How to Restore the Public Trust
Program Titles
- Meaningful Chaos: How People Form Relationships With Public Concerns
- How to create change in the face of negative conditions
- New kinds of leaders & civic-minded organizations
- Create more advocates for public life
- Ignite a sense of possibility and hope in America
- Helps leaders authentically engage their communities
- Improve the political conduct of citizens, leaders, and news media across the nation
- Political Fortunes: A Public Voice on Money and Politics
- Community Rhythms: Five Stages of Community Life
Richard C. Harwood, devoted his energies to spreading a vision for what American society should be and putting innovative practices to use on the ground to turn that vision into reality.
A leading authority on improving America’s communities, raising standards of political conduct, and re-engaging citizens on today’s most complex and controversial public issues.
“If we are to improve politics and public life,” says Harwood, for Public Innovation, “then we need to release ourselves from our resignation that public life and politics has to be the way that it is today, and declare that it can be better, that we can be better. There is unfinished work to do.”
Harwood, who has been called “one of the great thinkers in American public life,” has dedicated his life to finishing that work.
Harwood seeks to uncover answers to some of the most pressing questions of our time. He has worked with thousands of people in dozens of U.S. cities, spreading a vision for what American society should be and putting innovative practices to use on the ground to turn that vision into reality. Every day, Harwood is leading the charge to redeem hope in our politics and public life.
A dynamic and inspirational public speaker, Harwood has been featured at hundreds of events for foundations and national organizations.
He is a commentator and contributor on national and syndicated television, newspapers, radio and web sites, including MSNBC, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN’s Inside Politics, The Jim Bohannon Show, Special Report with Brit Hume, and C-SPAN, as well as on Dallas, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Hampshire, and National Public Radio, where he has been the featured guest on Talk of the Nation.
Recently, Harwood hosted a highly successful public TV and radio program in Cleveland, Ohio called How Far Will You Go?
This 90-minute broadcast challenged citizens and community leaders to step forward to re-engage in Cleveland’s public life.
He also is a regular panelist on the annual public television broadcast A Public Voice, hosted by former CNN news anchor Frank Sesno.
Harwood was a featured speaker along with Colin Powell and Doris Kearns Goodwin at the White House Fellows 35th Anniversary Program.
He is a faculty member of the Public Affairs Institute and also has lectured at the prestigious Poynter Institute, a national school of journalism.
His past experience includes service on the policy staffs of U.S. presidential and congressional election campaigns and as director of issues research for Public Agenda.
Harwood has also traveled in the former Soviet Union to consult with mayors and non-governmental organizations on more effective governance.
Finding Relevance in Hard Times: The economic downturn has sent a shiver throughout the non-profit and civic community and among funders, too. Money is in short supply, and people are scurrying about to secure their organization’s future. But where are we running to, and why? What I hear most often these days is people’s belief that they must prove their worth and value to their funders, members, Congress, and others if…
Harwood received his B.A. in Political Economy, graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was a Harry S. Truman Scholar.
He received his M.A. in Public Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Books by Richard C. Harwood
- Hope Unraveled
- A New Political Covenant: America’s Aspirations for Political Conduct
- Citizens and Politics: A View From Main Street America
- America’s Struggle Within: Citizens Talk About the State of the Union
- Hope: Americans’ Aspirations for Public Life and Politics
- Will any Kind of Talk Do? Moving From Personal Concerns to Public Life
Book Richard C. Harwood for your Event!