Ted Halstead Founder, New America
Anne-Marie Slaughter President & CEO, New America
The Honorable Elizabeth Warren Senator, Massachusetts
The digital age brings flexibility and dynamism to the economy, but also challenges current forms of security and equity. The disruptions in our economy, for both good and ill, offer our leaders opportunities to reframe the essential social contract we have with each other. It also asks government to rethink its relationship with its citizens. From safety nets to operation systems, from personal identity to income inequality, we need to rewire that social contract. New America has been leading these conversations for more than a decade. In this election year, we are poised to play a pivotal role in how the leading candidates write the new social contract. As the primary season settles and the general election turns its focus on our most pressing challenges, we will bring together the most original thinking on the most important public issues, to create conversations you won't hear anywhere else.
New America is dedicated to the renewal of American politics, prosperity, and purpose in the Digital Age. We carry out our mission as a nonprofit civic enterprise: an intellectual venture capital fund, think tank, technology laboratory, public forum, and media platform. Our hallmarks are big ideas, impartial analysis, pragmatic policy solutions, technological innovation, next generation politics, and creative engagement with broad audiences.
View a PDF of the conference program by clicking here.
Ted Halstead Founder, New America
Anne-Marie Slaughter President & CEO, New America
The Honorable Elizabeth Warren Senator, Massachusetts
Anne-Marie Slaughter President & CEO, New America
Jean Case CEO, Case Foundation and Chairman, National Geographic Society
"The future is already here, it just isn't evenly distributed." – William Gibson, Writer
Long before the term “gig economy” entered our vocabulary, it was clear that the implicit social contract—the division of responsibilities among workers, employers, community and government—was fraying and needed rethinking. In this session, we propose to look at the economy through the lens of the social contract. How does the changing nature of work affect individuals’ ability to build a secure future? How do we build a platform of benefits that are tied to the individual, rather than to the specific employment relationship.
This panel will bring together voices from government, academia and the private and non-profit sectors to discuss each sector’s role in shaping an economy that works for people.
Sara Horowitz Executive Director & Founder, Freelancers Union
Cecilia Muñoz Director, White House Domestic Policy Council
Betsey Stevenson Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Moderated by Catherine Rampell Opinion Writer, Washington Post
The Honorable Jeff Flake Senator, Arizona
All families need the same things to thrive; security, opportunity, and time to connect with each other and their community. Yet, the advantages and disadvantages tied to a family’s socio-economic status assure that these universal needs are unevenly met. As a result, a child’s ability to learn, grow, and chart her own path in the world is as much a product of the circumstances of her birth as her own effort, ability, and aspirations.
While there is an extensive policy infrastructure that should help the families falling short to gain ground, in fact, this infrastructure is weakest and least accessible for the families who need it the most, further stratifying existing inequalities.
This session will explore the ways that socio-economic status and public policy create de facto defaults for a child’s life trajectory and propose a new vision for designing social policy to support the universal need for security, opportunity, and time that all families share.
Heather Boushey Executive Director, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Kathryn Edin Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, John Hopkins University
Gillian White Senior Associate Editor, Atlantic
Moderated by K. Sabeel Rahman Fellow, New America and Assistant Professor, Brooklyn Law School
Everyone wants to live a Good Life. Men. Women. People with kids or taking care of elderly parents. People with no kids or no caregiving responsibilities. Millennials starting out. Baby Boomers ready for the next phase. And yet large shares of Americans, no matter their age or situation, report feeling stressed, harried, pressed for time, overwhelmed by the demands of work and life, and disengaged at work and distracted at home. These TED-style talks help us understand why - how much of the stress comes from a disconnect between the policy and cultural expectations that are set up to support a way of life that few people live anymore. More importantly, each speaker tells a powerful story about how meaningful change towards The Better Life comes from recognizing that disconnect, imagining a better future and both shifting policy and rewiring the automatic assumptions and expectations of culture to make that transformation.
