Previous Plenary Speakers for the

International Civic Education Conferences

 

THE CIVIC MISSION OF SCHOOLS AND A RESEARCH AGENDA

Peter Levine, Deputy Director of CIRCLE

Peter Levine (www.peterlevine.ws) is Deputy Director of CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) and a Research Scholar at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy in the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs. He is the author of four books. He recently co-organized the writing of The Civic Mission of Schools, a report released by Carnegie Corporation of New York and CIRCLE in 2003 (www.civicmissionofschools.org). In Prince George’s County, Maryland, he is working with high school students to create an “Information Commons." This is an association devoted to building a state-of-the-art Website with asset maps, news articles, structured deliberations, and other public goods.

 

A RALLYING CRY FOR CIVIC EDUCATION RESEARCH

Richard G. Niemi, University of Rochester

Richard G. Niemi is Don Alonzo Watson Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester, where he has taught for 35 years and has served as Department Chair, Associate Dean, and Interim Dean. He is coauthor or coeditor of Vital Statistics on American Politics 2003-2004; Comparing Democracies 2; Controversies in Voting Behavior, 4th ed.; Term Limits in the State Legislatures; Civic Education: What Makes Students Learn?; and other books. He has written numerous articles on political socialization, voting, and legislative districting. He is currently working on three multi-investigator projects about term limits, usability issues surrounding electronic voting technologies, and college student voting.

 

CIVIC DELIBERATIONS:

LEARNING TO TALK AND WORK WITH STRANGERS

Dr. Carolyn Pereira, Executive Director, Constitutional Rights Foundation

CAROLYN PEREIRA has served as the Executive Director of the Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago since its founding in 1974. She has written and contributed to several texts and articles, including The Drug Question: The Constitution and Public Policy, It’s Yours: The Bill of Rights (for English as a Second Language speakers), Service Learning in the Social Studies, and VOICE (Violence-prevention Outcomes in Civic Education), a middle school anti-violence curriculum for U.S. history combining service learning, law-related education, and conflict resolution methodologies. Her primary work includes professional development and

curriculum/program design with a special emphasis on deliberation and service. She is currently heading up Deliberating in a Democracy, a five-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Education to engage high school age-students in the U.S. and emerging democracies in deliberating civic issues and an Illinois Coalition for the Civic Mission of School. In 1983, she received the Liberty Bell Award from the Chicago Bar Association, given to a non-attorney who has served to strengthen the effectiveness of the American system of freedom under the law. In 1992, she was the recipient of the American Bar Association's Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education. Her education includes a B.A. and M.A. from  Northwestern University in Political Science and Education.

 

REDISCOVERING DEMOCRACY

Secretary of State Trey Grayson, State of Kentucky

Secretary of State Trey Grayson, the youngest secretary of state in the country, was elected to office in November of 2003 in his first run for political office. Since his election, he has modernized the Office of the Secretary of State by bringing more services online, enhanced Kentucky’s election laws through several legislative packages, and revived the civic mission of schools in Kentucky by leading the effort to restore civics education in the classroom.

Secretary Grayson has been recognized as one of the top young leaders in the United States. In 2005, he was selected for the inaugural class of the Aspen-Rodel Fellowships in Public Leadership which recognizes the nation’s "emerging leaders”. In 2004, The Council of State Governments selected him to participate in the prestigious Toll Fellowship Program.

Secretary Grayson is currently serving in a variety of leadership capacities, most notably as chairman of the National Association of Secretaries of State’s (NASS) Elections committee. A former vice-chairman of NASS's committee on voter participation, Grayson also serves on NASS’s standing committee on business services and subcommittee on presidential primaries.

In 2004, Grayson became a member of the Senior Advisory Committee to Harvard University's Institute of Politics, serving alongside political notables such as Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao and Senator Edward Kennedy. Grayson also serves on a variety of advisory boards to several national, election-related organizations including Just Democracy and elpingAmericansVote.org.

Secretary Grayson graduated with honors from Harvard College (A.B., Government, 1994) and from the University of Kentucky (J.D. 1998, M.B.A., 1998) where he was one of the first Kentucky MBA scholars and one of the first two Bert Combs Scholars, the College of Law’s top scholarship. Prior to his election, he was an attorney with Greenebaum Doll & McDonald and Keating, Muething & Klekamp, where he focused on estate planning and corporate law.