Patti Saris
U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts

Four attendees stand beside the speakers from the event at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate held to promote the Case for Supreme Court Term Limits report.
From left to right: Charles Fried (Harvard Law School), Gabe Roth (Fix the Court), Akhil Reed Amar (Yale University), Kimberly Atkins Stohr (The Boston Globe), Patti Saris (U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts), David Oxtoby (American Ƶ), and Adam Hinds (Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate) at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, October 25, 2023. Photo by Michael DeStefano.

Project

Making Justice Accessible
 

The relief sculptures on the pediment of Supreme Court Building on a sunny day. Beneath the states are the words “Equal Justice Under Law.”
Photo by iStock.com/krblokhin.

Civil justice initiatives reach Americans far beyond the courthouse doors. In today’s America, we have legal information and services that can be delivered by lawyers, licensed practitioners, and trained advocates. A myriad of professionals can provide invaluable guidance and counseling, design new products and tools for judges, lawyers, and litigants, and generate free information to help people navigate legal systems on their own. But most Americans cannot access this help. In most cases, lawyers and those authorized to deliver help have to turn people away because financial and human resources are strained—there is not enough supply to meet demand. 

The Making Justice Accessible project is working to address this challenge. At the core of the work is developing a national strategic vision that will inspire consequential collaboration to unlock funding and human potential to address the civil justice crisis. Since launching a two-year implementation effort in February 2022, the project has interviewed providers, scholars, field experts, and thought leaders, convened stakeholder roundtables, and briefed congressional policymakers about the potential that civil justice initiatives have to alleviate precarity and empower American communities. The project team’s continuous engagement with elected leaders; with corporate, public, and private philanthropy; and with corporate social responsibility professionals is aimed at raising awareness about the critical role civil justice has in our society.

This effort builds on the project’s publications focused on the challenges of providing legal services to low-income Americans. The first project, Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century, produced the Civil Justice for All report, which recommends targeted civil justice investments in financial and human resources, simplified procedures to reduce barriers and administrative strain, greater coordination and new partnerships across disciplines, and a larger field of advocates and legal professionals trained to provide effective and accessible legal help. The second project, Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans, produced the Measuring Civil Justice for All report, which established a blueprint for civil justice data collection efforts and a research agenda for civil justice scholars, practitioners, and policymakers. The related Winter 2019 issue of æ岹ܲ on “Access to Justice” is a multidisciplinary study of the civil justice gap, examining new models for the delivery of legal help. The Ƶ’s work is informed by the advice and insights of civil justice experts and representatives of courts, legal aid, pro bono programs, and private and public foundations; justice professionals; researchers; educators; and policy professionals who make up the civil justice ecosystem.

Every aspect of modern American life exposes us to legal systems. Yet, the information, resources, services, and professionals needed to help Americans navigate those systems are not within reach for most. Although these interactions are common and most handle them on their own, the cost of getting it wrong is steep and becoming steeper: borrowing money for housing, school, and necessities; starting a family and raising children; getting educated or upskilling; accessing public and civic services; and choosing opportunities. Legal systems are at the core of American life. It is essential, therefore, to understand, support, and partner with initiatives in the field getting Americans the help they need. The Making Justice Accessible project advances a national strategy that will promote and strengthen momentum toward civil justice for all.
 

Advisory Committee Chairs
 

John Levi
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP

Martha Minow
Harvard Law School

 

Advisory Committee Members
 

Kimberly Budd
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Colleen Cotter
Legal Aid Society of Cleveland

Ronald Flagg
Legal Services Corporation

Ivan Fong
Medtronic

Kenneth C. Frazier
formerly, Merck & Co.

Bethany Hamilton
National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

Nathan Hecht
Texas Supreme Court

Wallace B. Jefferson
Alexander Dubose & Jefferson, LLP

Joseph Kennedy III
U.S. Department of State; Groundwork Project

Lance Liebman
Columbia Law School

Jonathan Lippman
Latham & Watkins, LLP

Lora J. Livingston
Texas 261st Civil District Court

Judy Perry Martinez
Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn

Bridget Mary McCormack
American Arbitration Association

Margaret Morrow
formerly, U.S. District Court, Central District of California

David W. Oxtoby
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences

Rohan Pavuluri
Upsolve

Andrew M. Perlman
Suffolk University School of Law

Daniel B. Rodriguez
Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Rebecca Sandefur
T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University

