Agenda

Day 1 – Perspectives on Technology and Civic Leadership

9:30 a.m. Registration / Refreshments

10 a.m. Welcome

• Sonny Perdue, Chancellor, University System of Georgia
• Introduced by Ángel Cabrera, President, Georgia Tech

10:15 — 11:45 a.m. Robert George and Cornel West in Dialogue: Truth Matters: Fruitful Disagreement in an Era of Rapid Technological Change

• Moderated by Amanda Murdie, Dean, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Tech

11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Lunch

12:45 – 2 p.m. Panel 1: Civic Thought and Civil Discourse Programs: Opportunities and Challenges

• Moderator: Zachary Peskowitz, Masse-Martin NEH Professor of Political Science, Emory University
• Panelists:
  • Stephanie Almeida Nevin, Executive Director, Yale Center for Civic Thought
  • Paul Carrese, Founding Director, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership, Arizona State University
  • Chris Celenza, James B. Knapp Dean of Arts and Sciences, Johns Hopkins University
  • Joshua Dunn, Executive Director, Institute of American Civics, University of Tennessee

2 – 3:15 pm Panel 2: Informing Public Debate and Leading at the Intersection of Technology and Policy

• Moderator: Laura Taylor, Director, Energy Policy and Innovation Center, Georgia Tech
• Panelists:
  • Kara Dillard, Executive Director, James Madison Center for Civic Engagement
  • Mahmud Farooque, Associate Director, Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes
  • James Patton Rogers, Executive Director, Cornell Tech Policy Institute

3:15 — 3:30 p.m. Break

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Panel 3: Engaging Students and Faculty Successfully in Civic Leadership and Technology Policy Initiatives

• Moderator: Roberta Berry, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education & Student Success, Georgia Tech
• Panelists:
  • Sarah Ropp, Dialogue Director, SNF Paideia Program, University of Pennsylvania
  • Jay Sexton, Director, Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, University of Missouri
  • Mary McCartin Wearn, President, Georgia Humanities

4:45 — 5 p.m. Closing Remarks

• Aaron Levine, Interim Executive Director, Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership

5 – 6:30 p.m. Reception

Day 2 – Co-Creating Georgia Tech’s Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership

9 a.m. Registration / Refreshments

9:30 a.m. Welcome

• Amanda Murdie, Dean, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Tech

9:40 —10:30 a.m. Panel 4: Day 1 Takeaways and Georgia Tech Stakeholder Perspectives

• Moderator: Aaron Levine, Interim Exec. Director, Institute for Technology and Civic Leadership
• Panelists:
  • Luoluo Hong, Vice President for Student Engagement and Well-Being
  • Larry Jacobs, Executive Vice Provost for Education and Learning
  • Julia Kubanek, Vice President for Interdisciplinary Research
  • Kelley Collier, SGA Vice President of Operations

10:30 – 10:45 a.m. Break

10:45 – 11:45 a.m. Breakout 1: Shaping the Institute for Technology and Civic Technology Together: Your
Ideas and Input

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Report Backs from Small Group Discussions

12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Lunch, Closing Discussion, and Next Steps

Participant Bios

Sonny Perdue is the 14th chancellor of University System of Georgia. In this role, Perdue oversees 25 public colleges and universities with a $12.1B annual budget, 54,000 faculty and staff and more than 382,000 students. The Georgia Public Library Service and the Georgia Archives are also part of USG, which has been recognized nationally for its efforts in affordability, cost savings and student attainment. The number of students annually earning degrees has increased more than 50.6% since 2011.

Prior to becoming chancellor, Perdue was the 31st Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 2017 to 2021. He also served two terms as the governor of Georgia, from 2003 to 2011, and was a member of the Georgia Senate from 1991 to 2001, where he chaired the Senate Higher Education Committee and eventually became Senate President Pro Tem. As Agriculture Secretary, Perdue managed a workforce of 110,000 employees with the stated objective of being the most efficient, effective and customer-friendly agency in federal government. This included stabilizing the food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic and launching the Farmers to Families Food Box program to ensure the most vulnerable Americans were fed.

Ángel Cabrera is the 12th president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, one of America’s leading research universities, which serves more than 56,000 students and conducts more than $1.4 billion in annual sponsored research.

Since Cabrera’s arrival in the fall of 2019, enrollment has grown to an all-time high, admission applications have set Institute and state records, and the undergraduate program became the third most-selective among public universities in the United States. Offering best-in-class graduation rates and career outcomes, coupled with lower tuition and fees than most other leading research universities, Georgia Tech is consistently recognized for offering one of the best returns on investment for students. 

