Civic Learning Week Opening Forum

Danielle’s work to make the world better for young people has taken her from teaching college and leading a $60 million university division to driving change at the helm of a $6 billion foundation, writing as a national opinion columnist, advocating for cannabis legalization, democracy reform, and civic education, and most recently, to running for governor of Massachusetts. During the height of COVID in 2020, Danielle’s leadership in rallying coalitions and building solutions resulted in the country’s first-ever Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience; her policies were adopted in federal legislation and a presidential executive order. Danielle made history as the first Black woman ever to run for statewide office in Massachusetts. She was the 2020 winner of the Library of Congress’ Kluge Prize, which recognizes scholarly achievement in the disciplines not covered by the Nobel Prize. She received the Prize “for her internationally recognized scholarship in political theory and her commitment to improving democratic practice and civics education.”

A past chair of the Mellon Foundation and Pulitzer Prize Board, she is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Philosophical Society. As a scholar, she currently concentrates on the Democratic Knowledge Project and Justice, Health, and Democracy Impact Initiative, housed at the Safra Center, on the Democracy Renovation Project, housed at Harvard’s Ash Center, and on the Our Common Purpose Commission at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Learning from the natural sciences, she has built a lab to extend the impact of work in the humanities and social sciences.

Her many books include the widely acclaimed Our Declaration: a reading of the Declaration of Independence in defense of equality; Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.; Democracy in the Time of Coronavirus; and the forthcoming Justice by Means of Democracy. She writes a column on constitutional democracy for the Washington Post.

Outside the University, she serves as board chair for Partners In Democracy, where she continues to advocate for democracy reform to create greater voice and access in our democracy, and drive progress towards a new social contract that serves and includes us all. She also serves on the board of the Cambridge Health Alliance. Danielle’s personal website is available here.

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Dr. Grant served as the Chief of Charter Schools and Innovation for The School District of Philadelphia. In this capacity, Dr. Grant managed a complex organization, working closely with the Superintendent of Schools and the President of the Board of Education and the Mayor’s Chief Education Officer.

Dr. Grant’s career began as a public school teacher in Harlem; since then, she’s held numerous roles in education, including as Superintendent of the Great Oaks Foundation and Deputy Executive Director at the New York City Department of Education. Dr. Grant has a doctorate in education with a focus on organizational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania; two master’s degrees: one in organizational leadership from the Teachers College of Columbia University and one in teaching and adolescent reading from Fordham University; and a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University.

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Before returning to Mercatus, he worked with the Institute of International Finance, where he analyzed international financial regulations, particularly related to liquidity risk management and risk governance. He received his MA in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University and his BA in Government and Philosophy from Lawrence University.

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Named the nation’s most fiscally responsible governor by Cato Institute, Governor Sununu has delivered three balanced state budgets with no new taxes. In fact, his third budget:

• Cuts and phases out the Interest & Dividends Tax for retirees,
• Provides tax relief to employers and small businesses,
• Reduces property taxes by $100 million,
• Delivers voluntary paid family medical leave,
• Spends more money per pupil for public education than ever before.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Sununu took unprecedented action to balance the health and safety of Granite Staters with keeping the state’s economy strong. New Hampshire always ranked among the safest states for Covid. Today, the Granite State is the fastest growing state in the Northeast, has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, and the lowest child poverty rate of any state in America.

Early in his tenure Governor Sununu created The Doorway and the Recovery Friendly Workplace initiative, both of which have become national models for prevention, treatment and recovery from substance use disorder and are consistently improving results for the citizens of New Hampshire. According to the CDC, New Hampshire in 2021 was one of just four states to reduce drug overdose deaths.

Chris grew up in Salem, NH. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) with a BS in Civil/Environmental Engineering. As an environmental engineer, Chris worked for ten years cleaning up hazardous waste sites across the country.
In 1998, Chris completed a five-month through-hike of the Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia.
Governor Sununu lives in Newfields with his wife, Valerie, and their three children.

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CCTC is a social studies curricular unit that enables students to learn and deliberate about a controversial societal issue and then participate in an online downhill with their member of Congress. Additionally, Kahne and CERG are currently engaged in related studies of efforts to promote youth voice, lived civics, and a broad vision of social studies reform tied to the Educating for American Democracy roadmap. This work takes place through partnerships with reformers and school districts in CA, IL, NM, FL, and CO. In addition to studying the impact of these curricular experiences on young people’s civic development, Kahne is devoting particular attention to the politics of democratic education. He is also examining the ways the political contexts of school districts shape possibilities for educational reform and the varied ways educators respond.