William Treanor
Georgetown University Law Center

Jo-Ann Wallace
National Legal Aid & Defenders Association Insurance Program

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

 

Project Staff
 

Eduardo Gonzalez
Program Officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Peter Robinson
Interim Chief Program Officer and Morton L. Mandel Director of Strategic Implementation

Betsy Super
Program Director for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

 

Funder
 

David M. Rubenstein
 

Project Publications
 

Measuring Civil Justice for All (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, February 2021)

Civil Justice for All (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, September 2020)

“Access to Justice,” æ岹ܲ, edited by Lincoln Caplan, Lance Liebman, and Rebecca Sandefur (Winter 2019)
 

Project Meetings
 

Advisory Committee Meetings

August 31, 2022; December 5, 2022; April 24, 2023

 

Access to Justice & ESG–Social Impact Conference

Pro Bono Institute, Washington, D.C.
February 22, 2023

At the Pro Bono Institute’s Annual Social Impact Conference, Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez spoke about the role Access to Justice has in corporate and law firm environmental, social, and governmental (ESG) initiatives and sustainability commitments.

 

Legal Services Funders: Doing More Together–National Association of IOLTA Programs

Dallas, Texas
May 3, 2023

At the inaugural gathering of the National Association of IOLTA Programs, Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez joined Erika Rickard (Pew Charitable Trusts) to elevate the importance of investing in collaborative relationships across institutions responsible for evaluating and funding civil justice initiatives.

 

Making Civil Justice a Funding Imperative–Equal Justice Conference

Dallas, Texas
May 5, 2023

At the nation’s largest civil justice conference, Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez presented an update on the project and highlighted three major insights: strategic coordination requires continuous engagement; the civil justice field has exemplar models and solutions, but they are disproportionately allocated; and as innovations emerge and conditions change, new opportunities are possible. 

Attendees of the Equal Justice Conference gathered at several tables engaged in discussions.
Civil justice professionals gathered for a breakout session during Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez’s presentation on Making Civil Justice a Funding Imperative, at the Equal Justice Conference held on May 3–7, 2023 in Dallas, Texas. Pictured are attendees discussing the question, “In ten years, what will the civil justice sector have done successfully to achieve civil justice for all?” Photo by Eduardo Gonzalez.
A view from a full audience of a stage with two speakers at the Equal Justice Conference. Above the stage, a screen displays a projected photo of President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act.
Conference plenary interview with Luci Baines Johnson, Co-Founder of LBJ Family Wealth Advisors, at the Equal Justice Conference, Dallas, Texas, May 4, 2023. Photo by Eduardo Gonzalez.

 

AI’s Implications for Equitable Access to Legal & Other Professional Services

May 10, 2023               


This virtual meeting explored how increasingly capable AI tools like ChatGPT and Bing Chat will impact the accessibility of legal and other professional services, such as health care, for an underserved public.

Speakers
 

Jason Barnwell
Microsoft

Margaret Hagen
Stanford Law School

Martha Minow
Harvard Law School

Andrew M. Perlman
Suffolk University School of Law

 

State Innovation Congressional Briefings

October 18–19, 2023

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez and Steven Goldblatt (The Suffolk Group) conducted virtual briefings with the entire Arizona congressional delegation to share the project’s civil justice recommendations. They also held nine in-person briefings with congressional offices in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota.

 

American Workforce & Justice Summit 2023

October 25–26, 2023

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez attended the Responsible Business Initiative for Justice’s Workforce & Justice Summit, a gathering of U.S. businesses, policy experts, and campaign advocates. The event focused on justice and opportunity and emphasized the critical role U.S. businesses have to stabilize lives after incarceration and unlock opportunity for justice-impacted communities.

 

Strategic Coordination in Justice Systems: Overcoming Silos and Building Collaborative Partnerships

October 31–November 2, 2023
Columbus, Ohio

This event was hosted by the American Bar Association and convened, for the first time, members of three committees vital to coordinating legal help in every state: State Access to Justice Commission Chairs, State IOLTA Programs, and the Legal Information Referral & Information Services Standing Committee. At the meeting, Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez moderated a discussion with Judge Mark Juhas (Superior Court of Los Angeles) about coordinating across silos in justice systems. Participants discussed the impact silos have on state-specific connections with legislators, judicial leaders, and legal help providers, and the integrated landscape of justice causes that can entrench these silos.