Rewiring Gender – Michael Kaufman Senior Fellow, ProMundo
Rewiring Work: Disrupting the Idea of the "Ideal Worker" – Caroline Simard, PhD Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University
Rewiring Social Policy: How One Change to Parental Leave Policy in Québec Led to Greater Gender Equality at Work and Home – Ankita Patnaik Mathematica Policy Research
Farewell Ozzie & Harriet: Rewiring Hollywood and the Stories We Tell About Ourselves (Culture) – Kirsten Schaffer Executive Director, Women in Film
Rewiring Our Brains: Disrupting Unconscious Bias – Joan Williams Center for WorkLife Law, UC Hastings College of the Law
Technology is affecting learners of all ages, but too often educational institutions, students, and families become aware of its risks and opportunities haphazardly. The result can be unequal access, unfair application of new tools, and closed systems for distribution of new course materials and ideas. It's time for a new social contract for education that fully realizes the role of new technologies in learning. Hear from three visionaries in education technology on what this contract should look like and engage in a moderated discussion of how to make it real. Audience reactions and questions will be captured via Twitter (and prompted throughout the conference), and brought into the conversation.
Dr. Teresa Hardee Chief Operating Officer, Delaware State University
Vikki Katz Associate Professor, Rutgers University
David Wiley CEO, Lumen Learning
Moderated by Lisa Guernsey Deputy Director, Education Policy, New America
How do we support active participation in the new digital landscape by a diverse range of communities? From caregiving to education to employment opportunities, we increasingly rely on technology in all parts of our lives. But access to technology is dependent on many forces outside of the average user’s control, including location, cost, and competition. In addition, the ability to physically connect to the Internet, and the speed at which service providers support that connection, can play a critical role in opening up, or closing off, the digital environment for exploration. In this session, we look at the how, why and what behind the myriad of opportunities that technology offers, and the barriers to entry that many would-be active digital citizens routinely face.
Chike Aguh CEO, EveryoneOn
Geoffrey Blackwell Chief Strategy Officer & General Counsel, AMERIND Risk and Board Member, Native Public Media
Kevin Martin Vice President, Mobile and Global Access Policy, Facebook
Sarah Morris Senior Counsel & Director of Open Internet Policy, Open Technology Institute, New America
Steven Renderos National Organizer, Center for Media and Justice
Moderated by Karen Hanson Director, Partnerships/Interagency Affairs, BroadbandUSA (NTIA)
The robots aren't taking our jobs—in fact, they might just help people who badly need them. A discussion of the ways in which technology can be used to make ours a more diverse, inclusive, and upwardly mobile workforce.
Introduction by Byron Auguste Managing Director, Opportunity@Work, New America
Karan Chopra Partner, Opportunity@Work, New America
LaShana Lewis Associate Engineer, MasterCard
Liliana Monge Cofounder & CEO, Sabio.la
Alexis Ringwald Cofounder & CEO, LearnUp
Moderated by Tom Friedman Best-selling author and New York Times columnist
The number of gun related deaths in the United States is a startling one. In 2013 over 33,000 citizens lost their lives. It's a staggering number, and one that has risen in years since. What's more, every year, over 130,000 people are injured by firearms, leaving them with physical ailments and crippling healthcare costs that often last a lifetime.
Security is part the social contract between citizens and their government. What role does government have in protecting citizens from each other, especially as trust in the government is threatened by acts of police violence? In light of the shootings in San Bernardino, how does government balance privacy and freedom from freedom of terrorism?
Peter Bergen Vice President, New America
Trymaine Lee Fellow, New America and National Reporter, MSNBC
Father Michael Pfleger Priest and Social Activist
Americans’ deepening distrust of government holds back our ability to address many of our economic and social challenges. How did we lose sight of the virtues of a mixed economy? How can we restore a sense that government is us, not an outside force? Can innovations in government performance and service delivery help reconnect citizens? Can creativity at the state and local level be replicated or expanded? This panel will address these questions from a variety of perspectives.
Shayna Englin Managing Director, Change.org
Jacob Hacker Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University
Dianne Stewart President & CEO, Indivisible
The Honorable Ashley Swearengin Mayor, City of Fresno
Moderated by Molly Ball Staff Writer Atlantic
CEO, EveryoneOn
Chike Aguh serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of EveryoneOn, a national social enterprise dedicated to closing the digital divide. To date, EveryoneOn has connected almost 200,000 low-income families to the Internet and the opportunity it brings. Previously, Chike worked as an education policy official under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a second grade teacher and Teach For America corps member, a Fulbright Scholar in Thailand, and a director of corporate strategy at the Advisory Board Company.
Staff Writer, Atlantic
Molly Ball is a staff writer for the Atlantic, where she is a leading voice in the 158-year-old magazine’s coverage of U.S. politics. She has been awarded the Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, the Sandy Hume Memorial Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, and the Lee Walczak Award for Political Analysis for her coverage of political campaigns and issues. She appears regularly as an analyst on NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, PBS’s Washington Week, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and NPR.