Professor Kahne was Chair of the MacArthur Foundation’s Youth and Participatory Politics Research Network. Kahne was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship as well as the National Academy of Education’s Initiative on Civic Discourse and Reasoning. He can be reached at jkahne@ucr.edu and his work is available at https://www.civicsurvey.org.

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She has led studies on how to support students’ civics knowledge, skills, and dispositions; how state policies can encourage effective use of high-quality materials; implementation and student outcomes associated with the strategies of the Louisiana Department of Education; perceptions and implementation of state standards for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students; and implementation, outcomes, and costs associated with pipelines for preparing, hiring, and supporting high-quality school leaders and teachers. Kaufman has also led several projects to develop innovative measures of instructional practice, including measures of student-centered learning and teachers’ mathematics instruction. Prior to coming to RAND, Kaufman’s research focused on the main factors that support teachers’ use of inquiry-based mathematics curricula and the extent to which survey measures can accurately capture teachers’ instruction. She holds a Ph.D. in international education from New York University and an M.A. in teaching from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Andrea served as the Managing Director of Partner Strategy at The Broad Center, leading efforts to collaborate with urban school systems and strategic alliances to accelerate excellence and equity for all students. This included serving as the executive sponsor for the Diversity Council and leading supports to partners related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Prior to joining The Broad Center, she was Executive Vice President at Reasoning Mind, a nonprofit organization focused on transforming math education in the United States. Andrea also served as a program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Andrea was responsible for developing and launching a $25 million Innovative Professional Development portfolio and challenge to help districts provide a differentiated, data-driven, collaborative, and technology-enabled professional development system. She was also responsible for coordinating the Foundation’s response for the U.S. Department of Education I3 grant matching requirements, coordinating all K12 related investments in Washington, DC and Baltimore, MD. Prior to working in philanthropy, Andrea spent a decade leading start-up nonprofits and initiatives, serving as the co-director of LA Youth at Work, national field director of Rock the Vote, and executive director of the Tavis Smiley Foundation.

She serves on several boards including iCivics, Coro Southern California and LA Promise Fund. Andrea earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, a master’s in public administration from Baruch College, and is a graduate of the Coro Southern California Public Affairs Fellows and National Urban Fellows programs.

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Civics, community, and connectivity are common themes across Amber’s career and social life. She spent much of her early career teaching and coaching middle and high school students and serving as a PTA board member at her children’s elementary school. Amber covers civics, K12 education, tech, and family wellness at Mom Of All Capes and her podcast (currently on pause) with her daughters, Let’s K12 Better. She has been featured in the L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, The Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and various other broadcast, podcast, and online media outlets.

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Sarah has interned in her local and national governments, in Supervisor Dan Storck and Congressman David Trone’s office. In her community, she is the Vice-President of her local Social Studies Honor Society, the Match-Up Coordinator in her school’s Stallion Ambassadors program, a former DECA Officer and Competitor, and a committed Girl Scout. Sarah is also on South County’s cross country and track teams and is the Co-Captain of the softball team. Sarah is a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute alumni, and continues to join organizations such as CHCI that represent and celebrate her Puerto Rican heritage. Sarah’s prominent goals are to seek out policymakers of her school district to increase the accessibility of educational resources and to serve as an advocate for underrepresented families in her community and beyond.

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Prior to her years with Facebook, Crystal focused on Immigration and Diversity Policy at the Center for American Progress, was a Communications Director for the U.S. Representative Tim Ryan, managing director with Petel & Co., a political consulting firm, and a strategic communications specialist with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees. On Hillary Clinton’s historic run for president in 2008, she led digital strategy and content creation for the campaign website and digital engagement with affinity groups. Prior to that, she launched Sen. Edward Kennedy’s first campaign website and digital program to drive message and raise money; in this role, she helped Sen. Kennedy build support around three Supreme Court nominations, the response to Hurricane Katrina, immigration reform and oversight of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also was part of the team that built out the first digital strategy program at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Originally from northeast Ohio, she currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area.

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At AEI, Dr. Levin and scholars in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies research division study the foundations of self-government and the future of law, regulation, and constitutionalism. They also explore the state of American social, political, and civic life, focusing on the preconditions necessary for family, community, and country to flourish.

Dr. Levin served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He was also executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics and a congressional staffer at the member, committee, and leadership levels.

In addition to being interviewed frequently on radio and television, Dr. Levin has published essays and articles in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Commentary. He is the author of several books on political theory and public policy, most recently “A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream” (Basic Books, 2020).

He holds an MA and PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

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Miriam teaches Technology Law and Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, where she serves as chair of the alumni board, and serves on the board of the Responsible AI Institute (RAII). Miriam also serves a senior advisor to the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT).