Project

Commission on Reimagining Our Economy
 

A man with brown skin staring into the distance while he grabs onto a metal shelf full of uncooked food. There is another shelf behind him filled with packaged groceries.
Photo by Caroline Gutman.

Economic uncertainty is a disruptive force in American life. In the United States today, too many families are unable to achieve the life they want despite their best efforts, too many communities have not benefited from economic growth, and too many Americans believe the economy does not work for people like them. These conditions not only harm lives and livelihoods, but they also sow distrust in our political, economic, and community institutions. The widespread belief that the economy does not give everyone a fair chance exacerbates tensions among Americans, threatening the nation’s social fabric and its democracy.

The Ƶ launched the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy (CORE) in October 2021 with the goal of rethinking the principles, metrics, narratives, and policies that shape the nation’s political economy. While policymakers and journalists often track how the economy is doing, the Commission seeks to direct a focus onto how Americans are doing, elevating the human stakes of our economic and political systems. The Commission builds on the work of Our Common Purpose, which acknowledges that economic conditions shape the practice of democracy but does not offer recommendations specifically targeted at economic issues.

The interdisciplinary Commission comprises scholars, journalists, artists, and leaders from the faith, labor, business, education, and philanthropic communities. Through listening sessions, data collection, and a commitment to cross-partisan work, the Commission is developing bold, achievable recommendations to build an economy that works for all Americans. The Commission represents a vital endeavor to reimagine the nation’s political economy and to enable opportunity, mobility, and security for all.
 

Commission Chairs
 

Katherine J. Cramer
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Ann M. Fudge
formerly, Young & Rubicam Brands

Nicholas B. Lemann
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

 

Commission Members
 

Daron Acemoglu
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Elizabeth Anderson
University of Michigan

Cornell William Brooks
Harvard Kennedy School

Whitney Kimball Coe
Center for Rural Strategies

Jane Delgado
National Alliance for Hispanic Health

James Fallows
Our Towns Civic Foundation

Helene Gayle
Spelman College

Jacob Hacker
Yale University

Tom Hanks
Actor and Filmmaker

Mary Kay Henry
Service Employees International Union

Kelly Lytle Hernández
University of California, Los Angeles

Megan Minoka Hill
Ash Center, Harvard Kennedy School

Reid Hoffman
Greylock Partners

Serene Jones
Union Theological Seminary

Julius Krein
American Affairs

Goodwin Liu
California Supreme Court

Maya MacGuineas
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

James Manyika
Google-Alphabet

Katherine Newman
University of California

Viet Thanh Nguyen
University of Southern California

Sarah Ruger
Stand Together

Ruth Simmons
Harvard University

Matthew Slaughter
Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

Anna Deavere Smith
New York University

Joseph Stiglitz
Columbia University

Michael Strain
American Enterprise Institute

Mark Trahant
Indian Country Today

Kenneth L. Wallach
Central National Gottesman, Inc.

 

Project Staff
 

Jonathan D. Cohen
Joan and Irwin Jacobs Senior Program Officer for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Kelsey Ensign
Louis W. Cabot Humanities Policy Fellow

Victor Lopez
Program Associate for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Peter Robinson
Interim Chief Program Officer and Morton L. Mandel Director of Strategic Implementation

Betsy Super
Program Director for American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

 

Funders
 

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

The C&P Buttenwieser Foundation

Omidyar Network

David M. Rubenstein

Patti Saris
 

Commission Publications
 

Advancing a People-First Economy (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2023)

Faces of America: Getting By in Our Economy (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2023)
 

Commission Meetings
 

Meeting of the Commission

House of the Ƶ, Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 2–4, 2022

At the third meeting of the Commission, the participants reflected on the values that would be central to its recommendations for the American political economy, specifically: security, opportunity and mobility, and democracy. Commission members also discussed where the economy is failing to live up to these values and began outlining a plan to identify specific recommendations. The Commission also received updates on various workstreams: a project to reimagine metrics used to measure the economy; listening sessions with Americans across the country; and a photojournalism book that will complement the Commission’s report as a standalone volume. Additionally, the Commission met with Representatives Jim Himes (D-CT) and Bryan Steil (R-WI), Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the U.S. House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, to share ideas on how to build cross-partisan consensus on political economy issues. Representatives Himes and Steil also joined the Commission for a public event at the Ƶ to discuss their work and the prospects of creating a reimagined economy.