Georgia Tech’s research enterprise has also experienced considerable growth since 2019. With more than $1.4 billion in annual research expenditures, the Institute ranks among the top 20 most research-intensive universities in the nation and is No. 1 among institutions without a medical school. 

Amanda Murdie is dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Regents’ Professor, and Ivan Allen Jr. Chair. She joined the College from the University of Georgia, where she was head of the Department of International Affairs and Georgia Athletic Association Professor.

Murdie studies International Relations, specializing in the behavior of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and their interactions with states, local populations, and intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). Most of her work is in the areas of human security, human rights, conflict processes, and development. She has published more than 80 articles and book chapters in such journals as the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, and International Organization. Murdie has worked with both the policy and the NGO communities to develop new quantitative measures that capture the power of human security INGOs and track the spread of human security norms among non-state actors. Murdie also was previously a professor at Kansas State University and the University of Missouri.

Zachary Peskowitz is the Masse-Martin NEH Professor of Political Science at Emory University where he conducts research on elections and public policy in the United States. Peskowitz received his Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2012. During the 2020-21 academic year, he was the W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and Starr Foundation Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His articles have been published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, the Journal of Public Economics, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and other journals. 

Peskowitz teaches courses on public policy, elections, and statistical methods at the undergraduate and graduate level. His research and analysis have received coverage in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other publications and he is regularly quoted in international, national, and local print, radio, and television outlets. 

Laura Taylor is director of the Energy Policy and Innovation Center (EPIcenter) at Georgia Tech. Prior to being named director of EPIcenter, she chaired the School of Economics from 2018-2024. She has extensive experience in policy evaluation and the valuation of natural resources and the environment. Recent research applications include evaluating the impact of renewable energy infrastructure on local communities, identifying the impacts of air pollution exposures on health outcomes, improving benefits estimation for policies designed to reduce human mortality, examining household responses to water conservation policies, and evaluating the benefits of hazardous waste site cleanup. Her research has received funding from a variety of sources including the US EPA, USDA, US Department of Interior and the National Science Foundation. She is a Fellow of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, is Vice President of the Southern Economic Association, a member of the Board of Directors for Resources for the Future, and has held numerous state and federal advisory board positions.  Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2018, Taylor was director of the Center for Environmental and Resource Economic Policy at North Carolina State University.

Roberta Berry is associate professor of public policy at Georgia Tech and is jointly appointed as professor of Science and Technology Law, Policy, and Ethics at Georgia State University College of Law (currently on leave). Her research focuses on bioethics, health law and policy, and the legal, ethical, and policy implications of bioscience and biotechnology research and innovation. A secondary research focus is pedagogical approaches to cultivating complex problem solving skills. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses that span these research areas, including graduate courses that enroll Georgia Tech graduate students and Georgia State law students. Berry is currently serving as the director of the Georgia Tech Honors Program. Berry's publications include two books, The Ethics of Genetic Engineering and A Health Law Reader: An Interdisciplinary Approach. She has authored a number of articles and book chapters, including the award-winning, co-authored article "The Absent Professor: Why We Don’t Teach Research Ethics and What to Do about It" (Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership) and "The Human Genome Project and the End of Insurance" (reprinted in National Insurance Law Review, A Compilation of Significant Articles on Insurance). 

Aaron Levine is associate dean for research and outreach in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and professor in the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. His research addresses the intersection between public policy and biomedical innovation, especially in the context of stem cells, cell therapy, and assisted reproduction. He is a member of the leadership team for the NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), leading ethics and policy research for the center and previously served as Co-Director for CMaT's Engineering Workforce Development activities from 2017 to 2022. Since joining Georgia Tech, Levine has participated as PI, co-PI or senior personnel, in $45M+ in sponsored funding, including NSF CAREER, IGERT, NRT and ERC awards. He served as vice-chair for bioethics on the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy’s Committee on the Ethics of Cell and Gene Therapy and completed a three-year term as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities in 2022. From 2014 to 2023, he held an appointment as a guest researcher in the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is also a long-time member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (where he is also an honorary fellow).

Luoluo Hong joined the Georgia Institute of Technology as the inaugural Vice President for Student Engagement & Well-Being on August 1st, 2021. To this role, Hong brings over 33 years of experience in higher education spanning seven campuses. She came to the Institute from the California State University system where she served for seven years – first as the vice president for student affairs and enrollment management and Title IX/Title VI coordinator at San Francisco State University (2014-2019) and then as the associate vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management in the System Office (2019-2021).

