IDEAS: The Magazine of The Aspen Institute Summer 2019

ASPEN
BRINGS
IDEAS
HOME
WE CELEBRATE
20 YEARS OF
COMMUNITY
CONVERSATIONS
THE
EARLY
LEAD
ASPEN'S
YOUNGEST
FELLOWS
COME OUT
STRONG
AND LOCAL
CONNECTING
AMERICA
THE INSTITUTE TACKLES
SOCIAL ISOLATION
CONTENTS
DEPARTMENTS

8 | W H AT I S T H E I N S T I T U T E ?
1 3 | A R O U N D T H E I N S T I T U T E
Socrates goes to Cartagena; Aspen finds a
new home in New Zealand; Misty Copeland
wins the Tisch Award; the Institute launches
Courtesy McNulty Foundation

Science & Society; Eileen Fisher describes
sustainable fashion; and more.
3 1 | A S P E N L I B R I S
Jill Abramson on Merchants of Truth; Evan
Thomas on First: Sandra Day O’Connor ; David 23
Brooks on The Second Mountain.
3 2 | A S H E A R D AT
Colson Whitehead talks about writing and
his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Underground
Railroad at Aspen Words.
3 4 | I M PA C T
Three members of the Aspen Presidential
Fellowship become community college
presidents to make student success a primary
goal; the Community Strategies Group helps
leaders bring prosperity to rural America.

61 | FA C E S
Behind the scenes at Institute events.
Dan Bayer
6 8 | FA C T S
Get to know the Institute’s programs. 32
7 2 | PA R T I N G S H O T
The Aspen Institute is all about Bauhaus.
ON THE COVER
ASPEN
BRINGS
IDEAS
Courtesy Tonjua Williams
HOME
WE CELEBRATE
20 YEARS OF
COMMUNITY
CONVERSATIONS
THE
EARLY
LEAD
ASPEN'S
YOUNGEST
FELLOWS
COME OUT
STRONG
AND LOCAL
CONNECTING
AMERICA A seminar in Aspen’s Maroon Bells
34
THE INSTITUTE TACKLES
Photo by Dan Bayer

SOCIAL ISOLATION
4 IDEAS SUMMER 2019
I
CONTENTS
FEATURES
40 | BRINGING THE WORLD TO ASPEN

Aspen Community Programs brings the Institute’s big ideas
home to the Roaring Fork Valley. Catherine Lutz explores
the Institute’s special relationship with the city of Aspen and its
residents, who have access to some of the world’s greatest minds
through the Institute’s programs, seminars, and speakers.
44 | THERE’S NO WORKPLACE LIKE HOME
Courtesy Aspen Community Programs

What happens when young people stay in their hometowns
to help them grow instead of leaving them behind? They can
change the world. Whether it’s criminal-justice reform or access
to higher education, members of the Aspen Young Leaders
Fellowship prove that leadership is determined by action, not age.
48 | THE THREADS OF LIFE 40

Change is occuring in every corner of America—quietly.
Left: Leslie Gamboni; Right: Laurence Genon

Instead of using divisive rhetoric or waiting for the government
to pass new laws, many ordinary Americans are acting. They
are weavers. They bring communities together and deliver hope
to those who need it. David Brooks explains his new Institute
program, Weave: The Social Fabric Project.
THE JOURNAL OF IDEAS 44 48
58 | FAIR GAME
Instead of just leveling the playing field, some sports are
integrating it. Risa Isard examines how mixed-gender
sports—from children’s teams to the most elite Olympic
events—are creating opportunity and upending norms.
60 | DEFEATING DEBT
Out-of-control college debt is now at epic proportions. At the
same time, employers are looking to diversify their workforces.
Romy Parzick has a solution to both issues: companies 58
should offer benefits packages that repay student loans.
62 | THE HUMAN EFFECT

Illustrations by Kissane Viola Design
Technology is becoming more and more entwined with our

daily lives, and some fear a cyber doomsday. But, Román Gil
Alburquerque cautions, technology isn’t something to be
feared; it’s something to harness.
60 62
6 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

DANIEL R. PORTERFIELD
President and Chief Executive Officer
John Jack Photography

AMY DeMARIA
Executive Vice President, Communications and Marketing
ELLIOT F. GERSON
Executive Vice President, Policy and Public Programs; International Partners
NAMITA KHASAT
Executive Vice President, Finance and Administrative Services;
Chief Financial Officer; Corporate Treasurer
DAVID LANGSTAFF
Walking from the Institute’s bright Washington headquarters Interim Executive Vice President, Leadership and Seminars
one early summer day, I found myself trying to keep up with a ERIC L. MOTLEY, PhD
colleague who was rolling a black amp up the sidewalk. Was he Executive Vice President, Institutional Advancement; Corporate Secretary
on his way to a rally? I asked. No. It was the end of the season for JAMES M. SPIEGELMAN
Stonewall Kickball, the LGBTQ team he coaches and captains Vice President and Chief of Staff
as a way of making newcomers feel welcome and included in a EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND PUBLISHER CORBY KUMMER
city that can seem closed. The amp was to call out plays. “We’re EXECUTIVE EDITOR SACHA ZIMMERMAN
MANAGING EDITOR AND ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER NICOLE COREA
a team,” he told me, “not only on but off the field.” Teammates SENIOR EDITORS PHERABE KOLB, JAMES M. SPIEGELMAN
meet regularly to catch up on each other’s lives, do volunteer DESIGN DIRECTOR KATIE KISSANE-VIOLA
work, and fundraise for the team’s charity. “It might sound corny,” CREATIVE DIRECTOR PAUL VIOLA
he said, “but Stonewall is really my second family.” DESIGNER MICHAEL STOUT
EDITOR EMERITUS JAMIE MILLER
He reminded me of another young colleague who coaches an ADVERTISING CYNTHIA CAMERON, 970.948.8177, adsales@aspeninstitute.org
ultimate frisbee team, part of an effort to make Washingtonians feel CONTACT EDITORIAL ideas.magazine@aspeninstitute.org
at home and linked even if they, like him, are holding down a day GENERAL The Aspen Institute,
2300 N Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037
job and getting a graduate degree at night—he aims to be a teacher
202.736.5800, www.aspeninstitute.org
and a role model for young Latinos. Or the young woman who
coaches soccer teams for children ages 5 to 12 and told me: “I’m BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIRMAN
24, I don’t have kids, and neither do any of the volunteers. We don’t James S. Crown
usually interact with kids outside our family. Every Saturday I have BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Madeleine K. Albright, Jean-Luc Allavena, Paul F. Anderson, Jeffrey S. Aronin, Donna Barksdale,
intense conversations about best friends, earthworms, and family
Mercedes T. Bass, Miguel Bezos, Richard S. Braddock, Beth A. Brooke-Marciniak, William Bynum,
pets. What I love most about this league is that it’s free. It allows for Stephen L. Carter, Troy Carter, Cesar R. Conde, Phyllis Coulter, Katie Couric, Andrea Cunningham,
families whose financial resources differ to have their kids all be part Kenneth L. Davis, John Doerr, Thelma Duggin, Arne Duncan, Michael D. Eisner, L. Brooks Entwistle,
of the same team.” Alan Fletcher, Ann B. Friedman, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Mircea D. Geoana, Antonio Gracias, Patrick W.
Gross, Arjun Gupta, Jane Harman, Kaya Henderson, Hayne Hipp, Ivan Hodac, Mark S. Hoplamazian,
All these colleagues came to mind not only because of the Gerald D. Hosier, Robert J. Hurst, Natalie Jaresko, Sonia Kapadia, Salman Khan, Teisuke Kitayama,
article we feature this issue in our Journal of Ideas about mixed- Michael Klein, Satinder K. Lambah, Laura Lauder, Melony Lewis, Yo-Yo Ma, James M. Manyika, William
gender sports finally taking hold as an idea both on community E. Mayer,* Bonnie P. McCloskey, David McCormick, Donald C. McKinnon, Anne Welsh McNulty, Diane
fields and at the Olympics (see page 54)—but because almost Morris, Karlheinz Muhr, Clare Muñana, Jerry Murdock, Marc B. Nathanson, William A. Nitze, Her Majesty
Queen Noor, Jacqueline Novogratz, Olara A. Otunnu, Elaine Pagels, Carrie Walton Penner, Daniel R.
every article focuses specifically on Porterfield, Margot L. Pritzker, Lynda R. Resnick, Condoleezza Rice, Ricardo B. Salinas, Lewis A. Sanders,
building communities in places Anna Deavere Smith, Michelle Smith, Javier Solana, Robert K. Steel,* Shashi Tharoor,** Laurie M. Tisch, Luis
that don’t have them (see pages 44 Gerardo del Valle Torres, Giulio Tremonti, Eckart von Klaeden, Roderick K. von Lipsey, Vin Weber
and 48) or need strenghtening (see LIFETIME TRUSTEES CO-CHAIRMEN

pages 37 and 40). It’s a core part of Berl Bernhard, Ann Korologos*
what the Institute does in all its LIFETIME TRUSTEES

Keith Berwick, William D. Budinger, Lester Crown, Tarun Das, William H. Donaldson, Sylvia A. Earle,
programs. And building
David Gergen, Alma L. Gildenhorn, Gerald Greenwald,
community is a core part Irvine O. Hockaday Jr., Nina Rodale Houghton, Anne Frasher Hudson, Jérôme Huret, William N. Joy,
of what our colleagues Henry A. Kissinger, Leonard A. Lauder,* Olivier Mellerio, Sandra Day O’Connor,
do off the clock, too, Hisashi Owada, Thomas R. Pickering, Charles Powell, Jay Sandrich, Lloyd G. Schermer, Carlo Scognamiglio,
Albert H. Small, Andrew L. Stern, Paul A. Volcker, Leslie H. Wexner, Frederick B. Whittemore, Alice Young
wherever they call
Roman Cho
*Chairman Emeritus **On Leave of Absence

home.
—Corby Kummer
The Aspen Institute sets high standards to ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable manner.
This issue was printed by American Web on recycled fibers containing 10 percent postconsumer waste, with inks containing a blend of soy base. Our printer is a certified member of the Forestry Stewardship Council
and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, and it meets or exceeds all federal Resource Conservation Recovery Act standards.
10 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

AROUND THE INSTITUTE
GETTING OUT FROM UNDER Consumer debt is ubiquitous. Although some Americans
are debt-free, most of us carry debt some of the time—or even all of the time. We borrow for all kinds of reasons—to go to school,
to buy a home, to finance a car, to tide ourselves over in tough times. Americans are also increasingly likely to incur debt not from
borrowing but from non-loan debt, like out-of-pocket medical expenses. As part of the Institute’s Financial Security Program,
EPIC (Expanding Prosperity Impact Collaborative) has come up with new answers to specific consumer debt problems, such as
lack of savings, harmful loan terms, and medical bills. EPIC’s solutions range from product-level improvements to broader reforms
that address household financial insecurity. aspenepic.org/consumer-debt
52% COLLECTIONS OF ALL DEBT

listed on credit reports are associated with
MEDICAL PROVIDERS.
38%
of all low-income
43% of those having
trouble paying medical bills say that in
households have the past year they (or a family member)
MEDICAL DEBT. did not get recommended
treatment because of the cost.
On average, an individual with
overdue medical debt owes
$1,766
Source: EPIC, Lifting the Weight: Solving the Consumer Debt Crisis, 2018
IDEAS SUMMER 2019 13
57 AM
“I’M SO GRATEFUL TO BALLET”

