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Fall 2024 Bulletin: Annual Report

American Institutions, Society & the Public Good

People with brown and tan skin are holding up their hands in a meeting in a room with the American flag in the background.
Photo by iStock.com/P_Wei.

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. 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 man standing in the audience with a microphone in his hand asks a question of a man and woman standing at a podium in front of him.
Photo by iStock.com/SDI Productions.

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 the recommendations by 2026, the nation’s 250th anniversary. In collaboration with champion organizations and leaders from across the nation, the Ƶ is hosting public events and targeted briefings, providing expert testimony and thought leadership, convening experts and practitioners for knowledge sharing and strategy development, creating op-eds and other earned media, and in other ways standing up and supporting 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 García Bedolla 
University of California, Berkeley

Sam Gill 
Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

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

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

Antonia Hernández 
formerly, 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 
Bridge Entertainment Labs

Norman Ornstein 
American Enterprise Institute

Robert Peck 
FPR Partners

Pete Peterson 
School of Public Policy, Pepperdine University

Miles Rapoport 
100% Democracy

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 
American Law Institute

Judy Woodruff 
PBS

Ethan Zuckerman 
University of Massachusetts Amherst
 

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

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 
Chief Program Officer

Tony B. Shivers
Government Relations Officer

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
 

Habits of Heart and Mind: How to Fortify Civic Culture, Working Group on Defining Civic Culture (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2024)

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)

 

Commission Meetings 
 

Civic Culture Working Group

April 2023–October 2024

In 2023, the Ƶ, in partnership with Citizen University and the Aspen Institute’s Citizenship and American Identity Program, convened the Working Group on Defining Civic Culture–a diverse group of eighteen distinguished scholars, philanthropists, journalists, civic leaders, activists, artists, and educators–to examine how civic culture is connected to a functioning constitutional democracy. The working group produced a comprehensive and accessible publication, Habits of Heart and Mind: How to Fortify Civic Culture, that identifies seven key pillars of a healthy civic culture, drawn from case studies across the country, and provides tactics for national and grassroots stakeholders to foster healthy civic culture in their workplace and community. 

Since publication in September 2024, Habits of Heart and Mind has been featured in essays in The Seattle Times, The Hill, and on the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s podcast, Giving Done Right.
 

Working Group Members
 

Eric P. Liu, Chair 
Citizen University

Kristen Cambell 
Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement

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, George Mason University

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

 

National Service Public Opinion Research

Beginning May 2023

One of the recommendations in the Our Common Purpose report is to 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. The Ƶ–in partnership with America’s Service Commissions (ASC) and California Volunteers–sought a data-driven approach to building demand for a year of national service among young Americans. Research was undertaken that included focus groups, a large-scale survey in California, and a parallel national sample. The insights gleaned from the Ƶ’s research are intended to help organizations in the national service field attract more young Americans to service. 

 

Building Demand for National Service: New Insights from Public Opinion Research

July 17, 2024 
Virtual

The Ƶ, in partnership with California Volunteers, hosted a virtual symposium with leaders from AmeriCorps and state service commissions to discuss the Ƶ’s recommendation to make a year of national service a universal expectation for young Americans, and to unveil new findings from the Ƶ’s public opinion research on national service. The Ƶ collaborated with America’s Service Commissions and California Volunteers to convene focus groups in California and conduct state and national polling to identify messages to attract more young people to service. During the event, the Ƶ disseminated new resources, including an article with key findings from the Ƶ’s research and a presentation of the data about effective messages.
 

Speakers
 

Kristen Bennett 
Service Year Alliance

Kaira Esgate 
America’s Service Commissions

Josh Fryday 
California Volunteers

Lisa García Bedolla 
University of California, Berkeley

Goodwin Liu 
Supreme Court of California

Doris Matsui 
U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA)

Pete Peterson 
Pepperdine School of Public Policy

a screenshot of seven people dressed in business attire having a discussion during a webinar.
Speakers at the virtual symposium on national service (clockwise from top left): Kristen Bennett, Pete Peterson, Josh Fryday, Goodwin Liu, Doris Matsui, Lisa García Bedolla, and Kaira Esgate

 

Supreme Court Term Limits: Rethinking Life Tenure on a Divided Court

June 27, 2024 
Washington, D.C.

