The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, Simi Valley, California, will create a nonpartisan Center on Public Civility. Reagan Foundation Board Chairman Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., who has already stepped away from his Washington Post CEO position and will relinquish his publisher position in August, will lead the new Center starting on September 1.
“The Reagan Foundation has been promoting and teaching civility for years, but not through a formal center,” Reagan Foundation Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Giller wrote in an email to The NonProfit Times. “Fred Ryan is passionate about promoting civility and feels that now, more than ever, active voices need to help create change. He pitched the idea of the Center – as well as him running it – to our Board, and everyone agreed it was a good idea.”
The Center’s anticipated goals and activities, as announced in a press statement, include:
- Delivering an enduring and ongoing spotlight on simultaneously principled and effective leadership across political, policy, and national civic spheres.
- Bridging divides by identifying fault lines and bringing together stakeholders from across differences to find constructive solutions to our challenges.
- Strengthening public trust by fostering transparent, ethical, and accountable behavior across public service and in the media.
- Instilling and incentivizing the values of civility and respect in the leaders of today and tomorrow.
- Bringing elected officials and leaders from both political parties to engage in thoughtful, civil discourse focused on modeling bipartisan action and results.
- Publications and research that foster solution-oriented norms and behaviors.
- Civility training and simulations for students.
- Partnerships with organizations, including institutions of higher learning, to advance the cause of impact through civil discourse.
Key issues such as staffing, partners, budget and programming details will be hammered out during Ryan’s first year, Giller said.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation was established to further the 40th U.S. President’s legacy and principles, which include individual liberty, economic opportunity, global democracy and national pride. The Foundation is a non-partisan organization which sustains the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Reagan Center for Public Affairs, the Presidential Learning Center, The Air Force One Pavilion, the Discovery Center and the Reagan Institute, which carries out the Foundation’s mission in Washington, D.C.