The 2018 Preston Robert Tisch Award in Civic Leadership was and how she came to understand what arts can do for a child after
presented to ballet dancer Misty Copeland at a program at the traveling to Rwanda with MindLeaps, a nonprofit organization
Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center in November. dedicated to change through education and dance. She said part
Copeland, the first African American to be promoted to principal of her purpose in life is to make things better for young people.
dancer for the American Ballet Theater, spoke with Damian “Role models have always been so important to me,” she explained,
Woetzel, the former director of the Institute’s Arts Program and adding that dancers of color need to see teachers and performers
current president of the Juilliard School, about dance and her life who look like them. “I’m so grateful to ballet. I receive a lot in the
as a role model for young women of color. She talked about her studio, and I give a lot back when I meet with young people.”
path to ballet through classes at the Boys and Girls Club of America aspeninstitute.org/videos/misty-copeland-2018
Laurence Genon
Erin Baiano
Copeland, Woetzel

THE FATHER FACTOR
“Failing to help men become strong fathers sets in motion a series of Ebenezer Baptist Church's Reverend
negative outcomes that will last decades,” said Jessica Seinfeld, the Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock
president and founder of GOOD+ Foundation, at an Ascend event on

fatherhood at the Institute. “By engaging fathers, we dream of giving
moms—whose responsibilities and stress are endless—an engaged co-
parent and dads the opportunity to feel anchored to their children.”
These days, leaders are redefining how they work with struggling
Americans, including by engaging the whole family. Ascend
and GOOD+, a nonprofit focused on lifting families out of poverty,
invited fathers, policymakers, and experts to explore fatherhood—a
critical link in family prosperity.
Jesus Benitez, a City University of New York Fatherhood
Academy graduate and mentor coordinator, shared his own story
of transformation. He started by learning better parenting skills and
accessing resources to pursue an education. Today, Benitez is in a
healthy co-parenting relationship, is finishing his bachelor’s degree,
and is pursuing a doctoral candidacy in philosophy.
Programs like the CUNY Fatherhood Academy are excellent
at equipping fathers with the tools to become better parents, but
those fathers still have to navigate systems that are ill-equipped to
support them. “So many of the programs we operate at the state
and local levels are based on federally designed programs built on a
perception of families that literally goes back to the early 1900s,”
says Reggie Bicha, an Ascend Fellow and the former executive
director of the Colorado Department of Human Services. “What
do children need from their families in order to grow healthy
and to be in a position to thrive as they move into adulthood?
Laurence Genon
How do we design and operate our systems around that?”

ascend.aspeninstitute.org
FLORIDA’S BEST WIN $1 MILLION PRIZE

The 10 finalists for the 2019 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence—a $1 million award given every other year to the
country’s best community colleges—are working at the leading edge of a movement aimed at improving student outcomes. This
year’s winners, Florida’s Indian River State College and Miami Dade College, fit the Institute’s definition of success: learning,
degree and credential completion, and success in the labor market, all achieved equitably across student groups. Through these
colleges’ exceptional efforts, the Institute has learned a great deal about the thoughtfulness and persistence required for deep,
transformational change on behalf of students. Community colleges are making smart, institution-wide reforms, from focusing on
advising to improving professional development. Colleges are also strengthening relationships with local K–12 systems, universities,
employers, and community-based organizations. Most Aspen Prize finalists have paired clear program roadmaps for all students
with strong advising systems to support students along the way—an approach that has contributed to steady climbs in retention and
Erin Baiano
graduation rates at both Indian River and Miami Dade. highered.aspeninstitute.org/aspen-prize

Sam Levitan
FSP fellow Karen Andres
RETIREMENT ENDGAME
You know you’re in a compelling room when you’re having an off-the-record conversation with a global industry CEO, a community organizer,
a behavioral economist, the principal of a scrappy fintech start-up, and the leader of an emerging state-run retirement plan. In the space of
three years, the Aspen Leadership Forum on Retirement Savings has become the premier national meeting on a critical financial challenge:
Americans’ lack of adequate retirement savings. The Institute’s Financial Security Program designed the forum to accelerate policy and market
innovations that enable workers to participate in a retirement savings system that actually builds financial security—especially for the 55
million Americans who lack access to workplace retirement savings benefits. This year’s April forum put major societal trends front and center,
from the growth of nontraditional employment and technological disruption to the realities of increasing life spans. Participants explored the
compelling innovations that workers require to build financial security and to ensure their long-term economic dignity. aspenfsp.org
FELLOWS TACKLE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

Last February in Johannesburg, South Africa, the Institute’s New Voices sex and reproductive health fellows
New Voices Fellowship, which helps experts from developing
countries become more powerful advocates, recently launched
a new, three-year initiative focused on sexual and reproductive
health. Over the next three years, a new cohort of fellows will
lead the global push toward greater sexual and reproductive
health and rights. These 30 frontline heroes include a former
Ugandan sex worker who founded a group that connects sex
workers to job training and health care, a Guatemalan doctor
who fights for access to contraception and family planning, and
a demographer from Niger who shows how the population in
one of Africa’s poorest countries will quadruple by 2050 unless
the nation implements stronger family planning. All fellows will
meet in Aspen, Colorado, at Aspen Ideas: Health, where they
Debbie Yazbek
will share their stories at an event, Undaunted, on June 21.

newvoicesfellows.aspeninstitute.org

THE SHAPE OF RETAIL

From the demise of Sears to the proliferation of self-checkout, of San Francisco’s Batter Bakery, which makes baked goods
the retail sector is undergoing a generational shift. Automation, from local, seasonal ingredients and sells them at two shops and
e-commerce, and corporate consolidation impact 16 million US retail online, recently helped write the tool kit. “One of my goals was to
workers. Since 2016, the Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program translate my knowledge to staff, including execution, production,
has focused on the changing retail landscape through its Reimagine and passion,” says Musty. She developed seasonal product tastings,
Retail initiative. Supported by the Walmart Foundation, the project trainings, and “open-book” sessions on company financials that
focuses on improving economic mobility for retail workers and in turn improved motivation and customer service. She rewarded staff for
strengthening employee retention and business performance. meeting sales targets, leading to a $22,000 increase in retail sales
One of the ways brick-and-mortar stores can differentiate over three months. Musty also improved the bakery’s benefits
themselves is through exceptional customer service and positive and increased wages. “Staff are on the front lines with customers
in-store experiences. A growing number of retailers now see that and communicate what’s special about our products,” Musty says.
making an investment in people can be a competitive advantage. “It’s important they feel they are learning and can grow within
Oakland-based Reimagine Retail partner Pacific Community the company.”
Ventures, which provides loans and advice to small businesses Reimagine Retail shows what’s possible when community-
in underinvested areas, created the Good Jobs, Good Business based organizations and retailers design local solutions that
Toolkit to help business leaders improve employment practices improve workers’ lives and business resilience.
in ways that improve that bottom lines. Jen Musty, the owner aspeninstitute.org/economic-opportunities
Karl Nielsen Photography
Musty

The new Aspen Ideas Festival website

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discussions that take place in Aspen. This May, the festival launched the next
iteration of aspenideas.org, where the substance of the 10-day event lives and
where visitors can delve into a rich video archive of talks, browse collections by
topic, listen to podcasts, and share salient ideas on social media. “Redesigning the
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Murphy
TAYARI JONES WINS ASPEN WORDS
PRIZE WITH AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE
On April 11, the Institute awarded its second annual Aspen understanding of pressing social issues,” said Adrienne Brodeur,
Words Literary Prize, which is dedicated to fiction that has social the executive director of Aspen Words. It was a message Jones
impact, to Tayari Jones, the author of An American Marriage, took to heart. “So many of us who want to write and engage in
a novel that addresses wrongful incarceration and racial the issues of the day are encouraged not to,” she said. “We’re told
discrimination. More than 200 literary enthusiasts, authors, and that that’s not what real art does. An award like this encourages
publishing insiders gathered at New York City’s Morgan Library all of us to keep following the strength of our convictions.”
for the awards ceremony, presented by the Institute and NPR Jones received a $35,000 cash prize—one of the largest cash
Books. In addition to Jones, the five finalists were Nana Kwame prizes awarded to a work of literature in the United States—and
Adjei-Brenyah for Friday Black, David Chariandy for Brother, an aspen-leaf trophy. This year’s jury included National Book
Jennifer Clement for Gun Love, and Tommy Orange for There Award finalist Dorothy Allison, 2018 Aspen Literary Prize
There. Renee Montagne, special correspondent and host of NPR finalist Samrat Upadhyay, Institute Executive Vice President
News, moderated a panel discussion with the shortlisted authors. Elliot Gerson, Aspen Words Advisory Board President Suzanne
“Through this prize, we’re thrilled to identify, honor, and shine Bober, and Columbia University’s Farah Jasmine Griffin.
a spotlight on new fiction that helps readers gain a deeper aspenwords.org
Joe Carrotta
Jones

NEW GAME IN TOWN

SUMMER
Hockey is usually associated with New England, Minnesota, or Michigan. But it turns
out children in East Harlem want hockey, too—so the Sports & Society Program
helped bring it to them. In the program’s State of Play: Harlem report, kids said
EVENTS 2019 they had a high interest in playing hockey. With support from the Institute, the
New York Rangers, the National Hockey League, Ice Hockey in Harlem, the New
York City Department of Education, and Columbia University, 13,000 elementary
and middle-school students in Harlem will have street hockey during gym class
in 2019 and 2020. Each participating school will receive hockey equipment, a
curriculum, and training for all phys-ed teachers. “We’re often categorized by
the zip code we’re in,” New York State Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez,
who grew up in Harlem, says. “We are not the highest-earning community,
but we have kids with a lot of energy and passion, and certainly a lot of drive.”
projectplay.us
Courtesy NHL.com
Project Play Hockey: East Harlem
FELLOWS FOR CIVILITY

At a moment when the United States is particularly divided, Americans are yearning
for leaders who use inclusive rhetoric and propose plans to find common ground,
and who address societal needs in a way that builds community and civil society. The
Aspen Global Leadership Network’s model of leadership based on core principles is
more valuable to the nation than ever. That’s why the AGLN, in a unique partnership
with the Anti-Defamation League, recently launched its 18th fellowship program,
the Civil Society Fellowship. The new initiative will focus on developing emerging US
civil-society leaders and activists from across the political spectrum, while also doing
what the Institute does best: bring together diverse perspectives, cultivate mutual
understanding and respect, and translate values into action. Henry Crown Fellow Nike
Irvin will lead the US-based program. The Institute and the ADL both share a deep
concern for the central tenets of democracy; the goal of the fellowship is to build
the next generation of community leaders in order to create a more just society.
civilsocietyfellowship.org

Socrates Executive Director Cordell Carter, Powers
AMERICA’S
PREMIER SUMMER
CLASSICAL
MUSIC FESTIVAL
JUNE 27-AUGUST 18
Post-season events on
August 20 and 21
Enjoy more than 400 events
featuring hundreds of the
world’s best students, top
professional artists, five
orchestras, staged operas,
chamber music, children’s
events, lectures, and more!
Courtesy McNulty Foundation
Courtesy NHL.com
SOCRATES IN COLOMBIA
Music Director
ROBERT SPANO
President and CEO
In March, the Socrates Program and the John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation joined ALAN FLETCHER
forces to bring the Institute’s seminars to South America for the first time. Leaders from
Colombia, the United States, Chile, Panama, Japan, El Salvador, the United Kingdom, and
World-Class
Mexico gathered for debate and dialogue in Cartagena, Colombia. MIT Media Lab’s William Concerts in a
Powers led a seminar on “Order Amid Chaos: Major Trends Shaping the Future of Technology, Spectacular
Setting
Business, and Society,” and Georgetown University’s Sonal Shah led “Can the Market Fix the
Market?” Participants considered artificial intelligence, market limitations and biases, and new
policies for South America and the world. They also explored the coastal city of Cartagena and
took in its rich history and culture. The Socrates Cartagena Seminars are part of an effort to INFORMATION
establish an international Institute partnership in the Andean region. Topics and challenges AND TICKETS
explored within seminar sessions became launching points for continued debate and inspiration
970 925 9042
for future programming. The McNulty Foundation, Luis Javier Castro, Sonia Sarmiento, Julia www.aspenmusicfestival.com
Rojas, and Francisco Staten and Jennifer Burris sponsored the Socrates Cartagena Seminars.
aspeninstitute.org/socrates

SUMMER'S BOUNTY
8 MUST-READ BOOKS
Whether you’re relaxing on a beach or on a mountain meadow this summer,
these eight titles will enthrall the mind while your body kicks back. All were
written by the acclaimed faculty of the Aspen Summer Words Writers
Conference & Literary Festival, held from June 16 to 21 this year.
aspenwords.org
FICTION
That Kind of Mother Thirty Girls
Rumaan Alam Susan Minot
Alam’s latest book explores what it Minot interweaves the stories of
means to raise two equally adored a young American writer and a
children—children the world treats Ugandan schoolgirl kidnapped by
very differently. The novel explores the Lord’s Resistance Army. The two
the stuff of today’s headlines: white confront displacement and heartbreak
privilege, cultural appropriation, and while struggling to wrest meaning
transracial adoption. from events that test them both.
POETRY
The Dakota Winters Hybrida

Tom Barbash Tina Chang
By turns hilarious and poignant, This new poetry collection
this family saga is set in the late examines mixed-race identity,
1970s at a critical moment in the violence, and history. Chang's
history of New York City and the words come through the lens of
country at large. The novel invokes a motherhood and are expressed
number of cultural icons, in equal parts love and fury.
including John Lennon.