This luncheon event, hosted by the Ƶ on Capitol Hill, brought together a diverse, bipartisan group of experts, including members of the Ƶ’s U.S. Supreme Court Working Group, for a lively discussion of all sides of the proposal to enact term limits for Supreme Court Justices. Speakers discussed how the reform could be enacted by statute, the benefits and challenges associated with establishing Supreme Court term limits, and the role the Senate might play in enacting such a reform. In July 2024, President Biden endorsed the idea of Supreme Court term limits via statute. The Ƶ’s report, The Case for Supreme Court Term Limits, informed coverage of the issue in The Boston Globe and NewsNation.
 

Speakers
 

Kimberly Atkins Stohr 
The Boston Globe

Sarah A. Binder 
George Washington University; Brookings Institution

Stephen McAllister 
University of Kansas School of Law

Diane P. Wood 
American Law Institute; University of Chicago Law School

Four people dressed in business attire standing next to each other and smiling at the viewer.
Speakers at the June event on Supreme Court Term Limits: Kimberly Atkins Stohr, Diane P. Wood, Sarah A. Binder, and Stephen McAllister. Photo by Noah Willman. 

 

Political Polarization and Political Violence

September 4, 2024 
Virtual

Speakers at this webinar on political violence and polarization placed the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump in the broader context of our understanding of political violence and provided information on efforts to lower the risk of violence or conflict. A point of emphasis was the importance of reassuring Americans that voting itself is safe. The event spotlighted organizations and initiatives that are combating political violence, bridging divides, and strengthening democracy.
 

Speakers
 

Paige Alexander 
Carter Center

Rachel Kleinfeld 
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Marty Smith 
ABA Task Force on American Democracy

 

Multi-Member Districts Working Group

April 2024–September 2024

The Our Common Purpose report calls for amending the 1967 federal law that mandates single-member congressional districts and winner-take-all elections and adopting in its place a system of multi-member districts with proportional ranked choice voting. In April 2024, the Ƶ convened a diverse, bipartisan group of political scientists, election law experts, advocates, and practitioners to explore the design choices and downstream policy questions that will influence how future implementation of this set of reforms might work. The working group will produce a report laying out areas where a consensus has developed regarding the likely effects of this reform on congressional representation–areas that remain subject to debate–and questions to be examined in the future.
 

Working Group Members
 

John Carey 
Dartmouth College

Guy-Uriel Charles 
Harvard Law School

Colin Cole 
More Equitable Democracy

Andy Craig 
Rainey Center; CATO Institute

Lee Drutman 
New America

Michael Hanchard 
University of Pennsylvania

Maria Teresa Kumar 
Voto Latino

Didi Kuo 
Stanford University

Jennifer Lawless 
University of Virginia

Michael Li 
Brennan Center for Justice

Jennifer McCoy 
Georgia State University

Norman Ornstein 
American Enterprise Institute

Deb Otis 
FairVote

Maria Perez 
Democracy Rising

Pete Peterson 
Pepperdine University

Cynthia Richie Terrell 
Represent Women

Charles Stewart, III 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Christopher Thomas 
Bipartisan Policy Center

Grant Tudor 
Protect Democracy

Philip Wallach 
American Enterprise Institute

 

How to Fortify Civic Culture in America

October 28, 2024 
Virtual

The Ƶ hosted a virtual panel discussion to celebrate the launch of a new Ƶ publication, Habits of Heart & Mind: How to Fortify Civic Culture. The speakers discussed the what, why, and how of civic culture in America. The session also highlighted organizations working to reinvigorate civic culture and the methods that national and grassroots stakeholders can use to fortify civic culture before, during, and after the U.S. presidential election.
 

