Robert Balfanz
The Everyone Graduates Center
Johns Hopkins University

Brock Bierman
Managing/Senior Advisor
Civic Ancestry

John J. DiIulio Jr.
Frederic Fox Leadership Professor University of Pennsylvania

William Galston
Senior Fellow, Governance Studies
Brookings Institute

Michael J. Gerson
Hastert Fellow at Wheaton College
Columnist, The Washington Post

Stephen Goldsmith
Daniel Paul Professor of Government
Harvard's Kennedy School of Government

Amy A. Kass
Senior Fellow
Hudson Institute

Michelle Nunn
Chief Executive Officer
Points of Light Institute

Robert D. Putnam
Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy
Harvard University

Timothy Shriver
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Special Olympics

Randal C. Teague
Legal Counsel

Senator Harris Wofford
Former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania
Assistant to President John F. Kennedy
Chair of America's Promise Alliance

 



John M. Bridgeland
CEO & President of Civic Enterprises, LLC

John Bridgeland is President & CEO of Civic Enterprises, a public policy firm in Washington, D.C. He also is Vice Chairman of Malaria No More and Senior Advisor to the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, which together are mobilizing the public and private sectors to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. Bridgeland was recently appointed by President Obama to the White House Council for Community Solutions. He also is the author of the recently-released book, Heart of the Nation: 9/11 and America's Civic Spirit. Formerly, Bridgeland served as Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, where he coordinated policy on more than 100 issues, and then as Assistant to the President of the United States and first Director of the USA Freedom Corps, where he coordinated policy on international, national, community and faith-based service in the aftermath of 9/11. Bridgeland co-led the Policy Transition for the President in 2000-2001.

His work on the high school dropout crisis helped bring national attention to the issue, with the TIME cover story "Dropout Nation" and two Oprah Winfrey shows prompted by his report, The Silent Epidemic. Bridgeland led the National Summit on America's Silent Epidemic with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association, TIME Magazine and MTV that prompted action at the federal, state and local levels around a 10-point plan of action to boost high school graduation rates and college and workforce readiness. He co-authored the report, Building a Grad Nation, showing progress across 29 states in boosting high school graduation rates and launching a "Civic Marshall Plan" to meet the national goal of 90 percent high school graduation rates by 2020. This report was featured by President Obama in a broadcast from the Oval Office and on the PBS NewsHour, NBC and CBS. He is the author or co-author of a dozen reports related to the dropout epidemic.

Bridgeland also was a co-convener of ServiceNation, a Presidential forum with Senators Barack Obama and John McCain on September 11, 2008, and a national summit that showcased a 10-point plan to increase community, national and international service opportunities. The plan was included in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which was signed into law within the first 100 days of the Obama Administration. For his work in promoting the national service agenda, Bridgeland was selected a NonProfit Times Executive of the Year. Bridgeland also worked to build Malaria No More into a global movement, an effort he helped launch at the White House Summit on Malaria with President and Mrs. Bush. Bridgeland also worked with the National Parks Conservation Association to help develop the Centennial Initiative and Challenge to strengthen our National Parks; helped the National Conference on Citizenship develop America's Civic Health Index; co-leads Opportunity Nation to increase social mobility and reduce poverty; co-authored a report, More to Give, with Robert Putnam and Harris Wofford on the Greatest, Silent and Baby Boomer Generations for the 50th anniversary of the AARP; briefed the Presidential campaigns on domestic issues during 2008; and was a co-leader of Opportunity Nation to help restore access to the American Dream and boost social mobility among low-income Americans. Bridgeland is an experienced public speaker and has appeared on the NewsHour, CNN's Anderson Cooper, Fox News, BBC, National Public Radio, among others.

Bridgeland also was a Teaching Fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he offered a class on Presidential Decision Making. Bridgeland began his professional career by practicing law in the New York and Paris, France offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell. He also served as Chief of Staff and Counsel to former U.S. Congressman Rob Portman. Bridgeland graduated with honors in government from Harvard University, studied at the College of Europe and Universite Libre de Bruxelles as a Rotary International Fellow, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He has honorary degrees from Saint Anselm College and Ripon College, where he delivered the commencement addresses. He currently serves on many non-profit boards, including City Year, Earth Conservation Corps, EARTH University in Costa Rica, Malaria No More, the New Hampshire Institute of Politics; and the National Conference on Citizenship. Bridgeland has an interest in American history, our earliest settlers and the Founding. He is a direct descendant of three passengers of the Mayflower, veterans of the American Revolution and Civil Wars, and is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He lives with his wife, Maureen, and their three children, Caily, Fallon and Regis in McLean, Virginia.