NONFICTION
THE INSIDER’S EDGE:
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
ASPEN INTEL
Nick Flynn
Get connected ... Happy to share my 30 years of
Flynn’s memoir reads like a novel:
local boots-on-the-ground insider Aspen intel.
a father and son first meet in the
Boston homeless shelter where the
son is a caseworker and the father—a
self-professed poet and con-man—
seeks refuge from the streets.
Sign up at: SusanPlummerAspen.com/INTEL
Happiness
Heather Harpham “The way you do one thing is the way you do
This gripping memoir follows an EVERYTHING. No wonder you’re a top realtor”
unconventional couple raising a Jenny Kennedy - Aspen/Miami
mortally sick child.
“Love the restaurant info (#Cloud9receipt)”

Diane Tuft - New York
“WOW!!! Awesome information”

Amy Phelan - Aspen/Palm Beach
The Unspeakable
Meghan Daum “Why aren’t you charging for this??” Tina Staley
This collection of candid and

funny essays takes aim at “Very valuable…and I live here!”
midlife, what it means to be an Mona Look-Mazza - Aspen
adult, and deciding what kind of
adult you want to be. “Great Content”
Holly Hunt - Chicago
All Over the Map

Laura Fraser
A single, 40-year-old travel writer Susan Plummer
wanders the globe in search of Broker Associate
romance and adventure while truly 970.948.6786
longing for a partner, home, and
family.

SCIENCE
MATTERS
This May, the Institute’s Heath, Medicine and
Society Program launched a new initiative,
Science & Society, to address critical gaps in the
public’s trust in and understanding of scientific
advances. Science & Society will focus on a
number of scientific disciplines—including the
biomedical sciences, the natural sciences, data
OWL CREEK RANCH

science, and technology—and will explore how
these fields intersect with American and global
societies and how they can improve the human
I t ’s a r a r i t y to f i n d a p r i s t i n e m o u n t a i n s a n c t u a r y o f 6 2 a c re s , a m e re 10 m i n u te s
Shutterstock
f r o m A s p e n , ye t a w o r l d a w ay. T h i s p a r k-l i ke s e t t i n g i s a m a g i c a l e n c l a ve f i l l e d condition for all. Aaron Mertz, a biophysicist who
w i t h w i l d l i f e , p o n d s , v i e w s a n d e n d l e s s re c re a t i o n a l o p t i o n s i n c l u d i n g f u l l worked previously as a researcher at Rockefeller
e q u e s t r i a n f a c i l i t i e s . H i ke , b i ke , s k i a n d r i d e r i g h t f ro m t h e r a n c h . $1 9, 5 0 0,0 0 0 University, serves as director. The program
kicked off with a book talk featuring Michael
Ro ch elle B o u cha rd
970. 3 7 9. 16 6 2
Lubell, the Mark W. Zemansky Professor of
Physics at the City College of New York and
Ro c h e l l e . B o u c h a r d @ s i r.c o m
author of Navigating the Maze: How Science and
B u y In A s p e n .c o m
Technology Policies Shape America and the World.
“The post–World War II era was an American
era," Lubell, who will chair the program's advisory
board, said at the talk. “That’s no longer true.
We as a nation have lost sight of what we have
accomplished and, even more important, how
much there is still left to be done—and if we
don’t somebody else will.”
aspeninstitute.org/science
Floral Arts
Helen Klisser During
for Weddings, Events & Everyday

Laurence Genon
970.920.6838 ~ www.sashae.com
300 Puppy Smith St. ~ Aspen, CO Lubell
Sashae_AspenIdea_sum14.indd 1 4/27/14 7:28 PM

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WINNERS ON AND OFF THE FIELD

All sports offer benefits to participants. But every team offers a different experience, and some deliver more benefits than
others. The Institute’s Sports & Society Program recently launched a national search to identify exemplary and innovative
high-school sports teams that model best practices for healthy athletes. The Healthy Sport Index Contest looks for teams
that find healthy and creative ways to encourage physical activity, minimize injury risk, and support athletes’ emotional,
social, and mental well-being. The contest is part of Sports & Society’s HealthySportIndex.com, the first tool to evaluate the
relative benefits and risks of the 10 most popular high-school boys’ and girls’ sports. Winners will be named in late 2019 and
throughout 2020 as the Healthy Sport Index evaluates different sports. The winners will receive a $500 award, recognition
in a story written by the Institute, and one free registration to a future Project Play Summit. Make a nomination or learn more at
surveymonkey.com/r/HSIContest.
WE’RE OPEN IN NEW ZEALAND

This year, the Institute launched its newest international partner, most to New Zealanders,” says co-patron Helen Clark, the nation’s
Aspen New Zealand. “There is no forum like Aspen for long-term former prime minister. “It will provide access to an extraordinary
policy discussions,” says chair Don McKinnon, the former deputy global network and equip New Zealanders to contribute to key issues
prime minister of New Zealand. “This is a step up for our international on a world stage.” aspeninstitute.org/partners
engagement.” According to Elliot Gerson, the Institute’s executive
vice president for policy, public programs, and international
partners, this marks the Institute’s 11th international partner across
14 countries and the first in the Southern Hemisphere; it is based in
Queenstown, the sister city of Aspen, Colorado. Christine Maiden
Sharp, the founder and CEO of Aspen New Zealand, says its top
priorities will be leadership programs, an international climate-
Helen Klisser During
Laurence Genon
change conference, seminars on technological impact, explorations

of inequalities, and community forums and local projects. “This
initiative will help raise the standard of debate on issues that matter Clark, McKinnon, Gerson, Sharp

DRESSED FOR SUCCESS

On April 17, fashion designer Eileen Fisher spoke with Susan Fisher decided the best way to find out was to create a “director
Chira, a former New York Times editor and the incoming editor- of social consciousness” position and a department of People
in-chief of the Marshall Project, about design and sustainability and Culture to let “the answers emerge from the collective.”
as part of the Institute’s “Conversations with Great Leaders, aspeninstitute.org/series/tisch
in Memory of Preston Robert Tisch” series. “I wanted to
Fisher
create a different kind of company,” Fisher said, explaining her
environmentalist ideas for a women’s clothing line. “I’m passionate
about simple design, natural fibers. But I realized that even those
were problematic to the environment.” She created Vision 2020
to address the problem. Her goal? To be a 100 percent sustainable
company by 2020. As of last year, the company’s clothing
materials are already 69 percent eco-sustainable, Fisher said.
In 2016, Eileen Fisher, Inc., became one of the largest women’s
fashion companies to earn B Corporation certification, which
is awarded to businesses that meet high criteria for social and
environmental performance. But Fisher wanted to do even more.
“I wanted people to feel safe inside the company, to come with
Erin Baiano
curiosity, not ego,” she said. “But how do you enact these things?”
Strong
MEDICAL TEAM Mark Purnell, MD Eleanor von Stade, MD Stanley Gertzbein, MD
Thea Wojtkowski, MD Tomas Pevny, MD Namdar Kazemi, MD Waqqar Khan-Farooqi, MD
MAKING YOU STRONGER

OrthoAspen’s team of experts is dedicated to improving and restoring
the health of patients who want to live life in motion. Our affiliation
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Murphy
HOT TOPICS
In February, Columbia University linguist John McWhorter spoke about “The
Language of Leadership: Where it Went and How to Bring it Back” with CNN anchor
Alisyn Camerota as part of the Institute’s Conversations with Great Leaders Series.
McWhorter explained that these days most people speak to the right brain, which
is more subjective and emotional, making our speech too “hot.” As a result, people
today have trouble having real conversations. “We need to wipe away the crust of
euphemism we use in our political discussions,” McWhorter said. Along with incivility,
the news is often just point and counterpoint, because sharp contrasts drive ratings.
But they don’t make for effective exchanges. The language of leadership should
instead be spare and careful, McWhorter said; it should avoid hitting the right brain
too hard. He pointed to Franklin Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln as leaders who
understood how to use language. McWhorter did see a bright side: on social media,
where hot speech thrives, he predicted that the Twitter “meanness” factor will
disappear in five to 10 years, when it will be considered “not cool” to send mean tweets.
aspeninstitute.org/the-language-of-leadership-john-mcwhorter
Erin Baiano
Erin Baiano
McWhorter

POLICY AT THE SPEED OF TECH

In January, the Cybersecurity & Technology Program launched
the Aspen Tech Policy Hub. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area,
the hub will teach technology experts about the policy process and
help them formulate and advance solutions that address global
problems. The program is the first to use the model of a start-up
incubator to train technologists to better engage in policymaking.
In turn, these fellows just might influence policymakers to better
understand today’s technologies. Incubator fellows will be in
residence full time from June to mid-August and will be paid
$7,500 a month. During their residency, fellows will produce at
least one practical policy output—such as mock regulation, policy
tool kits, white papers, op-eds, or an app—and before leaving the
hub will present their ideas to someone with decision-making
authority over that issue. “It is a tremendous challenge to bridge
the gap between Silicon Valley and Washington, DC,” Betsy
Cooper, the director of the Aspen Tech Policy Hub, says. “We
Laurence Genon
hope to inspire translators who can start a conversation between
Leigh Vogel
technologists and policymakers.” aspentechpolicyhub.org
Cooper
OPPORTUNITY ROCKS
At 18, Wanner Johan Gaviria addressed the violence in his hosted with YouthBuild International and Global Development
hometown of Cali, Colombia, by creating a neighborhood peace Incubator. The event was part of the new Global Opportunity
and reconciliation group. He is one of 24 global leaders between Youth Initiative, seeded with a grant from Prudential Financial
18 and 30 who participated last December in the Institute’s and launched by the Institute’s Forum for Community
inaugural Global Opportunity Youth summit in Philadelphia, co- Solutions. The initiative follows the model of the Opportunity
Riccardo Savi
Youth Forums across the United States: use youth
voices, vision, energy, and knowledge to respond
to the crisis of 350 million young people around
the world who are underemployed or unemployed,
and not in school. Many developing countries, even
those enjoying strong economic growth, cannot
come close to creating the amount of jobs needed
to meet the numbers of young people moving from
school to work. “One key strategy is to listen to
and learn from others,” Gaviria says. “A leader is
not one who knows but one who learns each day.”
Courtesy YouthBuild International
The initiative will continue to identify strategies

that can increase jobs and improve livelihoods
for youth in partnership with select communities
Riccardo Savi
Global Opportunity Youth Initiative participants

around the world.
aspencommunitysolutions.org/global-opportunity-youth

ASPEN LIBRIS
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

This spring’s Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn Book Series explored the news industry, the Supreme Court,
and the self. As often is the case with Institute book talks, these seemingly disparate topics all connected
under a universal theme: the plight of doing the right thing—whether that’s in public, at work, or in private.
Below are just a few highlights from the series. aspeninstitute.org/gildenhorn-book-series
MERCHANTS OF TRUTH: THE BUSINESS OF NEWS