Speakers
 

Ben Klutsey 
Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Eric P. Liu 
Citizen University

Goodwin Liu 
Supreme Court of California

Laurie L. Patton
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences

Natalie Tran 
Creative Artists Agency Foundation

 

A screenshot featuring five individuals, each appearing on their own screen, and actively engaging in conversation and discussion.
Speakers at the event on How to Fortify Civic Culture in America (clockwise from top left): Ben Klutsey, Natalie Tran, Laurie L. Patton, Goodwin Liu, and Eric P. Liu

 

Council of State Governments National Conference 

December 4, 2024 
New Orleans, LA

The American story often gets told in two opposing ways, focusing on either the “glory” or the “gory” of the country’s past. The nation’s 250th anniversary pre­sents an opportunity for Americans across the country to develop a national narrative that both accounts for past mistakes and celebrates achievements. For the past several years, the Ƶ has been gathering a group of leaders in the civil society space to discuss how to make 2026 an inclusive experience that brings Americans together rather than driving them further apart. At the Council of State Governments, the Ƶ convened a panel in which speakers from this group discussed their guiding framing for the 250th anniversary and their thoughts on how the commemoration can help strengthen American democracy. 
 

Speakers
 

Brandon Dillard 
Monticello 

Ted Johnson 
New America 

Madeleine Rosenberg 
American Association for State and Local History 

Betsy Super 
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences 

 

OCP Champions Convening 

December 12–13, 2024 
House of the Ƶ, Cambridge, MA 

Since the release of the Our Common Purpose report, more than seventy organizations have pledged their support for one or more of the report’s democracy renovation recommendations. Our Common Purpose Champions come from a wide range of localities and perspectives. Each organization works on making government more responsive and on strengthening American civil society and civic culture. At this OCP Champions convening, the Ƶ gathered leaders from these organizations. The meeting provided the participants with an opportunity to assess their progress, address challenges, explore new ways to collaborate after the 2024 election, and prepare for America’s 250th anniversary in 2026. 
 

Featured Speakers 
 

Sarah Cross 
Stand Together 

Louise Dubé 
iCivics

Alan Khazei 
More Perfect 

David Martinez III 
Vitalyst Health Foundation 

Project

Making Justice Accessible
 

People walking along the sidewalk on a sunny day in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building.
Photo by iStock.com/OlegAlbinsky.

Civil justice initiatives reach Americans far beyond the courthouse doors. In America today, 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. And because we know most Americans will navigate legal systems without the help of a trained professional, civil justice initiatives must necessarily focus on ordinary people.

Since launching a two-year implementation effort in February 2022, the Making Justice Accessible project has interviewed providers, scholars, field experts, and thought leaders; convened stakeholder roundtables; hosted a summit; and briefed congressional policymakers about the potential that civil justice initiatives have to alleviate precarity and empower American communities. 

This work builds on the project’s publications focused on the challenges of providing legal services to low-income Americans. 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. 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 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 project’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.

The American civil justice ecosystem is not a single, monolithic system. No overriding strategic policy guides how every service and resource will get in the hands of those who need it. Therefore, the project’s final implementation effort focused on stewardship and coordination to elevate effective models and strategies that could guide the work forward. 

Building on the insights and guidance of experts in the field, the Ƶ hosted the Making Justice Accessible Summit in March 2024–a convening of over sixty leaders in law, healthcare, philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, nonprofit organizations, and advocacy–to reimagine opportunities in civil justice.

In December 2024, the project published a national strategic framework outlining the opportunities and innovations already underway to make civil justice available for all. The report is a culmination of the project’s engagement in the civil justice field, and serves as a call to action for philanthropy, business, government, and other sectors to engage, support, and strengthen these efforts.
 

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 University 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 
American Law Institute
 

PROJECT STAFF
 

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

Peter Robinson 
Chief Program Officer

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

FUNDER
 

David M. Rubenstein

 

Project Publications
 

Achieving Civil Justice: A Framework for Collaboration (American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences, 2024)

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

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

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

 

Project Meetings
 

Advisory Committee Meetings

February 7, 2024; May 28, 2024; October 15, 2024; November 20, 2024

 

Artificial Intelligence & Legal Help Focus Group 

February 16, 2024 
Stanford Legal Design Lab, Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez participated in a focus group conducted by Margaret Hagan (Stanford Legal Design Lab, Stanford Law School). The focus group gathered civil justice experts to review and analyze responses to legal questions from generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to understand the accuracy, effectiveness, and potential use cases for leveraging GenAI for legal issue inquiries. 