New America Vice President
Peter Bergen is a print, television and web journalist, documentary producer, vice president at New America, CNN national security analyst, professor of practice at Arizona State University, and the author or editor of seven books, three of which were New York Times bestsellers and three of which were named among the best non-fiction books of the year by the Washington Post. The books have been translated into twenty languages. Documentaries based on his books have been nominated for two Emmys and also won the Emmy for best documentary in 2013.
Chief Strategy Officer & General Counsel, AMERIND Risk and Board Member, Native Public Media
Geoffrey Blackwell is AMERIND’s Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel. He oversees the Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources, and Communications Departments, as well as AMERIND’s newest entity, AMERIND Critical Infrastructure. He also directs AMERIND’s legal affairs and strategic development and diversification efforts. Mr. Blackwell is a nationally recognized expert in Tribal economic and corporate development, and Tribal communications infrastructure deployment. He has testified before the United States Congress on six occasions, and before dozens of Tribal Councils.
Executive Director, Washington Center for Economic Growth
Heather Boushey is Executive Director and Chief Economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Her research focuses on economic inequality and public policy, specifically employment, social policy, and family economic well-being. The New York Times has called Boushey one of the “most vibrant voices in the field,” and she testifies often before Congress on economic policy issues. Her research has been published in academic journals; she writes regularly for popular media, including the New York Times’ “Room for Debate,” the Atlantic, and Democracy; and she makes frequent television appearances on Bloomberg, MSNBC, CNBC, and PBS.
CEO, Case Foundation and Chairman, National Geographic Society
Jean Case is an actively engaged philanthropist, investor and a pioneer in the world of interactive technologies. Her career in the private sector spanned nearly two decades before she and her husband, Steve Case, created the Case Foundation in 1997. A passionate believer in all things digital and the amazing potential of technology to change the world for the better, Jean and her team focus the efforts of the Foundation around many of the same entrepreneurial approaches she and Steve cultivated throughout their business careers. The Case Foundation is recognized for its innovative efforts to address significant social challenges, harnessing the best impulses of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology and collaboration to drive exponential impact.
Partner, Opportunity@Work, New America
Karan Chopra is a Partner at Opportunity@Work, a civic enterprise based at New America in Washington, D.C., which aims to re-wire the U.S. labor market in ways that enable more Americans to achieve upward mobility in the job market and workplace, to facilitate collective investment by employers to develop the talent they need to succeed and grow, and to scale up promising innovations which unlock more fully the potential of all people for higher-value, meaningful work as a source of economic opportunity and national competitive advantage.
Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, John Hopkins University
Kathryn Edin is one of the nation’s leading poverty researchers, working in the domains of welfare and low-wage work, family life, and neighborhood contexts. A qualitative and mixed-method researcher, she has taken on key mysteries about the urban poor that have not been fully answered by quantitative work: How do single mothers possibly survive on welfare? Why don’t more go to work? Why do they end up as single mothers in the first place? Where are the fathers and why do they disengage from their children’s lives? How have the lives of the single mothers changed as a result of welfare reform? Edin has authored 7 books and more than 60 journal articles. The hallmark of her research is her direct, in-depth observations of the lives of low-income women, men, and children.
Managing Director, Change.org
Shayna Englin is the Managing Director of North America at Change.org. She brings nearly 20 years of experience in campaigns, digital and traditional grassroots, and advocacy at the local, state, and federal levels. Shayna is a recognized expert on effective grassroots advocacy strategies, and in particular the intersection of digital and traditional tactics.
Senator, Arizona
Senator Jeff Flake is a fifth-generation Arizonan who was raised on a cattle ranch in Snowflake, Arizona. Snowflake was named in part for Senator Flake's great-great grandfather. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, Jeff served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-2013 representing the East Valley. As a member of the U.S. Senate, Jeff sits on the Judiciary Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Foreign Relations Committee where he also serves as chairman of Subcommittee on African Affairs.
Best-selling author and New York Times columnist
Thomas Friedman, an internationally known author and journalist, has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at the New York Times. His foreign affairs column in the New York Times reports on U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, Middle East conflicts, international economics, environment, biodiversity and energy.
Deputy Director, Education Policy, New America
Lisa Guernsey is deputy director of the Education Policy program and director of the Learning Technologies Project at New America. She leads teams of writers and analysts to tell stories, translate research, examine policies, and generate ideas for new approaches to help disadvantaged students succeed.
