History
One of seven Transpartisan National Leadership Retreats
Between 2004 and 2007 Reuniting America convened seven private, multi-day, professionally facilitated retreat dialogues among top leaders from groups as diverse as Common Cause, Christian Coalition, Americans for Tax Reform, American Conservative Union, American Legion, AARP, MoveOn.org, League of Women Voters and others. These expertly facilitated meetings created trust and deepened understanding of differences. The outcomes were new relationships, new transpartisan coalitions and working groups, and the beginnings of more politically integrated solutions to America’s pressing needs.
- June 2004 — First Conference on Democracy in America. See: Declaration for Dialogue Across Divides.
- December 2005 — Second Conference on Democracy in America
- May 2006 — Transpartisan Dialogue on Citizen Engagement
- June 2006 — Transpartisan Dialogue on National Energy Security
- January 2007 — Transpartisan Women’s Retreat
- September 2007 — Transpartisan Dialogue on Iran
- September 2007 — Third Conference on Democracy in America
Participants included:
| John | Rother | Director of Policy and Strategy | AARP |
| Jed | Miller | Director of Internet | ACLU |
| Carolyn | Lukensmeyer | President | America Speaks |
| Joe | Goldman | Senior Associate | America Speaks |
| Maggie | Fox | President | America Votes |
| Marian | Head | Co-convener | American Citizens Summit |
| Phil | Geraldi | Intelligence Analyst | American Conservative Defense Alliance |
| Dave | Keene | Chairman | American Conservative Union |
| Neal | Elliot | Industry Program Director | American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy |
| Michael | Eckhart | President | American Council on Renewable Energy |
| Rick | Shelby | Executive Vice President | American Gas Association |
| Billy | Johnson | Membership Director | American Legion |
| Robert | Spanogle | National Adjutant | American Legion |
| Mary | Ghikas | Assistant Executive Director | American Library Association |
| Grover | Norquist | President | Americans for Tax Reform |
| Aric | Nesbitt | Former State Coalitions Director | Americans for Tax Reform |
| Jerome | Ringo | President | Apollo Alliance |
| Tom | Altmeyer | Vice President | Arch Coal |
| Bob | Corell | Chair | Arctic Climate Impact Assessment |
| Jeff | Golden | Author | As If We Were Grownups |
| Steve | Andrews | Co-founder | ASPO USA |
| Alan | Khazei | Founder | Be the Change |
| Lawry | Chickering | Author | Beyond Left and Right |
| Donna | Wiesner | CEO | Braintrain |
| David | Korten | Board Member | Business Alliance for Local Living Economies |
| Betsy | Taylor | Founder | Center for a New American Dream |
| Cara | Ong | Iran Policy Analyst | Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation |
| Betsy | Taylor | Founder and Board Member | Center for the New American Dream |
| Joseph | Montville | Director of Preventive Diplomacy | Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy |
| Bill | Thompson | Former National Field Director | Christian Coalition |
| Michele | Combs | Communications Director | Christian Coalition |
| Roberta | Combs | President | Christian Coalition |
| KC | Golden | Policy Director | Climate Solutions |
| Dave | Keating | Executive Director | Club for Growth |
| Jodie | Evans | Founder | Codepink Women for Peace |
| Nancy | Ross | Political Director | Committee for a Unified Independent Party |
| John | Briscoe | Director of Dev. | Common Cause |
| Fred | Smith | President | Competitive Enterprise Institute |
| Vicki | Robin | Co-founder | Conversation Café |
| Carl | Fillichio | Vice President | Council for Excellence in Government |
| Matt | Leighninger | Executive Director | Deliberative Democracy Consortium |
| Ethan | Leib | Author | Deliberative Democracy in America |
| Pat | Spino | Co-founder | Democracy in America Project |
| Stuart | Comstock-Gay | Director, Democracy Programs | Demos |
| Kathy | Fredriksen | Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary | Department of Energy |
| Jim | Babka | President | DownsizeDC.org |
| Charlotte | Pera | Senior Program Officer | Energy Foundation |
| Irma | Herrera | Executive Director | Equal Rights Advocates |
| Richard | Land | President | Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, SBC |
| Jim | Ball | Executive Director | Evangelical Environmental Network |
| Robert | Richie | Executive Director | FairVote.org |
| Deb | Higgins | Program Associate | Fetzer Institute |
| Tom | Beech | President | Fetzer Institute |
| Tom | Callanan | Program Officer | Fetzer Institute |
| Bernard | Munk | Senior Fellow | Foreign Policy Research Institute |