 

Legal Services Corporation Access to Justice Symposium

February 29, 2024 
Chicago, IL

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez participated in the Legal Services Corporation’s “Leap for Justice” celebration event, which gathered civil justice providers, researchers, and leaders from academia and business to highlight the impact of LSC’s fifty years of work in the field. 

 

Making Justice Accessible Summit

March 7–9, 2024 
House of the Ƶ, Cambridge, MA

The Making Justice Accessible Summit, the project’s capstone event, included over sixty experts in civil justice, legal empowerment, academia, philanthropy, and corporate social purpose. The convening centered people-justice outcomes, highlighting the networks and developments in the field, elevating technology and innovation projects that reimagine the delivery of legal help, and raising attention to the roles of public and private sector actors in achieving justice for all. 

John Levi and Joseph Kennedy III stand together, smiling at the viewer.
Project Cochair John Levi and Joseph Kennedy III. Photo by Martha Stewart Photography.
Colorful notes are taped to a whiteboard. The notes read: Camaraderie, “Community, normalize shared ideas, not feeling like an outlier.” “Learn what NOT to do.”
The results of Summit participants’ brainstorming sessions about developing new resources. Photo by Martha Stewart Photography.

 

American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid & Indigent Defense Board Meeting

April 9, 2024 
Washington, D.C.

At the American Bar Association’s meeting, Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez spoke about the project’s activities and plans to produce a national document highlighting effective strategies in the field as well as the outcomes of the Making Justice Accessible Summit.

 

National Legal Aid & Defenders Association/American Bar Association’s Equal Justice Conference 2024

May 8–11, 2024 
Detroit, MI

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez and Program Director Betsy Super presented at the Equal Justice Conference about communicating the value of civil justice efforts to philanthropy. 

 

New America Tech for Humanity Summit 2024 

June 6, 2024 
Arlington, VA

The Making Justice Accessible project team attended the New America Tech for Humanity Summit, an annual gathering of New America’s Public Interest Technology University Network. The participants included thought leaders from across sectors who discussed the role of data in securing human rights and dignity. 

 

The Self-Represented Litigation Network 2024 Conference

September 18–20, 2024 
Salt Lake City, UT

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez was a panelist at the conference’s closing plenary session on funding strategies for civil justice efforts, making the case that civil justice aligns with philanthropic and business interests. In addition, Gonzales participated in two other sessions: The SRLN Self-Help Policy Bootcamp for new or existing court-based self-help programs focused on education and training for building relationships and support from key actors; and the Building Civil Justice Pipelines panel discussion, which focused on emerging opportunities to build talent pipelines from other fields into civil justice roles, and to strengthen connectedness among current civil justice professionals.

 

Public Interest Technology–University Network Summit 2024

November 7–8, 2024 
San Jose, CA

Program Officer Eduardo Gonzalez spoke at the PIT UN Summit on the intersection of Law, Technology, and the Public Interest. 

 

Achieving Civil Justice

December 4, 2024 
Virtual 

The launch event of the project’s final report, Achieving Civil Justice, brought together leaders and champions that have guided the project and have stewarded support for and attention to local and national civil justice efforts across the country. The panelists discussed case studies of successful efforts that illustrate the variety of ways in which courts, legal professionals, nonprofit leaders, businesses, technologists, and universities are working to close the civil justice gap.
 

Speakers
 

John Levi 
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP

Martha Minow 
Harvard Law School

Daniel B. Rodriguez 
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law

Rebecca Sandefur 
Arizona State University

Diane P. Wood 
American Law Institute

Project

Commission on Reimagining Our Economy
 

A grid of four photos of a factory building and some houses in a valley, with a single mountainside covered in trees; homes across from a well-manicured grass field, with smokestacks in the background; an empty urban street. a man, shirtless, walks along one sidewalk. one of the telephone poles is leaning precariously; and overhead image of a lush agricultural area, with a river running between fields.
Photos by Caroline Gutman, Maen Hammad, Adam Perez, and Cindy Elizabeth (clockwise from top left).

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 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 directing a focus from how the economy is doing toward how Americans are doing. 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. Drawing on thirty-one listening sessions held across the country, the Commission came to consensus on fifteen recommendations to advance a people-first economy. In addition to a final report, the Commission produced a book of photojournalism highlighting the lives of median-income Americans in four communities as well as a data dashboard, the CORE Score, offering a county-level assessment of American well-being. 
 

