While the United States has advanced in remarkable ways over its turbulent history, deep-rooted challenges involving its communities of color still remain. Whether it is health care access, immigration, criminal justice, gender equality, economic opportunity, or education, the development and implementation of progressive public policy that affects communities of color has become vital to our national interest. The county’s rapidly increasing racial and ethnic diversity has only made these challenges all the more necessary to address.
Please join the Center for American Progress and its Leadership Institute as we discuss why diverse voices must lead efforts to legitimize and create sustainable public policy related to communities of color. Our keynote speakers, Sen. William “Mo” Cowan (D-MA) and Laura Murphy, Washington Legislative Office Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, will address how the nation’s leaders must understand the complexity of policymaking in a diverse nation. Additionally, a panel of the CAP Leadership Institute Fellows will address how they are preparing themselves to grapple with these critical issues while avoiding the past traps that marginalized the unique perspectives of people living in the communities that public policies affect.
Welcome and Introductory remarks:
Sam Fulwood III, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, and director of Leadership Institute
Keynote speaker(s):
Senator William “Mo” Cowan, (D-MA)
Laura Murphy, Director, Washington Legislative Office, American Civil Liberties Union
Featured panelists, Fellows from the Center for American Progress Leadership Institute:
Patricia Campos-Medina, Founder and President, Campos Strategies Group
Kumar Rao, Attorney, The Bronx Defenders, a holistic public defender office in New York City
Christine Soyong Harley, Policy Analyst, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations
Ramatu Bangura, Program Director, Sauti Yetu Center for African Women
Moderated by:
Faith Leach, Fiscal Policy Manager, Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), District of Columbia