Coming Together: Can We Bridge Our Country’s Divisions?

After one of the most divisive elections ever – a chasm remains in our country. How can we bridge the gap and bring our nation together for the good of the American People? Join American Public Square at Jewell on January 19, 2021 as we explore how our country can emerge from 2020 and address the national divide. We’ll kick off our 2021 program year hosting a panel of experts who represent organizations committed to bridging the divide that threatens the social fabric of our country.

Panelists

Ambassador Allan Katz – Founder & CEO, American Public Square at Jewell With decades of experience in politics and law, Ambassador Allan Katz (Portugal 2010-2013) observed first-hand the increasing polarization of our two-party political system and the tribalization of Americans unwilling to talk to people with whom they did not agree. Motivated to mitigate the chasm between extremes, Ambassador Katz founded American Public Square (APS) in Kansas City in 2013. Using civil discourse to bridge the partisan divide, APS engages in fact-based conversations about local, regional and national issues.

Joan Blades – Co-Founder, Living Room Conversations Joan Blades is a co-founder of Living Room Conversations, an open source effort to rebuild respectful discourse across ideological, cultural and party lines while embracing our shared values. When we care about each other, we work to find ways to meet each other’s core needs. Joan is also a co-founder of MomsRising.org and MoveOn.org. She is the co-author of The Custom-Fit Workplace, winner of a Nautilus book award in 2011, and The Motherhood Manifesto, which won the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize in 2007. A mediator (attorney) by training and inclination, she is a nature lover, artist, and true believer in the power of citizens and our need to rebuild respectful civil discourse while embracing our core shared values. Joan lives in the California bay area.

John Gable – Founder & CEO, Allsides.com John offers a unique combination of technology and politics. He served on the original teams for Microsoft Office, Mozilla at Netscape and ZoneAlarm at Check Point Software, and cofounded Kavi Corp (web-based collaboration and services). John was previously a Republican operative, working for three senate majority leaders (Howard Baker, Trent Lott and Mitch McConnell), the Republican National Committee and George H.W. Bush.

Batya Ungar-Sargon – Deputy Opinion Editor, Newsweek Batya Ungar-Sargon is an award-winning journalist. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Foreign Policy. She has served as the opinion editor of the Forward, and is the incoming deputy opinion editor of Newsweek. She has a PhD from Berkeley.

Evelyn Lim was most recently the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Regional Administrator for Region 8 which covers Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In March 2020, she was detailed to Secretary Carson’s office to lead HUD’s coronavirus relief efforts and support the Secretary in his role on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Prior to her appointment at HUD, she served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the third largest federal cabinet agency with over 240,000 law enforcement, military, and civilian employees.Ms. Lim began her public service career in 2003 at DHS shortly after its creation first at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), then at the DHS headquarters. From 2005 – 2007, Ms. Lim served in the White House under President George W. Bush as the Director of Transportation Security Policy.  In 2008, she served as the personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador to Finland in Helsinki. Ms. Lim received her Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, Illinois and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Moderator

Mike McShane – Director of National Research, EdChoice, Mike McShane is the Co-chair to American Public Square at Jewell’s Advisory board and Co-host to #BothSides, an American Public Square at Jewell podcast. Mike is the Director of National Research at EdChoice.