BOARD MEMBER

Victor Ashe served as the United States Ambassador to Poland from 2004 to 2009 and as the Mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee from 1987 to 2003. He received the US Conference of Mayors’ Distinguished Public Service Award. He has served on the Boards of the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association, the National Service Corporation Board, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

BOARD MEMBER

Rob Musick is Chaplain at the University of Pikeville, a role he has held for fifteen years. At UPIKE, he is also Professor of Religion and Assistant Dean of Health and Wellness. He is President of the Board of the Thankful Hearts Food Pantry, and serves on the Board of the Westcare Emergency Shelter. He received his DMin from the Methodist Theological School in Ohio.

BOARD CHAIR

Jeffery Tyler Syck Ph.D. is an assistant professor of politics and the founding director of the Center for Public Service at the University of Pikeville in his native Eastern Kentucky. A scholar of American political thought, Prof. Syck’s broader research focuses on the moral and civic foundations of American democracy. He received a PhD and MA in government from the University of Virginia.

BOARD MEMBER

Heather Wilford, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Political Science at The Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society. Her work touches on a wide range of thinkers in the history of political philosophy and American political thought, with a focus on liberalism and empire in 18th- and 19th-century French and British authors. She has taught at Yale University, Middlebury College, Carleton College, and Boston College, where she earned her PhD.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Eric Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University. He is the author of acclaimed books, including most recently Live Like a Citizen: 8 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Our Country. Liu served as a White House speechwriter and domestic policy advisor for President Bill Clinton. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Liu is a member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-chairs its Our Common Purpose commission. He has served on the board of the Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Board of Education.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, where she directs the Democratic Knowledge Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School. A political theorist and democracy reform advocate, she is the author of books including Our Declaration, Cuz, Justice by Means of Democracy, and Radical Duke. She is a MacArthur Fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER

Bryan Garsten is Professor of Political Science and Humanities at Yale University and the Faculty Director of Yale’s Center for Civic Thought. In 2016, he founded the Citizens Thinkers Writers program for New Haven high schoolers. He is the author of award-winning books and articles including  Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment and “A Liberalism of Refuge.” He is a member of the Alliance for Civics in the Academy and of the Civic Collaboratory of Citizens University.