A group of people, dressed professionally, stand together and smiling.
Members of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy and project staff at the House of the Ƶ in Cambridge, Massachusetts, October 2022. Photo by Martha Stewart Photography.

 

Media Roundtable

House of the Ƶ, Cambridge, Massachusetts
October 11, 2022

The Commission convened a roundtable of journalists to discuss how the media covers the economy. The goal of the roundtable was to glean a better understanding of the state of business/economics journalism, to hear about the internal pressures facing news organizations that affect their coverage of the economy, and to solicit ideas for recommendations for the Commission’s final report. Attendees included local journalists as well as reporters and editors from national outlets.

Participants
 

Eric Adler
Kansas City Star

Binyamin Applebaum
The New York Times

Rodney A. Brooks
Independent

Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica

James Fallows
Our Towns Civic Foundation

Kalea Hall
Detroit News

Beth Macy
Independent

Tory N. Parrish
Newsday

Alissa Quart
Economic Hardship Reporting Project

Kai Ryssdal
Marketplace

Mark Trahant
Indian Country Today

Ann Fudge, Mark Trahant, Binyamin Appelbaum, and Tory Parrish serve as panelists at the Media Roundtable. Mark Trahant faces the audience and speaks into a microphone on the table, while Fudge, Appelbaum, and Parrish face Trahant.
Some of the participants at the Media Roundtable on October 11, 2022. Photo by Peter Walton.

 

Meeting of the Commission

Wingspread Retreat and Executive Conference Center, Racine, Wisconsin
April 26–28, 2023

At the final meeting of the Commission, the participants discussed the shortlist of recommendations generated by the Sufficiency and Mobility, Markets and Future Challenges, and Democracy and Culture working groups that were tasked with proposing recommendations for specific topic areas. The Commission also received updates about two multimedia projects: the CORE Score, a metrics dashboard to measure American well-being, and a photojournal, Faces of America: Getting By in Our Economy. The meeting ended with a discussion of the framework of the final report as well as a plan for outreach/implementation. The Commission is scheduled to release its final report in November 2023.

A dozen people meet in a spacious conference room in Wisconsin to discuss the framework of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy.
Members of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy at the meeting in Racine, WI, on April 28, 2023. Photo by Victor Lopez.

 

Americans and Our Economy: A Conversation about the Human Stakes

New York, NY
October 18, 2023

The American economy is in a unique moment. Since the pandemic, typical measures have shown an economy that is doing well: rising wages for low-income workers, declining inequality, and, through 2021, low rates of child poverty. Poll results, however, tell a different story. Many Americans feel that the economy is not working for them and are pessimistic about their future and the future of their children. Why do they feel this way? Why is a seemingly strong economy not working for everyone? What changes need to be made to foster Americans’ faith in a better future? One month prior to the release of the Commission’s final report, the Ƶ’s New York Program Committee convened to discuss these questions and to share what the Commission has learned to bring a people-centric economy to life, charting a path to an economy that works for the people who make it work.

Speakers
 

Katherine Cramer
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Ann Fudge
formerly, Young & Rubicam Brands

Serene Jones
Union Theological Seminary

Nicholas Lemann
Columbia Journalism School

Members of the New York Program Committee speak on stage in front of an audience to promote the work of the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy.
Ƶ President David Oxtoby in conversation with Commission chairs Katherine Cramer, Nicholas Lemann, and Ann Fudge about the Commission’s work to advance a people-centric economy; October 18, 2023, New York. Photo by Jeff Weiner Photo.

 

Release Event for Advancing a People-First Economy

November 9, 2023

The Commission marked the release of its final report, Advancing a People First-Economy, with a virtual event moderated by David Leonhardt (The New York Times) that included opening remarks from Commission member Anna Deavere Smith on the importance of reimagining a better economic future and the values that should guide that future. The Commission’s cochairs then described their theory of change, previewed the report’s recommendations, and provided insight into the process that allowed them to achieve consensus from such a broad array of Commission members. The Commission also showcased its two other major products: Faces of America, a photojournal of median-income Americans in four communities, and the CORE Score, a county-level dashboard of American well-being. The event marked the beginning of the final phase of the Commission’s work, which is devoted to outreach and implementation of the fifteen recommendations included in the final report. The Ƶ will be engaged in this work through August 2024.

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