| Barbara | Hubbard | Founder | Foundation for Conscious Evolution |
| Joshua | Gorman | Founder | Generation Waking Up |
| William | Ury | Director | Global Negotiation Project, Harvard Law School |
| Brent | McMillian | Executive Director | Green Party |
| Bill | Ury | Director | Harvard Global Negotiation Project |
| Steven | Groves | Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom | Heritage Foundation |
| Lawry | Chickering | Research Fellow | Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
| Kori | Schake | Research Fellow | Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
| Peter | Hwosch | Filmmaker | Hwosch Productions |
| Jon | Caldara | President | Independence Institute |
| Michelle | Bernard | President | Independent Women Forum |
| Ken | Chilton | Director | Institute for Study of Economics and the Environment |
| Nancy | Tate | Executive Director | League of Women Voters |
| Cheryl | Graeve | Director of Membership | League of Women Voters |
| Marian | Moore | Convenor | Lets Talk America |
| Susan | Partnow | Convenor | Lets Talk America |
| Shane | Cory | Executive Director | Libertarian National Committee |
| Sam | New | Acting Communications Director | Libertarian Party |
| Michael | Ostrolenk | Founder | Liberty Coalition |
| Mark | Gerzon | President | Mediators Foundation |
| Scott | Heiferman | Co-Founder | Meetup.com |
| Maya | Enista | COO | Mobilizing America’s Youth |
| David | Smith | Executive Director | Mobilizing America’s Youth |
| Joan | Blades | President | Momsrising.org |
| Jeff | Weissglass | Former Chairman | More Than Money |
| Joan | Blades | Co-Founder | MoveOn.org |
| Wes | Boyd | Co-Founder | MoveOn.org |
| Ahmed | Younis | Former National Director | Muslim Public Affairs Council |
| Sandy | Heierbacher | Director | National Coalition for Dialogue and Delib. |
| Sandy | Heierbacher | Director | National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation |
| Brenda | Girton-Mitchell | Associate General Secretary | National Council of Churches USA |
| Trita | Parsi | President | National Iranian American Council |
| Michael | Toms | Host | New Dimensions Radio |
| Andrew | Langer | Manager, Regulatory Policy | NFIB |
| Patrice | McDermott | Director | OpenTheGovernment.org |
| Gary | Aldrich | Founder | Patrick Henry Center |
| Bob | Barr | Chairman | Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances |
| Kimberly | Robson | Field Director | People for the American Way |
| John | Sirek | President | Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement |
| Donna | Zajonc | Author | Politics of Hope |
| Susan | Hackley | Managing Director | Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School |
| Laura | Chasin | Founder | Public Conversations Project |
| Mark | Satin | Author | Radical Middle |
| William | Westmiller | Chairman | Republican Liberty Caucus |
| Joseph | McCormick | Co-founder | Reuniting America |
| John | Steiner | Chair, Exec. Cmte. | Transpartisan Center |
| Ana | Micka | Co-director | Reuniting America |
| Debilyn | Molinaeux | Event Coordinator | Reuniting America |
| Dan | Wheeler | Process Archivist | Reuniting America |
| Kyle | Datta | Senior Director | Rocky Mountain Institute |
| Robert | Fersh | Executive Director | Search for Common Ground USA |
| Carl | Pope | Executive Director | Sierra Club |
| Paul | Loeb | Author | Soul of a Citizen |
| Amy | Malick | Communications Director | Study Circles Resource Center |
| Jim | Turner | Principal | Swankin Turner |
| Tom | Atlee | Author | Tao of Democracy |
| Taylor | Willingham | Co-founder | Texas Forums |
| Virginia | Sloan | Founder | The Constitution Project, Georgetown University |
| Steve | Clemons | Executive Vice President | The New America Foundation |
| Dave | Joseph | Director, Project Development | The Public Conversations Project |
| Drew | Bond | President | Townhall.com |
| David | Cherry | Director | Unified Independents of Illinois |
| Claudine | Schneider | Former Member | United States Congress |
| Al | Gore | Former Vice President | United States of America |
| Chellie | Pingree | Candidate | US Congress |
| Jake | Colvin | Director | USA Engage |
| Julie | Ristau | Former Director | Utne Institute |
| Leif | Utne | Former Assoc. Editor | Utne Magazine |
| Jeff | Peters | Co-Founder | We the People |
| John | Esterle | Executive Director | Whitman Institute |
| Shirley | Wilcher | President | Wilcher Global |
| Bill | Miller | Senior Fellow | Woodrow Wilson International Center |
| Juanita | Brown | Founder | World Café |
| Eleanor | Lecain | Founder | World Innovation Network |
| Chris | Bui | Founder | 5th Medium I.C. (the American Focus Program) |
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