AND THE FIGHT FOR FACTS
Jill Abramson
Former executive editor, The New York Times, and senior lecturer, Harvard University
“There’s a lot more competition for all the news platforms. If you use The Washington Post app, you
can see that there’s the clickbait news there, too—something like, ‘A mother dropped her son into
a sinkhole and you’ll never guess what happened next.’ I mean, you gotta click. The ‘guess what hap-
pened next’ frame for a headline comes straight out of Buzzfeed. It’s not like it’s the worst crime in
the world to have clickbait stories as long as the other stories are excellent and important, which for
Laurence Genon
the most part they are. It’s just that The New York Times and others have lowered the wall between the
Leigh Vogel
Abramson
news side and the business side. That blurring is somewhat worrying to me.”
FIRST: SANDRA DAY O’CONNOR

Evan Thomas
Journalist, historian, and author
“She applies to 40 law firms all through California—in LA, San Francisco—and not a single one will give
her an interview for a law job. One law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, interviews her for a secretary’s
job, and she is asked, ‘How well do you type?’ Her answer is, ‘So-so.’ Now flash forward 30 years. It’s
1981, the attorney general of the United States, William French Smith, who was a former Gibson,
Dunn & Crutcher partner, is calling Sandra Day O’Connor in Phoenix to ask her if she would please
Riccardo Savi
come to an interview with the president of the United States about a job in the Supreme Court. She
Thomas
gets on the phone and she says to him, ‘You wouldn’t be calling me about secretarial work would you?’ ”
THE SECOND MOUNTAIN: THE QUEST FOR A MORAL LIFE

David Brooks
Executive director, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, and op-ed columnist, The New York Times
“The first component of joy is moving in unison with other people. At every celebration in every so-
ciety, when they’re celebrating, they’re doing rhythmic dance. They’re dancing around a fire; they’re
dancing in a synagogue hall; they’re dancing at a party. The second component of joy is that group
Courtesy YouthBuild International
movement in pursuit of an ideal, in pursuit of something that satisfies our moral yearning. When you
see people at the peak of their second mountain, it’s not that their desires have been satisfied but that
they are all desire. They’ve found something that is truly meaningful and truly important to them. The
self has been left behind, and they long to be more and more in service of that thing, a faithfulness to
Riccardo Savi
something they really care about and want to live out. And that’s the second mountain.”
Brooks

AS HEARD AT: SPORTS BETTING
Left and right: Dan Bayer

Whitehead
MAGIC STREAK
During this year’s Winter Words season, author Colson Whitehead spoke to
an Aspen Words audience about his life as a writer, the difference between
fiction and nonfiction (spoiler: fiction is made up), and how he came up with
the fantastical premise for his most recent book, The Underground Railroad,
which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. aspenwords.org
When I got to college and started reading different kinds of are 7.5 billion people in the world. You’ve made an impact
fiction, I liked the equivalency I saw between the science fiction in the lives of .00000001 percent of the population. You’re
and horror I grew up adoring and the magic realism of Garcia a microbe on the butt of a gnat trying to catch the attention
Marquez, the absurdity of Beckett, the mythical landscapes of an elephant. The population of Earth is very intimidating.
of Borges. All these writers from the canon played with the But, you might naturally ask yourself next, what about life on
fantastic as much as the genre writers I grew up inspired by. other planets? Perhaps they have a taste for language, poetry,
I was very self-conscious as a 20-something. So, when the creative nonfiction, coming-of-age novels. Well, I hate to burst
rejection slips began to arrive and accumulate, I started thinking your bubble, but scientists say only one in 100 million planets is
about what else I might be able to do. My parents were of a capable of supporting life, and what’s the chance they would like
generation that if you were an able-bodied black person, it your crap, anyway? They could be all about the haiku up there,
was your duty to make something of yourself, uplift the race. some 5-7-5-based civilization, and then you’re out of luck.
The average book of literary fiction sells 5,000 copies—if I got very depressed thinking about this. Then it occurred
you’re lucky. Assuming everyone who loves the book makes 10 to me: maybe it’s out of my hands. An artistic temperament
other people read it, then the book has 50,000 readers. There must go back to the Neanderthals. There’s a Neanderthal who

paused while beating in the skull of another Neanderthal controlling the Jewish population from lynching culture and
from the next cave over, and he said to himself, “Hunting Jim Crow laws that restricted black movement. They took all
and gathering, is that all there is to this miserable life?” He the terrible ideas that Americans came up with in the 19th
was the first Neanderthal existentialist. And he found a century to control black people and then used them to control
female Neanderthal of melancholy temperament who liked and destroy the Jews in the 20th century. If I’d stuck to a
to draw nonrepresentational doodles on the cave wall, and realistic story, I couldn’t have that sort of play with history that
she was the first abstract makes the book interesting.
artist. And they made People also ask why
a kid who didn’t like to I decided to make the
hunt or gather but just tell protagonist a woman. I
stories all day. He found always try to do different
a suitable mate and so on things, and I’d never done
throughout the centuries, that in fiction before.
spawning moody arty kids. Another reason is that,
In the 1600s, one villager when I was reading slave
says to another, “Hey, did narratives, one that stayed
you see that new puppet with me, Incidents in the Life
show last night?” The of a Slave Girl, was written by
artistic villager says, “No. I Harriet Jacobs, the woman
don’t watch puppet shows. who ran away from her
I don’t even own a puppet master and hid in an attic.
Left and right: Dan Bayer
show set. I only listen to Jacobs writes very movingly

NPR.” And so on to the about the dilemma of
present day, that artistic the female slave. When a
DNA surviving. I realized, slave girl becomes a slave
it didn’t matter if no one woman, she enters into a
liked what I was doing. I new, more terrible form of
had no choice. slavery. She’s now subject to her master’s sexual desires, if
When I first had the idea for The Underground Railroad, she wasn’t already. She’s also supposed to pump out babies,
it was 19 years ago. I had come across a reference to the because more babies mean more property, more slaves for her
railroad, and I remembered how, when I was a kid, when I owner. It’s just a different predicament than the male slaves
heard those words—“underground railroad”—they were faced, and it seemed worthy of taking up. Is it hard to have a
so evocative that I thought it was a literal train beneath the female protagonist? Yes. It’s always hard. If it’s going too easily,
earth, which is very impractical. We have seven miles of track you’re probably not putting the work in. My protagonists have
in New York City, and we can barely keep that going; 3,000 bits of me in them. Cora, in The Underground Railroad, has the
miles beneath America is quite the task. But I wasn’t the only least amount of my personality in her, which is probably why
person who thought that, and my teacher explained how it people like this book more than my others.
actually worked. So I wondered: Wouldn’t it be a weird premise Finally, folks want to know if I am concerned that some
for a book to make this imaginary train, this metaphor, into a literal people will be confused about what’s real and what’s fake. You
train? What kind of story could I get out of that? Then I added know, “Fake news! Fake news!” They say, “Aren’t you worried
the element that each state our protagonist goes through is a that people could be confused? Don’t you have a responsibility
different state of American possibility, like Gulliver’s Travels. to the reader?” The answer is no. I have no responsibility to the
People ask me, “Why not tell a realistic story? Why reader. I trust the reader knows the difference between fiction
make the metaphor into a literal train?” Because that’s the and nonfiction. Fiction, for example, is made up. Nonfiction
fanciful genesis of the book: what if ? It’s fantastic from its is true. That’s one difference. The cover says, The Underground
very conception, and if I’d stuck to realism, I couldn’t have Railroad: A Novel. That’s a tip-off that some fictional stuff is going
the play with history that I think makes the story compelling. on. Another tip-off is that, on page 78, there’s a literal train
In the North Carolina section of the book, for example, I beneath the earth for a thousand miles. But I understand that
mention the writer Harriet Jacobs, who hid in an attic for fake news has become a big part of our lives, and there could
seven years before getting passage to the North. You think, be terrible, sometimes lethal, consequences. Every year, we
“hiding in an attic,” you think, “Anne Frank.” How can lose a couple of people, who are killed because they step into
I take this story, which is partially about the oppression of a tornado thinking it will take them to the Wizard of Oz, and
black people, and bring in the oppression of Jewish people? that’s very tragic. But in general, I think people can keep up.
The Nazis took their ideas about racial purity and eugenics
from 19th-century American scientists. They got their idea of Transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

IMPACT: PRESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIP
Finance Leaders fellows come
together to enable collective
action in the finance industry.

Williams
HEADS OF THE CLASS

Through its Aspen Presidential Fellowship, the Institute’s College Excellence Program
teaches aspiring community college presidents how to make students’ future success
their central goal. By Linda Perlstein
It’s time to start thinking about the next generation of lows are people of color, compared with just 29 percent
community college presidents. The American Association of sitting presidents.
of Community Colleges predicts that more than 80 per- The yearlong fellowship, a collaboration with the Stan-
cent of them are going to retire over the coming decade. ford Educational Leadership Initiative, includes one-on-
To fill the void, in 2016 the Institute’s College Excellence one mentoring, three residential seminars, and a capstone
Program created the Aspen Presidential Fellowship for project. Unlike other training programs for college lead-
Community College Excellence. Each year, the Institute ers, this one focuses solely on student success, which the
selects 40 aspiring community college presidents for the program defines as student learning, degree or credential
fellowship, which nurtures enthusiastic and capable lead- completion, success after transfer to a four-year school or
ers who will create transformational change on behalf of in the workforce, and equitable outcomes for students of
their students. all backgrounds.
In 2018, the program welcomed its third cohort of The fellowship chooses candidates who are already ex-
fellows, a diverse group by design. While only one-third cellent leaders—like the three alumni featured here, now
Courtesy Jeff Cox
of sitting community college presidents are female, two- all college presidents—and provides them with the tools
thirds of the members of the 2018–2019 class of Aspen to build solutions, spur urgency, and establish the partner-
Presidential fellows are. What’s more, 43 percent of fel- ships necessary to get the work done.

“A Laser-Sharp Focus
on Student Success”
By Jeff Cox
At convocation this year, I had all of our 300 faculty and staff
members stand up. I told them they represented our student
body at Wilkes Community College. Then I had a quarter
of them sit down; they represented the students who don’t
return after their first semester. Then I had another quarter
sit down; they were the students who don’t complete their
first year. Then I asked another quarter to sit; they repre-
sented the students who last a year or two but never gradu-
ate. I asked, “Is anybody here satisfied?” No one was. By the
time we completed the exercise, only a few faculty remained
Williams standing. They represented the 4 percent of graduates who
make at least $20 an hour within one year of graduation.
“I Am Forever Connected to a You could have heard a pin drop.
From that moment, we all understood the urgency of
Great Group of Leaders” what we needed to do. I issued a bold challenge that day:
By Tonjua Williams let’s move our three-year graduation rate from 25 percent to
50 percent in the next five years.
The Aspen Presidential Fellowship experience gave me a I’d been president for three years before the Aspen Pres-
better understanding of the definition of “student success” idential Fellowship, which is where I’d learned that convo-
and the strategies necessary to lead my team to accomplish cation exercise. I had a vision for this work, or at least the
it. I intensified my focus on the labor market as well as ac-
cess and success for underrepresented and underprepared
students. For my capstone project, I created an educational
ecosystem to solve problems in collaboration with area em-
ployers, faith-based organizations, community partners, and
other educational institutions.
I now meet with local communities one at a time and ask:
“What jobs are out there? What kind of employees are you pro-
ducing? What’s missing from what we are teaching?” I no lon-
ger offer programs with no future just because we can get stu-
dents into seats. If a child-care certificate only leads students to
a $10-an-hour job, it’s not enough. I refuse to have a St. Peters-
burg College degree on the wall of someone living in poverty.
Faculty are key to achieving our goals. Building rela-
tionships with faculty and understanding their need to be
engaged, empowered, and included is vital to institutional
health. But including faculty in decision-making is not
enough; we must also call on them to ensure that students
get an education and finish what they start.
Finally, I’ve learned to ask for help. While confidence is
important for a leader, it is also good to know you can call
on others to assist you. Two years later, the 39 fellows in my
class communicate practically every day: What skill set would
you look for when hiring a vice president of advancement? What strate-
gies do you use to engage faculty? I am forever connected to a great
group of leaders who are determined to change the world.
Courtesy Jeff Cox
Tonjua Williams is the president of St. Petersburg College in St.