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 
Supreme Court of California

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 
Chief Program Officer

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
 

The Geography of American Opportunity

February 27, 2024 
Stanford Park Hotel, Menlo Park, CA 

This event featured a panel discussion with Ƶ and Commission members Reid Hoffman (Greylock Partners) and Katherine Newman (University of California) about how place affects economic opportunity in the United States. Michael Tubbs (former Mayor of Stockton, CA) moderated the conversation, which focused on the widening gap between the richest and poorest communities. The discussion also drew on the CORE Score, the Commission’s dashboard to measure well-being.
 

Speakers
 

Reid Hoffman 
Greylock Partners

Katherine Newman 
University of California

Michael Tubbs 
Former Mayor of Stockton, CA; End Poverty in California

Panelists Katherine Newman and Reid Hoffman listen while Michael Tubbs addresses the audience.
Michael Tubbs (End Poverty in California), Katherine Newman (University of California), and Reid Hoffman (Greylock Partners) in conversation about the geography of American opportunity. Photo by Hagop’s Photography.

 

Community Partnership Visas Working Group

May-December 2024

One of the recommendations in the Commission’s final report calls for the creation of Community Partnership Visas (CPVs), a visa program that would allow local, state, and tribal governments to issue visas based on their unique economic needs. Such a program would aim to leverage the power of immigration to help communities stem dem­ographic decline, fill critical labor market gaps, and revitalize their economies, all while marking the American commitment to welcoming immigrants. The Ƶ has established a working group to create a cross-partisan policy framework for CPVs. Though other organizations have issued proposals for place-based visa programs, none have answered specific regulatory questions surrounding their implementation. This working group–a cross-partisan cohort of immigration experts and scholars–will do so, with plans to issue a report in the winter of 2025.
 

Working Group Members 
 

Cristina M. Rodríguez, Chair 
Yale Law School

Gordon Hanson 
Harvard Kennedy School

Douglas Massey 
Princeton University

Cecilia Muñoz 
New America; Welcome.US

Gerald Neuman 
Harvard Law School 

Pia Orrenius 
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

David W. Oxtoby  
American Ƶ of Arts and Sciences 

Kristie De Peña 
Niskanen Center

Matthew J. Slaughter  
Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College

Stan Veuger 
American Enterprise Institute

Tara Watson 
Brookings Institution 

 

Faces of America Exhibits

July 27, 2024; October 17, 2024 
Tulare County and San Fransisco, CA 

With funding from the James Irvine Foundation, the Ƶ hosted a series of exhibitions featuring the images from the Faces of America photojournal. One of these exhibits was held in Tulare County, California, a community featured in the photojournal. In July 2024, Adam Perez, a local photographer who took some of the images for Faces of America, hosted a festival in Tulare County celebrating farmworkers and their contributions to the community. The Faces of America exhibit was featured as part of this celebration. In October 2024, Goodwin Liu, Chair of the Ƶ’s Board of Directors, and Adam Perez presented the images to the Statewide Leadership Council of the Public Policy Institute of California, a group of leaders who are helping guide the future of economic policy for the largest state in the nation.

A group of smiling women, men, and children with light brown skin and black hair stand next to a large outdoor display of photographs.
Gina, one of the Tulare residents featured in Faces of America, pictured with her daughter and extended family, in Tulare, CA, July 27, 2024. Photo by Kelsey Ensign.

 

Economic Connectedness: Building Relationships that Expand Opportunity 

September 12, 2024 
Virtual 

Many Americans today live in silos. As communities remain economically stratified, it is easy to be surrounded by those who share the same socioeconomic background. The Ƶ’s Economic Connectedness Working Group launched in November of 2023 and brought together leaders from different sectors to think about how to bridge these economic divides. On September 12, the Ƶ officially launched a new website from the working group that makes the case for why economic connectedness matters and features case studies of places and programs that are bringing people together across class lines. The event featured a panel discussion and remarks from working group members who defined economic connectedness, explained the benefits of relationships between people of differing socioeconomic statuses, and highlighted effective methods and spaces for fostering cross-class connections.
 

