A New Era of Civic Leadership
The National Academy of Public Administration and the Bridge Alliance have joined together to launch a landmark initiative dedicated to strengthening American democracy and public service. This partnership brings together the Academy’s distinguished Fellows and the Bridge Alliance’s dynamic, cross-sector network to build a leadership infrastructure for the future of our republic.
Collaboration for Civic Renewal
At its core, this partnership is about reimagining how leadership and collaboration can drive meaningful change in American democracy and public service. Rather than relying on top-down models, the initiative fosters distributed expertise, collaborative strategy, and public-facing storytelling. Fellows will serve as conveners, connectors, and catalysts—amplifying insights from the field, shaping democratic narratives, and stewarding resilience through shared leadership. Together, the Academy and the Bridge Alliance are committed to integrating institutional wisdom with civic imagination, creating a vibrant ecosystem for democracy reform and renewal.
Fellows’ Challenge—Solutions for Advancing American Democracy and Public Service
This initiative focuses on six core sectors essential to a thriving democratic republic:
- Public Service Leadership and Civil Service Reform: Fellows will examine the systems, rules, and practices that govern the federal workforce, identifying opportunities to modernize for greater agility and impact. This includes strategies to recruit, develop, and sustain the next generation of public leaders equipped to navigate complexity and deliver results.
- Vince Micone will create “Forging the Next 250: Building America’s Next Public Service Pipeline.” This project will explore how the federal government can build a modern, diverse, and resilient talent pipeline that prepares the next generation of public servants to lead the nation into its next 250 years.
- Voting and Elections: Trust in our electoral processes is foundational to democratic legitimacy. Fellows will analyze all components of voting and election administration—from registration to ballot security—offering actionable recommendations to ensure impartiality, transparency, and public trust. This includes ethics standards for senior election officials and safeguards against political interference.
- Shaniqua Williams will create “The Hidden Infrastructure of Democracy: Professionalizing and Diversifying Election Staff.” This project will focus on strengthening impartiality, transparency, and trust in U.S. election administration by developing an evidence-based framework for training and professionalizing mid-level election staff and expanding pathways that diversify the election workforce.
- Bridging & Dialogue: In an era of division, this sector explores the art and practice of bridging differences. Fellows will elevate efforts that foster mutual understanding, respectful dialogue, and shared purpose across ideological, cultural, and generational lines. Constructive engagement is not just possible—it is essential to democratic renewal.
- Kristina Becvar will create “From Dialogue to Direction: Rebuilding Shared Civic Purpose in a Fragmented Democracy.” This project seeks to address an increasingly consequential challenge in the bridging community: the lack of shared purpose, coordination, and narrative coherence among those working to strengthen American democracy itself.
- Electoral Systems Reform: Nonpartisan reforms that ensure robust competition and fair representation are vital to a functional government accountable to the people. Fellows will examine innovations such as ranked-choice voting, gerrymandering reform, campaign finance transparency, and independent voter rights—co-creating the policies and movements that reshape how power is held and shared.
- Beth Hladick will create “The 2026 Primary Problem: Diagnosing the Divide.” The project will use the 2026 midterms to shift the national narrative from "horse race" coverage to structural analysis and rigorously document how partisan primaries disenfranchise voters and fuel polarization.
- Trustworthy Information Leads to Trust in Government: Democracy depends not only on what we know, but on how we know it. Fellows in this sector will focus on restoring a shared civic reality through rigorous measurement and reliable reporting—empowering citizens to interpret trends, evaluate outcomes, and advocate for evidence-based change.
- Joel Gurin will create “Regaining Public Trust in Federal Data and Information.” The project will explore current obstacles to public trust in data, with a focus on public federal data, and recommend remedies.
- Pluralism: America’s strength lies in its diversity—and in our capacity to navigate it with empathy and imagination. Fellows will explore how pluralism is practiced, challenged, and reimagined across communities and institutions, amplifying stories of coexistence, conflict, and cultural evolution to shape a republic where every voice matters and every story counts.
- Kimberly Walton and Tamara L. Miller will create “Pluralism as a Civic Operating System: Building a Democracy of Dignity.” The project seeks to reframe pluralism as a practical system for navigating demographic, cultural, and increasingly economic and geographic divides.
Through research, dialogue, and collaboration, this initiative seeks to generate clear, executable action plans that modernize public service, strengthen electoral integrity, foster constructive engagement, and celebrate the diversity that defines America. The work of selected Fellows will be featured in national campaigns and publications, helping to restore public trust and inspire the next generation of civic leaders.
By connecting expertise, fostering innovation, and celebrating public service this partnership is more than an initiative:
It’s a call to action to help shape the future of American Democracy.