She was also vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Hawaiˈi at Hilo from 2008-2014, where she concurrently took on the role of acting Athletic Director for one and a half years. Hong began her career at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge as a health promotion professional (1992-2000). Other senior administrative roles have included assistant vice president  and dean of students at Shepherd College (2000-2002); dean of students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2002-2005); and dean of student affairs at the West campus for Arizona State University (2005-2007). 

Larry Jacobs is senior vice provost for education and learning in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and professor of mechanical engineering. Jacobs received his Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Columbia University and joined the faculty of Georgia Tech in 1988. Prior to receiving his Ph.D., he worked for two years in the aerospace industry and for one year as a structural engineer. Jacobs’ research focuses on the development of quantitative methodologies for the nondestructive evaluation and life prediction of structural materials. This includes the application of nonlinear ultrasound for the characterization of fatigue, creep, stress-corrosion, thermal embrittlement and radiation damage in metals. His work in cement-based materials includes the application of linear and nonlinear ultrasonic techniques to quantify microstructure and progressive micro-cracking in concrete. acobs’ publications have been cited more than 4900 times with an h-index of 39 (Google Scholar), 31 (Scopus) or 28 (Web of Science) and he is a Fellow of the ASME. 

Julia Kubanek serves as Georgia Tech’s vice president for interdisciplinary research and is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In this role, she oversees and supports interdisciplinary activities at Georgia Tech including the Interdisciplinary Research Institutes (IRIs); the Pediatric Technology Center (PTC), the Novelis Innovation Hub; the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI); and the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI). She also partners across the institute on developing and advancing new research initiatives based on student and faculty interests, expertise, and societal need.

Kubanek has held several previous leadership roles at Georgia Tech, including associate dean for research in the College of Sciences and associate chair in the School of Biological Sciences. She joined the faculty at Georgia Tech in 2001. Her areas of research interest include chemical signaling among organisms (especially in aquatic systems), natural products chemistry, metabolomics, chemical biology, and drug discovery. She has authored approximately 100 research articles on marine plankton and coral reef chemical ecology, and on the discovery, mechanism of action, and biosynthesis of marine natural products.  Kubanek received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Queen’s University, Canada, in 1991 and her Ph.D. in at the University of British Columbia in 1998, and performed postdoctoral research at the University of California – San Diego and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.   

Sultan Ziyad, SGA President

James Patton Rogers is the executive director of the Brooks Tech Policy Institute, the home of technology and national security policy research at Cornell University. An expert on drone warfare, disruptive technologies, international security, and geopolitics, he is currently the NATO Country Director (PI) of the Full Spectrum Drone Warfare project, supported by NATO SPS, and leads the Strategic Foresight Analysis component of the DoD-funded US Semiconductor Research Hub. An award winning teacher, Rogers leads courses on Contemporary Security Policy, Global Policy Challenges, Disruptive and Emerging Technologies, and Country Risk Analysis (available through eCornell).

Before joining Cornell, Rogers was associate professor in international politics within the Center for War Studies and Danish Institute for Advanced Studies at SDU in Denmark. Prior to this, he was a fellow at the University of Oxford, Stanford University, and Yale University. He has also held visiting positions with the US Air Force Air Command and Staff College, Sandia National Labs, and Loughborough University. He obtained his PhD from the University of Hull (UK).

Jay Sexton is the Rich and Nancy Kinder Chair of Constitutional Democracy, professor of history, and director of the Kinder Institute. A native of Salina, Kansas, Sexton returned to the Midwest to the University of Missouri in 2016 after spending the better part of two decades at Oxford University in England. He started in Oxford as a grad student Marshall Scholar and worked his way up to being Director of the Rothermere American Institute (RAI) and, upon his departure, being elected a Distinguished Fellow of the RAI and an Emeritus Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Sexton specializes in the political and economic history of the nineteenth century. His research situates the United States in its international context, particularly as it related to the dominant global structure of the era, the British Empire. His most recent book, A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American History (Basic Books, 2018), argues that international forces have shaped the course of U.S. history during its greatest moments of transformative change.