Speakers 
 

Russell Booker 
Spartanburg Academic Achievement Movement 

Katherine Cramer 
University of Wisconsin–Madison 

Lynda Gonzales-Chavez 
YMCA-USA 

Jessica Grose 
The New York Times 

Goodwin Liu 
Supreme Court of California 

Johannes Stroebel 
New York University 

 

Rebuilding Local and Community Media for the Twenty-First Century 

October 10, 2024 
Madison, WI 

Drawing on one of the Commission’s key recommendations, the Ƶ hosted an expert panel to discuss the ongoing challenges and opportunities facing local and community media. The panelists reflected on the state of local media over the past two decades, its impact on communities and politics, and the growing threat of misinformation. They also discussed the Commission’s proposal to rethink how private media companies are funded and the idea of treating media organizations less like private companies and instead as critical sources of infrastructure for the American economy and American democracy.
 

Featured Speakers
 

Frederica Freyberg 
PBS Wisconsin

Lew Friedland 
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Michael Wagner 
University of Wisconsin–Madison

 

Narratives of the Economy

October 27, 2024 
Los Angeles, CA 

Over the last few years, scholars and journalists have observed the curious phenomenon that, despite good news from economic indicators like GDP, polls find that Americans are simply not happy about the state of the economy. While material conditions do shape people’s opinions, so do narratives–stories and themes, often originating among lawmakers and the media. Yet the role of storytelling has been overlooked in explaining the disconnect at the heart of the current economic and political moment. This Ƶ member event, held on the campus of the University of Southern California, helped explain the role that economic narratives play in shaping people’s opinions about their finances, their lives, and their nation. Drawing on the Commission’s listening sessions and photojournalism project, Los Angeles members convened to discuss how narratives can be rewritten to create a political and economic system that works for all.
 

SPEAKERS 
 

Geoffrey Cowan 
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism 

Carol L. Folt 
University of Southern California 

Goodwin Liu 
Supreme Court of California 

Viet Thanh Nguyen 
University of Southern California 

Manuel Pastor 
University of Southern California 

Kyla Scanlon 
Author, In This Economy?

Three people are seated in front of and facing an audience, with a moderator standing at a podium on the right.
The event on Narratives of the Economy, held on October 27, 2024, in Los Angeles, CA, featured (left to right) Viet Thanh Nguyen (University of Southern California), Manuel Pastor (University of Southern California), Kyla Scanlon (author), and Goodwin Liu (Supreme Court of California) at the podium. Photo by Todd Cheney Photography.

   

Measuring What Matters: Connecting Economic Prosperity with Household Well-Being

November 20, 2024 
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY 

During the Commission’s outreach and implementation phase, it had the chance to brief numerous regional Federal Reserve Banks about its efforts, and in particular the CORE Score data dashboard. In November, Commission and Ƶ member Jacob Hacker (Yale University) presented the CORE Score at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for Bank invitees and local Ƶ members. He made the case for new ways to measure the economy, focusing on people-focused metrics like the Score rather than traditional, growth-focused measures such as the Dow Jones or GDP. He also presented findings from the Score, offering new insight into geographic disparities within the United States. In a panel conversation, Hacker, Matthew Slaughter (Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth), and playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith discussed the need for a people-focused approach to the economy and to the ways it is measured. 
 

Speakers
 

Jacob Hacker 
Yale University

Matthew Slaughter 
Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth

Anna Deavere Smith 
Playwright and Actress

 

Council of State Governments National Conference 

December 5, 2024 
New Orleans, LA 

At the CSG National Conference, the Ƶ hosted a panel discussion on Advancing a People-First Economy. The panelists discussed how the Ƶ’s Commission on Reimagining Our Economy has sought to redirect a focus from how the “economy” is doing onto how Americans are doing. They focused on the Commission’s values of security, opportunity and mobility, and democracy and explored recommendations for how to build an economy that better serves the American people. 
 

Speakers 
 

Charles Ellison 
Council of State Government’s Communities of Color Initiative 

James Fallows 
Our Towns Civic Foundation 

Mark Trahant 
Indian Country Today 

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