Previously, Miriam served in U.S. government leadership, including positions in the three branches of federal government. Most recently, she served as Associate Deputy Attorney General, where she advised the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) on a broad range of legal, policy and operational issues. Under the direction of DAG Sally Yates, Miriam led the creation and development of the Implicit Bias Training for Federal Law Enforcement. Miriam also spearheaded the Department’s Intellectual Property (IP) efforts to identify and dismantle IP theft domestically and internationally and worked with the DAG to manage Department divisions’ multibillion-dollar budgets, resolve high-level challenges, and represent the Department in briefings for White House, congressional and GAO staff on policy initiatives and oversight matters.

Miriam served in the White House in two Administrations, most recently as the Acting Director of Justice and Regulatory Affairs. She led the President’s Equal Pay Task Force to promote equality in the workplace. She also advised White House leadership on initiatives ranging from women, LGBT, economic, regulatory and food safety policy to criminal justice matters.

Prior to serving in the Obama administration, Miriam was Associate General Counsel at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and practiced entertainment/corporate transactional law at Sheppard Mullin in Los Angeles. Miriam began her legal career as a federal clerk in Denver, Colorado after graduating from Georgetown University Law Center and is a third generation alumna from the University of Michigan.

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His current work focuses on how people judge the credibility of digital content, research that has been reported in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, BBC, and Die Zeit, and translated into dozens of languages. Wineburg’s scholarship has appeared in outlets as diverse as Cognitive Science, Journal of American History, and the Journal of Educational Psychology, along with bylines in the New York Times, Washington Post, Slate and the Smithsonian.

His 2002 book, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts won the Frederic W. Ness Award from the Association of American Colleges and Universities for work that makes the most important contribution to the “improvement of Liberal Education and understanding the Liberal Arts.” In 2020, he was awarded UNESCO’s “Global Media and Information” prize. His latest book, Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Choices About What to Believe Online (Chicago), with co-author Mike Caulfield, will appear this coming October.

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Before his career in finance, Brandon had a 7-year career in the National Football League, with the Carolina Panthers and New York Giants. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing from Pennsylvania State University and received a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia Business School.

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Healy chaired the Illinois Task Force on Civic Education in 2014 and later led separate, successful legislative campaigns for a required civics course in Illinois in middle and high school, respectively. He also led the Illinois Social Science Standards Task Force. Its recommendations were adopted by the Illinois State Board of Education in 2015.

Healy makes regular appearances as a guest speaker and panelist at academic and professional development conferences across the country, is a frequent contributor to local and national media, and produces original scholarship in the area of political participation and civic education. Healy also serves as an adjunct professor in Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is a Serve Illinois Commissioner.

Before joining iCivics, Healy worked for fifteen years at the Robert R. McCormick Foundation in various capacities, most recently serving as Democracy Program Director. He began his career as a social studies teacher at West Chicago Community High School (IL) and Sheboygan North High School (WI). A 2001 James Madison Fellow from the State of Wisconsin, he holds a MA and PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in political science and earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction in Political Science, History and Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His dissertation is titled “Essential School Supports for Civic Learning.”

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Raj has dedicated his life to initiatives that help American citizens from all walks of life to become productive and engaged members of society. Early in his career, Raj co-founded the SEED Foundation, the nation’s first network of public, college-preparatory boarding schools for underserved children. The SEED schools were featured in both television and film, and Raj won multiple awards for his work with SEED, including Harvard University’s Innovation in American Government Award, Fast Company/Monitor Group’s Social Capitalist Award, and Oprah Winfrey’s Use Your Life Award. Raj continues to serve on the Board of Directors for SEED.

Before joining the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, Raj served as Executive Vice-President of the Aspen Institute. In this role, he launched and led the new Youth & Engagement Programs division devoted to youth leadership development, civic engagement, and opportunity.

Raj currently co-chairs the Civics and Civic Engagement Taskforce for the United States Congress Semiquincentennial Commission celebrating the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding. Raj also co-chairs the Civic Learning Pillar of the Partnership for American Democracy, a coalition of American leaders directing resources and attention toward efforts to save U.S. democracy, and serves on the advisory committee for Citizen Data.

He is the author of From Civic Education to a Civic Learning Ecosystem and has spoken on civic engagement to the Fordham Institute, Results for America, and the ASU GSV Summit. He regularly appears on media outlets such as NBC, CBS, and The Bulwark.

Raj grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the child of Indian immigrants who instilled in him the faith that a good education could open doors to great things. He graduated from Princeton University and is a recipient of Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Award, the university’s highest honor for undergraduate alumni.

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