Paul O. Carrese is director of the Center for American Civics (summer 2025 - ), and professor in the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, serving as its founding director 2016 to 2023. Formerly he was a professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, co-founding its honors program blending liberal arts and leadership education. He teaches and publishes on the American founding, American constitutional and political thought, civic education, and American grand strategy. His forthcoming book is Teaching America: Reflective Patriotism in Schools, College, and Culture (Cambridge, 2026). He has held fellowships at Oxford (Rhodes Scholar); Harvard; University of Delhi (Fulbright); and the James Madison Program, Princeton. He served on the advisory board of the Program on Public Discourse at UNC Chapel Hill; co-led a national study, Educating for American Democracy, on history and civics in K-12 schools with partners from Harvard, Tufts, and iCivics (2021); is a fellow of the Civitas Institute, UT Austin; and serves on the Academic Council of the Jack Miller Center for America’s Founding Principles and History and on the Civic Education Committee of the American Political Science Association. 

Christopher S. Celenza is the James B. Knapp Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. He is also a professor of history and classics.

The James B. Knapp Dean of Arts and Sciences brings leadership and expertise to the tasks of shaping the Krieger School’s vision and managing its complex and extensive operations. The dean has responsibility for setting direction, generating and managing resources, and coordinating fundraising and alumni relations activities. The dean also authorizes all new appointments and plays an active role in recruiting prospective faculty. Celenza oversees the Krieger School's 23 highly ranked academic departments within the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. He has made it a priority to foster diversity and inclusion. He also seeks to build on the school’s collaborative relationships, deepening support for scholars at every stage of their careers. Celenza was previously dean of Georgetown College at Georgetown University, and a professor of history and classics. He also taught for nine years at Michigan State, and holds two doctoral degrees—a doctorate in history and a doctorate in classics and neo-latin literature. Celenza has received numerous awards and grants, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the American Council of Learned Societies.

Sarah Ropp is dialogue director for the SNF Paideia Program at the University of Pennsylvania. In this role, she teaches several Paideia designated undergraduate courses in the Communications and Comparative Literature programs; facilitates dialogue workshops and events for diverse audiences around campus; creates resources; and provides advising to students, staff, and faculty undertaking dialogue work. Ropp is a multi-lingual and interdisciplinary scholar/practitioner with over 20 years of experience in dialogue-centered education. A native of the rural Midwest, she has lived, studied, and taught in 7 countries on 4 continents and in rural, small-town, and urban areas all over the United States.

Ropp holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarly work focuses on problematizing discourses of resilience and renewal centered on the child as paradigmatic victim/survivor in the contemporary United States, Latin America, and Western Europe. As a dialogue practitioner and researcher, Ropp is interested in the role of dialogue, particularly testimony as a dialogic practice, in anti-oppression approaches to teaching, learning, and community-based work, taking special inspiration from the critical pedagogy of bell hooks and Paulo Freire.

Cornel West first arrived on Princeton’s campus in 1973 to begin his doctoral work, and in 1980 earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. Characteristic of his prodigious gifts, deep commitment to justice and passion for the life of the mind, he published his first book, Black Theology and Marxist Thought the year before completing his graduate education. The title of his doctoral dissertation was "Ethics, Historicism and the Marxist Tradition," which was later revised and published under the title The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought, his sixth book, published in 1991. After receiving his doctorate at Princeton, he returned to Harvard as a W.E.B Du Bois Fellow before becoming an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1984, he accepted a position at Yale Divinity School that eventually became a joint appointment in American studies. 

West has also consistently shared his genius and oratorical brilliance with a larger public, by using accessible and engaging language to illuminate complex social issues. In 1992, he published the seminal Race Matters. The book quickly achieved bestseller status and gained the attention of Time magazine and Newsweek, leading both publications to run extensive profile articles about him in June 1993. Race Matters was also named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1992. Race Matters firmly established West as the premiere Black public intellectual in the United States, and dramatically increased his illuminating appearances on our airwaves and in our print media. Race Matters has sold more than 400,000 copies, has been translated into several languages, and undoubtedly changed the course of America’s dialogue on race, justice and democracy. Ten years later, West extended this project with the book, Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism, which offers a brilliant and unflinching critique and diagnosis for the failures of contemporary democracy.

But perhaps most impressive for a man with such an extraordinary career, filled with accolades and recognition, has been West's consistent commitment to social justice, principles of Christian love and dignity for all. He continues to cast his lot with the least among us and offers his voice on behalf of the disenfranchised — from demonstrating for civil rights while still in high school to occupying the U.S. Justice Department in 2012.

Mahmud Farooque is the associate director of the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes, and a clinical professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at Arizona State University. Previously, he held research leadership positions at the New York Academy of Sciences, City University of New York, Northwestern University, and Purdue University. 