Director, Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University
Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. A regular media commentator and policy adviser, he is a member of the OECD’s High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, the director of the Economic Security Index project, and the author or coauthor of five books, numerous journal articles, and a wide range of popular writings on American politics and policy.
Founder, New America
Ted Halstead, New America’s founder, served as the institution’s first president and CEO from its inception in 1999 until 2007. He is a frequent public speaker and media commentator, having appeared as a guest on Nightline, ABC’s World News Tonight, CNN, CNBC, C-SPAN, and PBS. Halstead has published frequent articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Atlantic, Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review. He is coauthor with Michael Lind of The Radical Center: The Future of American Politics (Doubleday, 2001), and editor of The Real State of the Union (Basic Books, 2004).
Director, Partnerships/Interagency Affairs, BroadbandUSA (NTIA)
Karen Hanson is the Director of Partnerships and Interagency Affairs for BroadbandUSA with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Karen is responsible for promoting partnerships with BroadbandUSA and coordinating NTIA’s interagency efforts to promote broadband adoption and deployment. Karen also manages NTIA’s work on the Broadband Opportunity Council (BOC), an interagency working group established by Presidential Memorandum and cochaired by Assistant Secretary of Commerce and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling. Karen’s background includes experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and private sectors.
Chief Operating Officer, Delaware State University
Currently serving as Delaware State University’s Chief Operating Officer, Dr. Teresa Hardee brings over 20 years of accounting, auditing, budgeting, and managerial experience. Dr. Hardee holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration (and a minor in Accounting) from Fayetteville State University, Master of Public Administration degree from North Carolina Central University, and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hardee is also a Certified Public Accountant and completed the IEM program at Harvard University. Since joining Delaware State University, Dr. Hardee’s leadership has produced unprecedented standards of improving financial oversight and manageability, business-process management and leveraging technological advancements to ensure effective and efficient processes.
Executive Director & Founder, Freelancers Union
As Freelancers Union’s Founder and Executive Director, Sara Horowitz has been helping the new workforce build solutions together for nearly two decades. A MacArthur Foundation “Genius” fellow and Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve of New York, Sara is a leading voice for the emerging economy. Today, nearly 54 million Americans are independent workers—about one-third of the entire workforce. With a membership of 300,000 nationwide, Freelancers Union is building a new form of unionism through creative, cooperative, market-based solutions to today’s social challenges.
Associate Professor, Rutgers University
Vikki Katz is Associate Professor at the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University and a Senior Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop. Her research focuses on issues related to digital equity, family dynamics, and social opportunity. Most recently, she coauthored Opportunity for All?: Technology and Learning in Lower-income Families, on this topic. She is also author of two books: Kids in the Middle: How Children of Immigrants Negotiate Community Interactions for their Families (Rutgers U Press) and Understanding Ethnic Media: Producers, Consumers, and Societies (Sage Publications).
Senior Fellow, ProMundo
Michael Kaufman, PhD, is an educator and writer focused on engaging men and boys to promote gender equality and end violence against women. Over the past three-and-half decades, he has worked in some fifty countries with the United Nations, governments, NGOs, businesses, trade unions, and universities. Michael is the cofounder of the White Ribbon Campaign, the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. He is a Senior Fellow at Instituto Promundo. He is the author or editor of eight books and his articles have been translated into sixteen languages. He is the coauthor of last year’s State of the World’s Fathers report. His latest book, The Afghan Vampires Book Club (cowritten with Gary Barker), is an anti-war novel.
Fellow, New America and National Reporter, MSNBC
Trymaine Lee will write a book on the true costs of gun violence in America, in terms of lost dreams and wasted dollars, to be published by St. Martin’s Press. He is currently a national reporter for MSNBC. For more than a dozen years, Lee has chronicled the role of race, violence, law enforcement, and politics in the lives of everyday Americans.
Associate Engineer, MasterCard
LaShana Lewis is a Server Engineer at MasterCard. She is a role model for diversity in the technology community and serves as the treasurer MasterCard’s global LGBT group, PRIDE. LaShana is graduate of the LaunchCode apprenticeship program and, in 2015, met with President Barack Obama as part of the nationwide TechHire Initiative.
Vice President, Mobile and Global Access Policy, Facebook
Kevin Martin is the Vice-President for Mobile and Global Access Policy at Facebook where he oversees, among others, Facebook's connectivity programs and communication regulatory issues. Previously, he served as Chairman (2005-2009) and Commissioner (2001-2005) of the Federal Communications Commission. During his tenure, the FCC adopted a nonbinding policy statement on net neutrality which led to the 2010 Open Internet Order. After leaving the FCC he joined the Aspen Institute as a Senior Fellow at the think tank's Communications and Society Program, and later the law firm Squire Patton Boggs LLP as a Partner.