Petersburg, Florida, and a 2016–2017 member of the Aspen
Presidential Fellowship. Cox

IMPACT: PRESIDENTIAL FELLOWSHIP
start of one. But I really didn’t know as much as I needed the table to help shape the curriculum.
to about actual outcomes. At college, we’d talk anecdot- This all stemmed from strategic planning, the framing for
ally about the graduates we knew who were making good which came from my capstone project. Our college had sort
money as a nurse or a diesel mechanic. But once we looked of accepted its 25 percent graduation rate, which was above
at the data in the ways I’d learned to in the fellowship, we the national average. But the fellowship gave me the tools
realized that those success stories aren’t as common as we I needed to put a laser-sharp focus on student success. My
would like. mentor was Bob Templin, a senior fellow at the Institute and
We identified the careers in our area that pay students a one of the most prominent community college leaders in the
living wage. Then we asked, “What’s the educational path- country. Having him and the Institute’s research behind us
way to get there?” We placed a career coach in each of the made all the difference in mobilizing the college community
high schools in our area. We are building apprenticeship around our bold plans.
programs and infusing our curriculum with work-based
learning and the soft skills that employers told us new hires Jeff Cox is president of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro,
were lacking. We are revamping our business and industry North Carolina, and a 2017–2018 member of the Aspen Presidential
advisory committees to ensure we have the right people at Fellowship.
“We Do This Because

It’s the Right Thing to Do”
By Meghan Hughes
I didn’t need the Aspen Presidential Fellowship to give me a

new set of values or leadership approaches. I did need world-
class teachers who would share the hard lessons others had
learned that I could avoid. And I needed hands-on tools to
help me convert my priorities into action.
I’ve been president for almost three years, and we’ve al-
ready made real progress—and much of the design behind
the progress came from what I learned through the fellow-
ship. We launched a “guided pathways” program, an essen-
tial building block that, along with “intrusive advising,” keeps
our students on the right path. We created a master schedule
so our 20,000 students could have predictable class plans.
We completely redesigned our workforce division, hired a
prominent leader to run it, and built partnerships with em-
ployers in high-wage sectors. We refocused our advancement
team around the student-success mission and, in the process,
Courtesy Meghan Hughes

secured the two largest private gifts in the college’s history.
We had professors redesign the way we teach develop-
mental math, so that students can work at their own pace
with close coaching from their teachers. We also introduced
Hughes
multiple math pathways, because future engineers and future
English teachers need different math classes. Passing rates
in our gateway English courses have improved by nearly 50 been my peers. The intensity of their belief—people who
percent, and math pass rates have improved nearly 40 per- have given their careers to the public good—I carry that with
cent. Our graduation rate has increased 27 percent. We still me. If you just keep at it, it’s going to work.
have a meaningful distance to go, but we are on our way.
I genuinely learned something from every single person Meghan Hughes is the president of the Community College of
in the fellowship. The teachers at the front of the room were Rhode Island and a 2016–2017 member of the Aspen Presidential
exceptional. But the best teachers, day in and day out, have Fellowship.

IMPACT: COMMUNITY STRATEGIES GROUP
Finance Leaders fellows come
together to enable collective
action in the finance industry.
Students in the applied

Kertis Creative
technology program at
Phillips Community
College in DeWitt, Arkansas
OUTSTANDING ON
RURAL GROUND
The Institute’s Community Strategies Group inspires local leaders to make rural America
healthy and prosperous. By Katharine Ferguson and Janet Topolsky
What’s the recipe for building local prosperity—for all? Ingre- in early 2019 the program surveyed more than 40 of the na-
dients vary from place to place, but a few basics are essential in tion’s foremost rural development experts, including Innovation
any community: inventive leaders who form partnerships to get Group members, and found that no one type of local or re-
things done, residents engaged in shaping solutions, and strong, gional organization is best at grappling with challenges or lever-
flexible, local organizations. Since 1985, the Institute’s Commu- aging opportunities in rural America. In one place, it might be
nity Strategies Group has equipped, connected, and inspired a community foundation; in another, a local development orga-
local leaders to build more prosperous regions and to support nization or chamber of commerce; in the neighboring valley,
those living on the economic margins. it’s a community development financial institution; two states
Starting in 2016, the program joined forces with the North- over, it’s a community action agency, or a regional nonprofit.
ern Forest Center and the US Endowment for Forestry and These “rural development hubs” play a critical role in galvaniz-
Communities to pull 16 leading rural development practitio- ing communities to act and create lasting, systemic change.
ners into its Rural Development Innovation Group. In the face Community Strategies Group will be releasing findings from
of media and social discourse fixated on everything rural com- its research throughout the year, including recommendations
munities lack, the group’s members are bringing to national at- for how public and private investors can strengthen the environ-
tention the countless innovations at work across rural America. ment for more rural innovation and progress. In the meantime,
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, these perspectives from three members serve as a sneak preview.

IMPACT: COMMUNITY STRATEGIES GROUP
“Our Communities Need

All Their Entrepreneurs”
By Dennis West
My vocation is to support the start and growth of local busi-

nesses. My avocation is to see them succeed. Only one in 10
of us has the attitude and aptitude to run our own business.
But do all those one-in-10s have access to personal wealth,
family wealth, or traditional capital sources? For many, the
answer is no. To make it in rural places, our communities
need all their precious few potential entrepreneurs.
Shawn Pointer
At Northern Initiatives, we help rural communities real-
Stewart
ize their fullest entrepreneurial capacity, adding to the ranks
of those who have the opportunity to build wealth. Northern
“In Our Region, Everything Is Initiatives, a community development financial institution
Interdisciplinary” based in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, lends to small family-
owned firms, helping them launch and grow. Today, our loan
By Connie Stewart portfolio has 320 customers, each helping its community
create a more differentiated economy. They are the salt that
In 1984, I moved to Arcata, California, to attend college—and makes the community unique and whole.
never left. While the hundreds of rural California miles north Trust and sustained relationships in the communities
of San Francisco rarely get the spotlight, the creativity and de- where we work are essential to our business model. This is
termination in our region rival none. Throughout my career,
serving on the city council and as Arcata’s mayor, working for
a state legislator, and now at the California Center for Rural
Policy, my north star has always been community needs.
A diverse group of community members from four coun- “The People in These
ties bemoaned the quality of data and analysis available on Communities Are Not
issues affecting people in rural California. They wanted a Giving Up”
partner with rural-specific knowledge and expertise essential
By Ines Polonius
to working in rural places. With that, our center was born. We
quickly realized the dense connectivity among rural health
care, infrastructure, and economic development. In our re- Talent is distributed equally across the United States. Oppor-
gion, as large as Virginia but with only 400,000 people, every- tunity is not. I firmly believe—and Communities Unlimited
thing is interdisciplinary. is rooted in the belief—that access to opportunity should not
Today, we provide better data to policy leaders and others depend on where you live, how much you have in the bank,
working to improve life in rural California. We do not create or what you look like. That’s our vision and the heart of our
reports that sit on a shelf collecting dust. Take, for example, our work: everyone has the opportunity to live and work in their
work on accelerating broadband deployment. Most broadband hometown.
policy is designed with high-density places and large population How do we do this? Through old-fashioned human con-
centers in mind. Building from an initial $5,000 grant, we’ve nection and ingenuity combined with cutting-edge technol-
helped leverage more than $80 million—$60 million in state ogy. We work in a seven-state region in the South that spans
funding and $20 million in private investment—for broadband the Mississippi Delta, parts of the Black Belt, Oklahoma
deployment, bringing affordable, reliable high-speed broad- tribal lands, and the Rio Grande Valley. Many people see
band to more than 50,000 rural people. these regions as lacking, and if you focus on the decades
Community Strategies Group has been an enduring and of poverty and the people and funders who have left, you
essential partner since our founding 15 years ago. When our could give up. What I see is different. I see a pool of entre-
community foundation, community college, and local university preneurs who are courageous, creative, and persistent.
formed a leadership group to improve rural livelihoods in the re- When we started creating opportunities for people to lead
gion, Community Strategies Group served as our facilitator and and grow at Communities Unlimited, I had a big aha mo-
partner. CSG is truly our mentor, champion, and godparent. ment: I had tried this before and failed. Trying for a second
time forced me to create space for others to try new things,
Connie Stewart is the founding executive director of the California fail, and learn from those experiences. Making failure OK
Center for Rural Policy and a member of the Institute’s Rural is critical to creating an organization full of leaders. It has
Development Innovation Group. forever changed how we work.

especially true in today’s digital world, where often only al-
gorithms “know us,” sorting information and pushing ads
based on our search histories, political leanings, and digi-
tal footprints. It feels far less creepy—in fact, it feels pretty
good—when it’s your friends, family, and local businesses
who know you, not your technology.
Community Strategies Group unites us with other orga-
Shawn Pointer
nizations dedicated to rural success to share, learn, and in-

novate. We know from our own work that the starting point
of whether you can grow a business is if you can move from
working “in” your business to working “on” your business.
CSG has supported me and my colleagues in creating the
space, cultivating the ideas, and building the systems to do
just that.
Rhino Studios
Dennis West is the president of Northern Initiatives and a member of

the Institute’s Rural Development Innovation Group. West
It even informs how we work with communities. We can

partner, coach, teach, and cheerlead, and, ultimately, the
community leaders we work with are responsible for creating
their own futures. If things fail the first time around, we all
dust ourselves off and try again.
In the 2018 fiscal year alone, the technical assistance we
provided leveraged $62 million in outside resources for small
business and infrastructure projects in rural communities
across our seven states. Last year, we lent just over $5 million
for small businesses, community infrastructure development,
and gap financing that traditional lenders could not supply.
We work and invest where others have given up because
the people in these communities are not giving up. They
have hope. They are willing to work as hard as it takes to
make a better life for themselves and their children in their
hometowns.
Work in rural places can feel isolating at times, not just to
Shawn Poynter courtesy Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
our field staff but even to our leadership. Since 2011, Com-
munity Strategies Group has provided Communities Unlim-
ited with national exposure. Our work together, especially
with the Rural Development Innovation Group, gives us ac-
cess to innovation going on across the country while connect-
ing us with philanthropic partners, think tanks, and others
committed to a stronger rural America.
Ines Polonius is the CEO of Communities Unlimited and a member

Polonius
of the Institute’s Rural Development Innovation Group.
BRINGING THE W
ver eight months in 1999, a crime spree In the crime spree’s aftermath, the Aspen Institute
swept through Aspen, Colorado, a city hosted a community roundtable to explore the roots of
where residents normally feel so safe they the issue and next steps. The Institute invited school
don’t lock their doors. Several armed representatives, law-enforcement officials, community
robberies, including a pistol-whipping leaders, local parents, and teens. The event by itself may not
during one holdup, horrified the community, be widely remembered for producing any pat answers, but
which was even more shocked when it came to light from it emerged some enduring programs that have given
that a dozen local teenagers were the perpetrators. the Aspen community a platform for valuable discussion,
How a mountain town known for producing athletes, introspection, and critical thinking.
high achievers, and service-oriented individuals could This year, Aspen Community Programs celebrates its 20th
come to this point was hard to fathom. year offering public programs to local residents and visitors.