Farooque is an expert scholar in participatory technology assessment (pTA), a reflexive, adaptable, and scalable method for engaging communities, stakeholders, and publics in social appraisal of science and technology. His expertise draws from science and technology studies, science of science, public administration, public engagement, and deliberative democracy. 

Farooque leads the Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology (ECAST), a distributed network dedicated to research and applications of pTA. Since 2010, with support from public agencies and philanthropic organizations, he has overseen pTA processes on issues such as biodiversity, planetary defense, solar geoengineering, autonomous vehicles, human gene editing, nuclear waste management, and carbon dioxide removal.

Farooque serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice. He received a Ph.D. in public policy from George Mason University and an MPA from Syracuse University. 

Mary McCartin Wearn is a humanities scholar and academic leader with a proven track record for developing meaningful public programs and partnerships. She guides the Georgia Humanities’ efforts to inspire curiosity, connection, and lifelong learning across Georgia. Before joining Georgia Humanities, Wearn built a reputation for community-focused leadership during her tenure at Middle Georgia State University. As the founding dean of the School of Arts and Letters, Wearn fostered partnerships with national, state, and local institutions, including the United States Air Force’s Museum of Aviation, the Ocmulgee Mounds Association, and the historic Douglass Theatre. Her work was instrumental in creating programs that brought arts and culture to life for audiences throughout the region, and she was a driving force in securing funding for these public-facing initiatives.

Wearn holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia, a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland Global Campus, and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. She has served in a number of nonprofit leadership and advisory positions and currently sits on the board of directors for the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Macon.

Robert George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He has chaired the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and served as a member of both the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics. He was a Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. Professor George is author of Making Men Moral:  Civil Liberties and Public Morality (OUP 1993), In Defense of Natural Law (OUP 1999), and Conscience and Its Enemies (ISI 2016), among other books. His articles and review essays have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Review of Politics, the Review of Metaphysics, and the American Journal of Jurisprudence. He has also written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. A graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, George holds the degrees of DPhil, BCL, DCL, and DLitt from Oxford University, in addition to 23 honorary degrees. He is a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Joshua Dunn serves as executive director of the Institute of American Civics at the Howard H. Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs. His research and teaching focus on constitutional law and history, education policy, federalism, and freedom of speech and religion. His books include Complex Justice: The Case of Missouri v. Jenkins (University of North Carolina Press), From Schoolhouse to Courthouse: The Judiciary’s Role in American Education (Brookings Institution Press), and Passing on the Right: Conservative Professors in the Progressive University (Oxford University Press). He writes a quarterly article on law and education for the journal Education Next and his research and commentary have been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Los Angeles Times. 

Previously he was the executive director of the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Dunn was also a professor and chair of their department of political science. He was also a fellow in contemporary history, public policy, and American politics at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia and a visiting professor in the Department of Government at the College of William & Mary where he began his teaching career.

Stephanie Almeida Nevin is the executive director of the Yale Center for Civic Thought and a Lecturer in Humanities, where she works to encourage thoughtful public discourse and civically responsible intellectual life in a rising generation of students, faculty, citizens, and leaders.

As co-founder of Yale’s Citizens Thinkers Writers program for students from New Haven public schools, Nevin played a pivotal role in the program’s design, implementation, and expansion into a nationally recognized initiative in civic thought and humanistic education. Since its founding in 2016, she has overseen every aspect of its programming, community partnerships, and strategic growth. She has also co-led the development of programming and resources for similar programs across the country. 

At Yale, Nevin teaches courses in political theory and in the Directed Studies program. Her research explores how philosophers have theorized the relationship between politics and education from antiquity to the present day. Her dissertation, “The Spirit of Education: Politics and Pedagogy in Plato, Rousseau, Dewey, and Freire,” was awarded Departmental Distinction at Yale, and her research on Rousseau earned the 2022 Robert C. Wood Prize from the New England Political Science Association.

Kara Dillard is the scholar in residence in digital democratic practice in the School of Communication at James Madison University and a public participation professional and trained public issues facilitator. She is an expert in online deliberation, having developed innovative programming and curriculum to convene civil discussions using the Common Ground for Action online deliberation platform. Dillard works in university settings and with community organizations to design public engagement processes that help groups address local, wicked issues both face-to-face and online. She is the operations specialist for Common Ground for Action and a moderator training specialist for the National Issues Forums Institute, based in Dayton, Ohio. She has published in the Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Political Science Education, and the International Journal of Communication. She holds degrees in communication studies and earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Kansas State University.