Cofounder & CEO, Sabio.la
Liliana Aide Monge is the cofounder and CEO of Sabio, an innovative social enterprise working to increase the number of women, and people of color that become professional software engineers. Since its inception, 75 percent of its graduates are either Latino or African American and 40 percent are women, which is 10 percent higher than the industry average. Sabio offers training to anyone that is highly motivated and no prior technical experience is needed.
Senior Counsel & Director of Open Internet Policy, Open Technology Institute, New America
As a senior policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute at New America, Sarah Morris leads the policy team's strategic efforts on issues related broadband access and adoption, online consumer protections, and preserving the open Internet. Her work on network neutrality has been widely quoted in a number of national publications, and she has appeared as an expert on radio and television outlets. She is a regular contributor for the Hill, and frequently writes for a variety of other national outlets.
Director, White House Domestic Policy Council
Cecilia Muñoz is the President’s Domestic Policy Advisor and the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Previously, Ms. Muñoz served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Mathematica Policy Research
Ankita Patnaik is an economist based in Washington, D.C. She is currently at Mathematica Policy research, working on large-scale social experiments to study how social programs can be effectively designed to improve public well-being. She received her PhD from Cornell University, where she conducted research on issues of Labor Economics and Family and Social Welfare Policy.
Priest and Social Activist
Rev. Dr. Michael Louis Pfleger has been recognized for his fight against alcohol and tobacco billboards, drugs and racism in People, Time, Ebony, Newsweek and Jet magazines; the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Reader and numerous other papers and journals. He has also been profiled on the following television shows: Day One (ABC), 60 Minutes (CBS), the Larry King Show, and Nightline.
Fellow, New America and Assistant Professor, Brooklyn Law School
K. Sabeel Rahman is an Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and a Fellow at New America. His first book, Democracy Against Domination (forthcoming, Oxford University Press) offers a new account of how ideals of democracy can respond to persisting disparities of economic power, particularly in context of debates over economic regulation and reform debates after the 2008 financial crisis. His next book project expands these themes to examine the interactions between social movements, public policy, and inclusive governance in present-day efforts to address economic inequality. His popular writings have appeared in the Atlantic, the Boston Review, the Nation, and Salon.com.
Opinion Writer, Washington Post
Catherine Rampell writes a twice-weekly, nationally syndicated opinion column for the Washington Post. She frequently covers economics, public policy, politics, and culture, with a special emphasis on data-driven journalism. She previously wrote about economics and theater for the New York Times.
National Organizer, Center for Media and Justice
Steven Renderos is the Senior Campaign Manager at the Center for Media Justice. He is passionate about the role that media and communications can play in supporting movements for social change. He approaches this work as a community organizer and has over 10 years of experience mobilizing campaign around immigrant rights, affordable housing, and most recently media justice. He helps lead CMJ's advocacy and organizing efforts, engaging members of the Media Action Grassroots Network to advocate for affordable prison telephone calls, strong Net Neutrality rules and most recently the expansion of the Lifeline program.
Cofounder & CEO, LearnUp
Alexis Ringwald is an entrepreneur with a passion for solving massive social challenges. She cofounded LearnUp after spending six months in America’s unemployment offices researching the education and jobs crisis. Prior to LearnUp, Alexis lived in India for three years as a Fulbright Scholar. While there, she codirected a Climate Solutions Road Tour driving 2,400 miles across India in solar plug-in electric cars. Alexis then cofounded Valence Energy, which was acquired by Serious Energy in 2010. Alexis is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, and on Forbes 30 Under 30 and Fast Company's Most Influential Women in Tech.
Executive Director, Women in Film
Kirsten Schaffer is the Executive Director of Women In Film, Los Angeles the preeminent organization promoting gender parity in Hollywood. Previously, she spent fourteen years at Outfest, as Director of Programming and Deputy Director before being appointed Executive Director in 2009. She is widely credited as having grown Outfest into the leading LGBT media arts organization that it is. During Schaffer’s tenure at Outfest, she launched three new programs for the organization: The Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, the Fusion LGBT People of Color Film Festival and OutSet, the Young Filmmakers Project from the Los Angeles LGBT Center and Outfest.
Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University
Caroline Simard is passionate about building better workplaces for women through evidence-based solutions. As Research Director, she is responsible for leading research designed to build more effective and inclusive organizations. Previously, she was Associate Director of Diversity and Leadership at the Stanford School of Medicine, where she implemented innovative models for increasing work-life integration to increase faculty satisfaction and retention.
President & CEO, New America
Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter is the President and CEO of New America. From 2002-2009 she was the Dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. From 2009-2011 she served as Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Upon leaving the State Department she received the Secretary’s Distinguished Service Award for her work leading the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. She is the author of A New World Order, The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values in a Dangerous World, and most recently Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family.
Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Michigan
Betsey Stevenson is an Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. She is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and a Fellow of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich. She served as a Member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2013 to 2015 and as the Chief Economist of the US Department of Labor from 2010 to 2011.
President & CEO, Indivisible
Dianne Stewart is President and CEO of Indivisible, building understanding about the value and potential of government and engaging people in imagining and creating the government we need for the future. She was also the founding President of Public Works, which built an articulate constituency of thousands of community leaders for public systems and structures. Dianne founded the Texas Center for Public Policy Priorities, a highly-regarded think tank providing credible analysis on state fiscal and policy issues.
Mayor, City of Fresno
Ashley Swearengin is mayor of Fresno. Since taking office in 2009, she has implemented substantial changes in the way services are delivered to the public and launched initiatives to revitalize downtown Fresno and its surrounding neighborhoods, promote business and jobs growth, and address homelessness.
Senator, Massachusetts
Elizabeth Warren was elected to the United States Senate on November 6, 2012, by the people of Massachusetts. Warren is recognized as one of the nation's top experts on bankruptcy and the financial pressures facing middle class families. She is widely credited for the original thinking that led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Warren served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Her efforts to protect taxpayers and to ensure tough oversight of both the Bush and Obama Administrations won praise from both sides of the aisle. The Boston Globe named Elizabeth Warren Bostonian of the Year and Time called her a "New Sheriff of Wall Street" for her oversight efforts.
Senior Associate Editor, Atlantic
Gillian B. White is a senior associate editor at the Atlantic where she covers a broad range of topics related to business and economics. White also helps to manage the Next Economy project, which focuses on stories about the ways America is changing, growing, and coping with economic challenges. She was previously an associate editor at Kiplinger.
CEO, Lumen Learning
Dr. David Wiley is Chief Academic Officer of Lumen Learning, an organization dedicated to increasing student success, reinvigorating pedagogy, and improving the affordability of education through the adoption of open educational resources by schools, community and state colleges, and universities. He is also currently the Education Fellow at Creative Commons and adjunct faculty in Brigham Young University's graduate program in Instructional Psychology and Technology, where he leads the Open Education Group (and was previously a tenured Associate Professor).
Center for WorkLife Law, UC Hastings College of the Law
Described as having “something approaching rock star status” by the New York Times, Joan C. Williams has played a central role in reshaping the conversation about women and work over the past quarter-century. Williams is a Distinguished Law Professor and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at University of California, Hastings. Her path-breaking work helped create modern workplace flexibility policies and the field of work-family studies. Her approach to implicit gender bias has influenced how organizations conceptualize and implement performance evaluations, compensation systems, and bias training.
With special recognition and gratitude to the foundations supporting New America's vision to reinvent the think tank:
Watch the full archived video of this year's conference at the links below.
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Pavilion Room
Washington, DC 20004
The conference is being held in the Pavilion Room of the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. We strongly recommend entering the building through the 13 ½ Street Entrance off of Pennsylvania Avenue. We will have directional signs located throughout the building and staff wayfinders at the main entrances during registration.
Air travelers can fly into Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA), Dulles International Airport (IAD) or Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
DCA is located approximately 4 miles from the conference venue and driving without traffic should take approximately 10 minutes. IAD is located approximately 26.5 miles from the conference venue and driving without traffic should take about 45 minutes. BWI is located approximately 35.5 miles from the conference venue and driving without traffic should take just over an hour.
For more detailed driving directions to the Ronald Reagan Building, please click here. For parking information, please visit the Ronald Reagan Building website.
The nearest metro stops are Metro Center (Red Line) and Federal Triangle (Orange, Blue, and Silver Lines, connected to basement floor of the Ronald Reagan Building). For more detailed directions to the conference venue from the metro, please click here.
Registration is now closed. Invitees who have not yet registered are still encouraged to attend—please bring proof of invitation and identity to the conference site.