WORLD TO ASPEN
It has grown from approximately 19 days of programming Aspen Community Programs bring Institute
during its first year to around 70 days today. Community
Programs has added events, occasionally dropped some, and
values, excitement, and expertise to rich
adapted others to the area’s needs. Today, its initiatives serve a public discussions and seminars designed for
broad swath of the Aspen community—from middle-school Aspen locals and visitors. By Catherine Lutz
students to local leaders to the public at large—through well-
established scholarships and reputations.
“The common theme and our mission is to provide Community Programs. “It’s a way of learning, stimulating
a place where locals can come together to discuss timely, your mind, and meeting other people—who may be like-
Dan Bayer
relevant issues with their fellow citizens,” says Cristal minded or you might disagree with—and having a neutral
Logan, an Institute vice president and the director of Aspen place to do it.”

STARTING A LOCAL CONVERSATION
Aspen Community Programs started very deliberately. The
Institute itself was founded in 1949 and was long considered
a haven for business executives and policymakers who would
jet in and out of town for private programs. The Institute’s
flagship program, the Executive Seminar, was in fact geared
toward those kinds of leaders, who used text-based Socratic
dialogue to explore societal values—and thus develop into
more self-aware and better leaders.
“Because we weren’t a public-facing organization, we got
the reputation of being private and elitist,” explains Logan.
At one point, the friction between the local community and
the Institute became so acute that the organization nearly
left its founding location.
It was in this atmosphere that the Institute hired John
Bennett, then the outgoing mayor of Aspen, as the first director
of Aspen Community Programs in 1999. He and Logan, whom
he hired almost immediately, were charged with creating year-
round programming specifically for locals.
The pair was exploring collaborations with local
organizations when the crime spree steered them down
the path of a youth-focused program. Bennett met Bill
Cathers, who had long before worked with Executive
Seminar designer Mortimer Adler and had even adapted
the seminar for high-school students elsewhere. Cathers
helped Bennett and Logan put together a curriculum for Senator John McCain with Logan before his 2008 McCloskey Speaker Series talk
a local school seminar.
It’s critical that programs are available and grounded in the

Aspen community. It is a part of the history of the Institute.
“When you’re in a room with people for four days, you’re respectively. In Sharing Shakespeare, a program Logan launched
engaged in real conversation that’s regrettably absent in in 2004 with a group of locals, participants dissect relevant
our increasingly polarized society,” says Lee Bycel, a senior political and social themes in Shakespeare’s plays. It attracted 100
seminar moderator at the Institute. “No one’s grading you, people in just its initial offering. Community Programs developed
so you can take risks on what you’re thinking. What kids get its newest public seminar, Our Society Imagined, from scratch
out of it is that life is not just college, a job, and who you live to explore domestic policy. “We try to create different ways the
your life with. There’s value in looking at life, what it means community can take part in programming that’s relevant and
to be human and to feel.” Youth programs have grown, with stimulating to them,” Logan says.
a Great Ideas seminar added for eighth-graders. In both that The public seminar programs are part of what makes the
and the high-school version, school representatives select the Aspen area unique, says Parker Maddux, who retired to Basalt
participants. Teen Socrates, open to anyone ages 15 to 17, with his wife after living around the world. Even in cosmopolitan
rounds out the youth offerings. cities, similar programming might exist but is usually associated
The high-school Great Ideas seminar was such a hit with with a university. Aspen, on the other hand, “attracts people with
students—Bennett recalls hearing it was transformational for vast experiences and a sensitivity to the problems we all face,”
some—that parents began asking if they could take part. Thus, the says Maddux, who occasionally moderates seminar programs.
Community Great Ideas Seminar was born. Over the years, other Participating in them is important mental exercise, he says. And
multiday public seminars, all based on reading classic texts and a Maddux is lobbying to expand Aspen Community Programs, so
roundtable format that equalizes participants, were developed or it has greater reach. “I think there’s a hunger for these types of
taken over from local groups. Great Books and Great Decisions programs,” he says. “Ideas pop up, and unexpected comments
explore significant Western books and key foreign-policy issues, allow you to see things differently.”

Institute CEO Dan
Porterfield at the Basalt
Regional Library
EXPANDING THE CONVERSATION As the names of the speaker series suggest, they require
When they launched Aspen Community Programs in 1999, generous support to be sustainable. “We struggled for years
Bennett and Logan inherited a summer series featuring six to raise money for these programs,” Logan says. Fortunately,
lectures by speakers who were already in town for other Institute Aspen Community Programs has a few long-standing
events. “There was a wealth of people always coming through, donors who have helped keep programs affordable and
Left: Riccardo Savi; Top: Dan Bayer
and we wanted to share them with the community,” Logan accessible. These contributions have also funded need-
says. Three summer speaker series may get less fanfare than the based scholarships for teens and adults. Bonnie and Tom
flagship Aspen Ideas Festival, but they bring in equally impressive McCloskey stepped up in 2005 to endow a summer speaker
leaders, thinkers, and innovators: the Hurst Lecture Series, the series, and in 2012, local residents Bob and Soledad Hurst
McCloskey Speaker Series, and, reflecting the Institute’s founding gave an endowment to support a high-school and middle-
philosophy, the Murdock Mind, Body, Spirit Series, endowed by school Great Ideas program as well as the Hurst Lecture
Institute trustee Jerry Murdock’s wife, Gina Murdock. Series. “We live in Aspen full time and believe it’s critical that
Rachel Richards, who was Aspen’s mayor immediately programs are available and grounded in the community,”
after Bennett, recalls the Institute’s community engagement Bob Hurst says. “It is part of the history of the Institute.”
expanding as Aspen Community Programs grew. “It was a Another branch of the Aspen Community Programs tree
larger invitation to everyone, that they were trying to make helps local leaders grapple with local issues. These occasional
these incredible guest speakers and enlightening programs forums have studied topics such as housing, broadband, and
available to everyone at a really affordable rate,” she says, mental health, and recently the forum met to try to find
noting in particular the ticketed public events that take place solutions to the area’s traffic issues. As a result of 15 months
during the Aspen Ideas Festival. The Institute “has done a of meetings and public events, the task force for the traffic
lot,” Richards says, “to integrate the whole concept of the forum published a report with recommendations that the
Aspen Idea at a time when we really needed it.” regional transportation committee is currently following.
What the Institute brought to the table, says Pitkin
County Manager Jon Peacock, who has been a moderator as
well as a participant in Aspen Community Programs, were
experts with outside experience and innovative viewpoints.
“Local communities are consistently challenged to consider
issues holistically, bringing the increased polarization in our
communities into sharper relief and making implementation
more difficult,” Peacock says. “The Institute has a tested model
to convene productive conversations between people and
groups with different values. It can and does provide great value
to local communities dealing with difficult questions.”
“The Aspen Institute is such an amazingly valuable

resource, and the community for several decades really had
not been able to take advantage of that,” Bennett says. “It’s
a great pleasure to see the organization as open as it is today.
Community Programs deepen the connection between the
Institute and the Aspen community.”
Hurst Seminar participants Catherine Lutz is a writer based in Aspen.

The Aspen Young Leaders Fellowship asks talented young
people to turn their attentions to the communities where
they live—preferably as soon as possible.
Hill

uring the summer of 2017, Cameron Hill worked
in a research lab at Washington University Medical
School in St. Louis designing and conducting
experiments. Walking home one day in the
oppressive heat of the Missouri summer, perspiration
dripping down her face, Hill pulled out her phone
and scanned the local news. “One story struck me,”
she says. “A local jail lacked air conditioning in most of
the facility, and as temperatures reached 109 degrees inmates
were screaming for help.”
Such inhumane conditions horrified Hill. “Who were these inmates?” she wondered.
It turned out that the jail in question housed people who could not afford to pay bail for
pre-trial release. Worse than enduring the heat, these people typically spent over 200
days behind bars while waiting for trial. “I was shocked that the bail system effectively
punished people based on socioeconomic status prior to a verdict of guilt or innocence,”
Hill says. “I couldn’t help but think of my Japanese-American grandparents who were
incarcerated by the United States during World War II because of their ethnicity. Neither
the inmates nor my family were convicted of a crime, yet both lost their freedom.”
Some college students might chalk the situation up to an unfair world or give up on
their community. Hill decided to act. She is a member of the Aspen Young Leaders
Fellowship, a program that finds innovative young change-makers and gathers them
in an environment designed to maximize their talents and advance their commitment
to local impact. The program looks for gritty, creative, upstart youth ready to commit
to civic transformation. The fellowship, Hill says, “helped me see myself as capable
Left: Courtesy Cameron Hill; Right: Leslie Gamboni
Aspen Young Leaders Fellowship: Delta cohort

Yarbrough Malone
of making change in my community by combating the the Mississippi/Arkansas Delta; Newark, New Jersey;
injustices I saw in the bail system.” or St. Louis, Missouri. Locally based fellowship classes
Hill networked with community leaders; conducted complete one year of personal and leadership development
research; interviewed everyone she could, from former programming designed to accelerate fellows’ understanding
inmates to corrections officers; and even interned in the of how to make a difference.
St. Louis Corrections Division. The data she collected Far too often, American communities struggle to keep
underpinned a proposal she called risk-free: let inmates go their brightest and most talented young leaders in town.
home prior to trial, based on a comprehensive assessment Some young people lose faith that positive change is possible,
of the risks they pose to the community and the likelihood others doubt their own potential, still others come to believe
they will appear for trial. “No longer,” she said, “would low that they must leave to find success. This loss of raw talent
socioeconomic status be the only factor that determined makes local problems all the more difficult to address. The
whether an inmate was at home or behind bars before trial.” Aspen Youth Leaders Fellowship asks, What would it look
Soon the proposal won’t just be a theory: Hill’s supervisor in like if we could retain and empower the most talented local
the Corrections Division is working to implement the new youth and help them find opportunities for growth and
model. impact in their own hometowns?
Ideas into action: the Aspen Young Leaders Fellowship For Mississippi Delta natives Yasmine Malone and
cultivates local, committed young talent ready to invest in Tyler Yarbrough, that looks like comprehensive education
and positively change their communities—not in some opportunities. The pair knew from personal experience how
distant future but right now. Hill is just one of around difficult it can be to coordinate the college-prep and career-
30 youth between the ages of 18 and 22 selected for the planning process. They also knew how lucky they were. “For
fellowship. All fellows come from one of three places: every story that mirrors our own,” Malone says, “there are

With only 17 percent
of the population
earning a four-year
degree, going to
college is that much
harder for kids who
reside in the area
we call home.
agents. “We want young people to understand their stories

and struggles not as limitations but as sources for hope,”
Yarbrough says. “The youth of the Mississippi/Arkansas
Delta are our community’s, and our country’s, hidden jewels.”
Malone and Yarbrough are the Delta’s not-so-hidden
jewels. Whether they are fellows like Hill, who saw an
injustice and devoted herself to changing it, or like Malone
and Yarbrough, who are determined to increase educational
equity—all Aspen Young Leadership fellows are ready to
revitalize and shape the future of their regions. “I carry
dozens more that involve our peers receiving inadequate the lessons I learned from the seminars, my cohort, and my
support to pursue their dreams.” So, as youth fellows and community-impact internship with me,” Hill says. “I am
students in the public-policy program at the University of tethered to every other person by our shared humanity. I
Mississippi, they tackled the problem. “With only 17 percent have the power to challenge frameworks and create positive
of the population earning a four-year degree,” Yarbrough change in my community and the world.”
says, “going to college is that much harder for kids who “By far the greatest contribution we can make to our
reside in the area we call home.” communities is to incubate and nurture our future leaders,”
Malone and Yarbrough wondered why their local schools says Scott Bush, the founder of the Aspen Young Leaders
were consistently underperforming, and explored how Fellowship, an Institute Henry Crown fellow, and a former
they could help bring students, school personnel, and the managing director at JP Morgan. “We find youth who have
community together to collaboratively ensure a better future. already demonstrated raw leadership talent and hone their
They designed and implemented weeklong college-readiness skills and confidence to transform the world around them.”
workshops to equip students with the skills essential to navigate It’s working.
the college-application and decision-making processes.
Students learned to draft meaningful personal statements, AYLF is currently made possible through generous contributions
showcase their skills on résumés, and engage in effective from individual donors and foundations including The Chan
Left and right: Leslie Gamboni
networking. “At the center of our work is a desire for youth to Zuckerberg Initiative, The Community Foundation of New Jersey,
understand that their narratives have the ability to change the The Oak Foundation, The Pershing Foundation, The Saint Louis
Mississippi/Arkansas Delta,” Malone says. The pair wants to Community Foundation, and The Walton Family Foundation.
instill Delta youth with the belief that their stories are valuable To learn more, visit aylf.aspeninstitute.org or contact
and that they themselves are problem solvers and change John Dugan at john.dugan@aspeninstitute.org.

THE INSTITUTE’S NEW INITIATIVE, WEAVE: THE SOCIAL
FABRIC PROJECT, ASKS AMERICANS TO FIND A BETTER
WAY TO LIVE. BY DAVID BROOKS
Laurence Genon
Laurence Genon
49
started for sociological reasons, but then it got
Left: Waterhouse Studios Photography; Right: Video Now, LLC

personal. It started because every column I was writing for The New York Times seemed to
flow back to one underlying problem: social isolation and social fragmentation.
Whether it was surging suicide rates, 72,000 people dying So the thing started out as a program based around a
each year from opioids, a generation of young people unable bunch of words and concepts: community, social capital, so-
to climb out of poverty, loner mass shootings, or the rise of cial trust, polarization, tribalism. But then we spent many
tribalism, racial animosity, and hatred politics, it all derived months traveling around the country meeting the people
from the fact that so many people live in broken communi- who are building community in their towns and listening to
ties, surrounded by broken relationships, feeling invisible. their stories.
I figured that social isolation is the core problem afflicting Take Lisa Fitzpatrick, who was leading a very normal life
the United States, but I also discovered that all across the in Oklahoma City. One day about 35 years ago, she was rid-
country, people are solving that problem. They are building ing in the passenger seat of a car when she turned her head
community and repairing relationships. I wanted to know and saw two 12-year-old boys who looked terrified. One
what we could learn from their example and how we could lifted a gun, pulled the trigger, and the shot grazed Fitzpat-
nationalize their effects. I figured the Aspen Institute was rick’s face. They had to kill some random person, they later
the right place to house such an effort, because our nation told the police, or their families would be hit with violence.
is riven by divides, and the Institute is in the bridge-building “I wasn’t the victim,” Fitzpatrick now says. “I was collateral
business. damage in a war I didn’t start, and they didn’t start.” The
shooting brought a question to her mind: How had our soci-
ety become so broken that at age 10 or 11, they felt their only
option was to kill or be killed?
Twenty years later, she moved into a tough neighborhood
in New Orleans with her two daughters, one of whose ac-
quaintances was killed in a drive-by shooting. Fitzpatrick quit
her job and decided to work with young people. Before long,
some of the young men in the neighborhood began knock-
ing on her door. She let them in and served them pizza and
hot dogs. Pretty soon more young men started showing up
at her door, and when the young women in her neighbor-
hood realized where the cute guys were, they started showing
up, too. One Saturday afternoon, Fitzpatrick was at home
and counted 35 young people hanging around in her den.
Their toys had been destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, so even
though they were 16, they were still delighted to play with
Legos. She finally asked them why they were spending their
Saturday afternoons with a middle-age woman. They said it
Laurence Genon
was because when they knocked, she was the only one who
let them in.
Lisa is a weaver. Weavers are not people who organize
Participants at #WeaveThePeople

Left: Waterhouse Studios Photography; Right: Video Now, LLC
Left: Weave event in Wilkesboro, North Carolina;

Right: Brooks at a dinner discussion in New Orleans
their lives around making money or getting famous or pow- power dynamics did not make them feel safe. Amid these
erful. They are people who want to serve their towns. They expressions of trauma, the gathering did not produce a clear
have a specific set of values. They are somewhere, not any- agenda for the future.
where. They have planted themselves in a place, and they The tensions and protests, though, were effective: they
live to make their communities better. I have met hundreds, were a reminder that the differences among the groups
maybe thousands of weavers over the past year. They are ev- Weave is trying to link are wide. They were a reminder that
erywhere. They are a movement that doesn’t even know it’s the work of accompaniment is hard and necessary—seeing
a movement. They have found a better way to live. strangers deeply, responding to variations of wording and
In May, Weave brought together roughly 275 weav- culture compassionately, entering into ways of thinking that
ers at Union Market, in Washington, DC, for Weave The might seem foreign.
People, a gathering unlike any other. From the start, the So I ask you to identify the weaver habits in your own
proceedings were emotionally intense. At most conferences, life and to move your life in a weaver direction. Sometimes
people lead with their bios, but here people led with their it’s as simple as inviting your eight closest neighbors over for
vulnerabilities. One researcher talked about how the abuse dinner. Sometimes it involves a “reach relationship,” find-
she endured as a child pushed her to spend her life study- ing a way to be in relationship with somebody completely
ing children’s emotional development. One woman talked unlike yourself. Sometimes it’s more formal, joining an or-
about the daily pain of living with racism. One man joked ganization that helps people transition out of prison, or one
that it wasn’t clear if the gathering was a nuclear reactor that helps young mothers with day care. It’s not just giving
or a nuclear explosion—but there was certainly a lot of money. It’s building relationships.
intense energy in the room. Our job at Weave is to ask you to make a choice—to do
The conference also kicked up the sort of tensions that something extra that will warm your heart and lift your soul.
are inevitable when you get this much intensity from such Visit us at weavesocialfabric.org if you want ideas for
a wide array of people. The loudest speakers were on the how to do this.
left, and many people from rural America did not feel they
had the space to talk. Some young people said they felt trig- New York Times columnist David Brooks is the executive director of
gered by the pace of the schedule. Others said that unspoken Weave: The Social Fabric Project at the Institute.

The Aspen Journal of Ideas offers thought-provoking analysis and issue-defining
information from the programs and partners of the Institute.
54 FAIR GAME
Instead of just leveling the 56 DEFEATING DEBT
Out-of-control college debt 58 THE HUMAN EFFECT
Technology is becoming
playing field, some sports is now at epic proportions. more and more entwined
are integrating it. Risa At the same time, employers with our daily lives,
Isard examines how are looking to diversify their and some fear a cyber
mixed-gender sports—from workforces. Romy Parzick doomsday. But, Román Gil
children’s teams to the most has a solution to both issues: Alburquerque cautions,
elite Olympic events—are companies should offer technology isn’t something
creating opportunity and benefits packages that repay to be feared; it’s something
upending norms. student loans. to harness.

FAIR GAME
Forget equal funding for boys’ and girls’ sports, forget disparities based on
biological sex, forget equitable opportunities for men and women. What if
everyone just played on the same field? Are mixed-gender sports the future?
By Risa Isard

S
he wears pink Under Armour high-top sneakers work. “It really is a collaborative effort for both genders to accept
with purple flair, a sporty Boathouse jacket from it,” Taylor says, “and be each other’s champion.”
her lacrosse team layered over a bright pink hood- When they do, there are great payoffs—on and off the field.
ie, and shiny stud earrings shaped like footballs. Researchers at Texas A&M University, for example, studied col-
As she carries her stuffed zebra around town with lege quidditch, the human version of the sport made famous in
her, nine-year-old Chloe Patrone is the embodi- Harry Potter. Thanks to the sport’s Title 9¾ (a pun that refers to
ment of a girl athlete in the year 2019. the real Title IX gender-equity law and to Harry Potter’s fictional
Patrone has strong convictions and interests, and she loves train-station platform), quidditch is the only fully mixed-gender,
a good challenge. Her coach calls her “freakishly strong”; on full-contact sport in the United States. The college quidditch
the football field, she can keep up with the other girls—and, athletes reported a positive change in attitude toward the op-
often, the boys. posite gender, and women reported increased confidence as a
For centuries, people saw sports as the domain of boys and result of the sport.
men, but today it is a pastime and passion of children and But what about young kids like Chloe Patrone? The Wom-
adults of all genders. And while girls and women continue to en’s Sports Foundation says that before puberty, “there is no
pursue equal funding and opportunity, today’s societal trends
favor a more nuanced understanding of gender, leading to a
new question: Should athletes of all genders play together on “It really is a challenge for both
the same field? genders to accept it and be each
At the elite level, some sports, like tennis and figure skating,
have long introduced mixed-gender competitions. And in the other’s champion.”
past decade, that trend has expanded to include the Olympic
Games. The international governing bodies for swimming, track gender-based physiological reason to separate” the sexes in
and field, and triathlon have all hosted mixed-gender relays sports. Though there’s no national data about the prevalence of
since at least 2015, and these sports will make their mixed-gen- mixed-gender sports, there has been an uptick in a few sports.
der Olympic debuts in Tokyo next summer. “We have taken a In the past decade, the number of high-school girls who wres-
really important step forward in terms of gender equality,” says tle has more than tripled, many of them competing with and
Kit McConnell, the sports director for the International Olym- against boys. The growth of flag football has also opened that
pic Committee, which must approve any changes to the games. sport to girls, as it has for Patrone.
From a participation perspective, mixed-gender events open “It’s so cool to play with boys,” Patrone says. On her flag-foot-
the door for more women to compete in the Olympics—a rela- ball team, Patrone’s male peers are simply her teammates and
tive advance, as an equal number of male athletes will also gain friends. It’s not any different from her all-girls teams, which she
entry. The social message and optics, however, couldn’t be bet- also loves (except for the lacrosse skirt she sometimes has to wear).
ter: athletes of both genders must work together to reach the However, the on-field dynamics can be different. Patrone’s flag-
top of the podium. “We’re taught to define our athletic selves football team sometimes plays against all-boys teams who can be
in opposition to something, and gender is an easy one,” says Joe quick to put her down. That’s in contrast to the boys on oppos-
Maloy, who won the mixed-gender triathlon World Champion- ing mixed-gender teams, who don’t insult her. Luckily, her team-
ships for Team USA in 2016. “The statement that we make as a mates have her back. And when she plays on her all-girls sports
team going out there ... and doing it together as equals is the big teams, the girls playfully “talk smack,” but it’s never about gender.
message of mixed-gender triathlon relays.” Such sports, and the Even as mixed-gender opportunities grow, questions re-
relay format, create an opportunity for mixed-gender events, main. How do you recruit boys and girls, or men and women,
eliminating potentially controversial obstacles such as physical in equal numbers? How do you keep the games fair and safe?
contact, close proximity, or even simultaneous competition. How do you avoid perpetuating gender stereotypes? Can
Of course, not every sport lends itself to mixed-gender con- mixed-gender sports be a safer place for LGBQ , transgender,
tests. In popular sports like soccer, basketball, and tackle foot- or gender-nonbinary athletes?
ball, there are legitimate barriers to gender equity at the highest Still, there’s at least one question athletes in mixed-gender
levels. “Physics comes into play,” US soccer legend Kristine Lilly leagues don’t have to answer: athlete gender. “Our goal is to cre-
says. “Guys are a little bit stronger and faster.” But Lilly adds, the ate lifelong athletes, deliver fun, and help kids build positive re-
skills, tactics, and mind-set are the same regardless of gender. lationships,” says Carl Ehrlich, the founder of Flag Star, a youth
Plus, as all good athletes know, where there’s a will, there’s a flag-football league, and the former captain of the Harvard
way. Bobsled, for example, reclassified its “four-man” event as flag-football team. “Nothing about that is gender specific.”
“gender neutral” in 2014. Elana Meyers Taylor, who successfully
lobbied for the event, became the first American woman in re- Risa Isard is the associate director of thought leadership for
cent history to pilot a four-man bobsled. She says that for mixed- KaBOOM! and the former project director at the Institute’s Sports
gender sports to be really successful, both sides need to want it to & Society Program. Follow her on Twitter @RisaLovesSports.
DEFEATING DEBT
If companies want to recruit and retain a diverse workforce,
they are going to have to make a major cultural shift, one that
includes repaying employees’ student loans.
By Romy Parzick
I
was born in Peru. Not long after, my father had the I’m an idealist at heart. I became the chief operating officer
opportunity to enroll in the University of Utah for his at Vault, a company dedicated to creating work cultures that
master’s degree and PhD. So, 40 years ago, we sold help solve their employees’ financial hardships, because I be-
just about everything we owned, packed the rest into lieve that making career choices that align with your passions
a handful of leather poufs, and headed to the United and interests lead to the best-lived lives. My First Movers peers
States to begin our new life. To make ends meet, my are also a testament to this belief. When it comes to the choice
dad worked as a teaching assistant and moonlighted at a pizza of school or career, the focus shouldn’t be entirely on the price
parlor, while my mom babysat neighborhood kids. He gradu- tag or return on investment. But it’s still critically important—
ated in four years and needed $3,000 in student loans to do so. especially for young people who are just starting out and facing
When it was my turn for college, I earned a full ride to the prospect of debt for the first time—to understand how that
Carnegie Mellon University and graduated without any stu- debt can and will impact their lives after graduating.
dent loan debt. But then I returned to school for my MBA Employers need to understand that impact as well. Given
at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business; I was drawn that 44 million Americans have student loans, companies
to the school’s Center for Social Entrepreneurship, which looking to retain and recruit diverse talent should consider
was founded on the idea that businesspeople can drive social the following action steps to modernize their benefits:
change through their work. My husband was teaching at the
time, so being able to afford graduate school required stu- REPAY LOANS. Health care and 401(k)s are table stakes.
dent loans. By the time I graduated, I was six months preg- Beyond that, the most demanded benefit is student loan
nant and $120,000 in debt, spanning 10 loans. repayment assistance.
MEET DEMAND. Only 4 percent of US companies offer
The corporate winners for talent will a student loan repayment benefit today. Thus, the human
resources marketplace is lagging well behind consumer—
be the early adopters of student loan meaning employee—demand.
benefits. Companies that reallocate BE EARLY. The corporate winners for talent will be the
benefit dollars to directly align with early adopters of student loan benefits. Companies that
reallocate benefit dollars to the best and highest use—one
the realities and stressors of the directly aligned with the realities and stressors faced by the
modern workforce will benefit as modern workforce—will benefit as much as the employees.
much as the employees. MODERNIZE BENEFITS. Student loans are not an outli-
er issue. Not only has the cost of higher education skyrock-
eted, we live in an on-demand economy in which workers
It’s depressing how much money it now takes to obtain are not seeking lifetime employment with one firm. This
undergrad and graduate degrees, both of which have be- means most existing playbooks for employee benefits that
come baseline requirements for most well-paying jobs. As a drive recruitment, retention, and company culture are out-
Latina, I felt firsthand the need to have a great education to dated.
have a fighting chance for the best jobs in my field. I know
As someone whose American dream was made possible by
I’m not the only woman who feels that way; women account
taking on student debt (I’m in my 40s and still paying them
for $890 billion of today’s total $1.5 trillion student loan
off), my mission is to help show hard-working people, espe-
debt. Unfortunately, nearly a million student loan borrowers
cially women and people of color, the way forward. To do so,
default every year, and 40 percent of borrowers are expected
Americans must be able to get a quality education without
to be in default within the next five years. I’m one of the
burying themselves in a lifetime of debt. As student loan debt
lucky ones—I’ve been able to make timely loan payments all
continues to grow to crisis proportions, the need for market-
these years. But it would be easy for an unexpected life event
based, work-incentive solutions for tackling loan repayment
to suddenly throw my payment schedule way off track. Stu-
for millions of Americans will only become more paramount.
dent loans may have made my life possible, but that doesn’t
This is not a problem that has a single, silver-bullet so-
mean I should accept a lifetime of debt.
lution; it’s one that requires a combination of public and
Since 2015, I have been a fellow with the Aspen Insti-
private initiatives to solve. My colleagues at Vault and I are
tute First Movers Fellowship Program, the global network
determined to be leaders in the quest to solve it.
and professional development program for corporate social-
intrapreneurs. I’ve relied on the knowledge and expertise of
the First Movers network to help me align business objectives Romy Parzick is a First Movers fellow at the Institute and the chief
with improving Americans’ financial wellness, with a partic- operating officer of Vault, a software platform that simplifies student
ular focus on the challenges faced by women and minorities. loan management, education, and support.

THE HUMAN EFFECT
Once considered a panacea, many now see technology as a destructive
force, usurping democracy and trampling basic values. But human beings
have been here before. What right now feels like a time of upheaval and
cyber chaos is just the next step in the long arc of human history.
By Román Gil Alburquerque

I
N 1984, during the Super Bowl, Apple released In a democracy, this dystopian effect manifests itself
a memorable—and later vaunted—commercial by damaging venerable institutions such as parliamentary
for its Macintosh computer. British track and representation and the free press. Increasingly powerful
field athlete Anya Major takes a literal hammer “fake news” unspools its clickbait and is digested by
to Orwellian totalitarianism and ushers in a the consumer, whose desires it knows in ever greater
utopia of individual freedom. That sense of detail. Fake news is not about departing from traditional
freedom was still in vogue in 1996, when John Perry ideology or advancing a cause. Its mission is to disrupt.
Barlow published A Declaration of the Independence of This translates into stoking our least nuanced impulses,
Cyberspace. Suddenly, the global social environment was encouraging populism, promoting tribalism, and
as free and as ubiquitous as any human environment embracing simple, stark solutions to complex, intricate
ever had been—even beyond the reach of law. Freedom problems. Stripped of humanity, we will all become
appeared unstoppable: the old world had fallen, just nothing more than avatars of our previous selves.
like the Berlin Wall less than a decade before. The The history of humans is also a history of unrest.
global transfer of knowledge was infinite and the new Notably, the industrial revolutions that began a little over
civilization, Barlow wrote, “more humane and fair than two centuries ago—which were and are, to a large extent,
technological revolutions—accelerated
a set of similarly profound and radical
Unlike horses, replaced without complaint societal changes. But this disruption is
not apocalypse, or it does not need to
when automobiles obliterated their economic be. The effects of revolutions are often
importance as a means of transport, human beneficial for the welfare of communities
and the individual. We have learned,
beings have a voice in political decision- or should have learned, lessons from
making. We can create smart options for past economic crises that allow us to
face periods of transition wisely. Given
inclusive and socially viable economic intelligence and political vision, these
growth without forsaking an entrepreneurial can be growth periods.
Unlike horses, replaced without
and innovative spirit. Technocrats cannot complaint when automobiles obliterated
easily contain imagination. their economic importance as a means
of transport, human beings have a voice
in political decision-making. We can
the world your governments have made before.” The create smart options for inclusive and socially viable
technological revolution would lead to a quick, radical, economic growth without forsaking an entrepreneurial
and uninhibited liberation of the individual in all spheres and innovative spirit. Machines may replace certain
of life. Virtual reality and artificial intelligence would replicable tasks, but they cannot match our versatility,
lead to material emancipation. creativity, and common sense. Technocrats cannot easily
But soon, a degree of disenchantment crept in. Far from contain imagination.
creating a utopia, Silicon Valley rebels were abandoning That is not to say we should be complacent about
their initial humanism in favor of a technocracy. Now how technology affects society. We must educate
they were monetizing knowledge and attention spans, ourselves and learn to exercise good judgment. We must
ignoring the negative effects of technology on the be discerning about information, able to discriminate
person and society. Many today fear that human work against falsehoods, and sophisticated about potential
itself is destined to disappear, as intelligent machines manipulation. This is not a new phenomenon. We can
replace us and expel a large part of the population from make use of our abilities as rational and social beings
socioeconomic safety. In short, many are bracing for to profoundly reflect on technological change and act
a terrible loss of control with potentially catastrophic politically and decisively in the face of its potency.
consequences. Technology might undermine liberal We can think and we can act—therefore, we must
democracy and jeopardize the social pacts that can do so. That is how humanity handles revolution and
create unprecedented economic development. This transformation.
could lead to an extended apocalyptic future in which
technological innovation and hyper-connected networks
destroy widely accepted values and civil rights. Román Gil Alburquerque is a fellow at Aspen Institute España.

IDEAS: The Magazine of The Aspen Institute Summer 2019

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IDEAS: The Magazine of The Aspen Institute Summer 2019

Enviado por

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ASPEN

Courtesy McNulty Foundation

Photo by Dan Bayer

4 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

40 | BRINGING THE WORLD TO ASPEN

44 | THERE’S NO WORKPLACE LIKE HOME

Courtesy Aspen Community Programs

48 | THE THREADS OF LIFE 40

Left: Leslie Gamboni; Right: Laurence Genon

THE JOURNAL OF IDEAS 44 48

62 | THE HUMAN EFFECT

Technology is becoming more and more entwined with our

6 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

John Jack Photography

and 48) or need strenghtening (see LIFETIME TRUSTEES CO-CHAIRMEN

what the Institute does in all its LIFETIME TRUSTEES

*Chairman Emeritus **On Leave of Absence

10 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

52% COLLECTIONS OF ALL DEBT

“I’M SO GRATEFUL TO BALLET”

14 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

president and founder of GOOD+ Foundation, at an Ascend event on

How do we design and operate our systems around that?”

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graduation rates at both Indian River and Miami Dade. highered.aspeninstitute.org/aspen-prize

IDEAS SUMMER 2019 15

FELLOWS TACKLE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

will share their stories at an event, Undaunted, on June 21.

16 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

THE SHAPE OF RETAIL

Karl Nielsen Photography

18 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

The new Aspen Ideas Festival website

GOLFING • 5 BR/8 BA Incl. Bunk Rm.

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IDEAS SUMMER 2019 21

NEW GAME IN TOWN

FELLOWS FOR CIVILITY

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IDEAS SUMMER 2019 23

The Dakota Winters Hybrida

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“Love the restaurant info (#Cloud9receipt)”

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This collection of candid and

All Over the Map

IDEAS SUMMER 2019 25

OWL CREEK RANCH

for Weddings, Events & Everyday

Sashae_AspenIdea_sum14.indd 1 4/27/14 7:28 PM

WINNERS ON AND OFF THE FIELD

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change conference, seminars on technological impact, explorations

IDEAS SUMMER 2019 27

DRESSED FOR SUCCESS

Thea Wojtkowski, MD Tomas Pevny, MD Namdar Kazemi, MD Waqqar Khan-Farooqi, MD

MAKING YOU STRONGER

28 IDEAS SUMMER 2019

IDEAS SUMMER 2019 29

POLICY AT THE SPEED OF TECH

The initiative will continue to identify strategies

Global Opportunity Youth Initiative participants

30 IDEAS SUMMER 2019