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Agenda
Full details coming soon but the basics are: On Monday, November 16, on-site registration will open at 5pm and the opening event will begin at 6pm. On Tuesday, November 17, registration will open at 8am and conference programming will begin at 9am. We anticipate an end time between 6 to 7pm. There will be additional partner and coalition programming before and after these times. Subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates.
Meanwhile, here are two components of this year’s programming:
Roundtable Discussion: Stewarding Civic Health in Place
Featuring Richard Young (CivicLex), Evan Weissman (Warm Cookies of the Revolution), and Elissa Lee (Neighbor to Neighbor)
What does it look like to show up for your community — not just once, but for the long haul? This main stage conversation brings together leaders from some of the country’s most inventive place-based civic organizations to talk about what it means to meet people where they are, build a culture of civic belonging, and make civic work not just meaningful, but fun. In a moment defined by hyper-scaling and hyper-partisanship, these practitioners are proving that local, rooted investment may be one of our best paths to resilience.
Unconference
This year’s conference is anchored around an unconference format, where session topics are determined by attendees on-site rather than set in advance. There’s just as much expertise in the audience as there is on stage, and with the world moving as fast as it is, this format ensures every voice is heard and time together is spent on the topics and issues that are relevant in the moment. Attendees consistently point to time with peers in the field as one of the most valuable parts of this conference, so this year’s design is built to maximize both casual and formal engagement — moving beyond passive listening into real participation. Details on how to submit session ideas will be sent to registered attendees in the final weeks before the event.
Co-Chairs
Michael G. Adams is Kentucky’s 86th Secretary of State. He was inaugurated as Secretary of State in 2020, just before the onset of coronavirus, and used emergency powers to conduct safe and secure elections that became a model for other states. Having expanded voter access while also tightening election integrity, in 2021 Adams presented the state legislature with the most ambitious election reform plan since 1891, and it passed both chambers with near-unanimous support. Michael’s work in making it easy to vote and hard to cheat has earned praise throughout America and across party lines. In 2024, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented Michael the JFK Profile in Courage Award, which recognizes public servants who have risked their careers by putting the public interest ahead of their own political standing. In 2025, Michael was named Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine, one of seven nationally. See full bio here.
Cristin F. Brawner leads the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI), a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to equipping, empowering, and mobilizing people to use deliberation to take action for the public good. Her career has focused on helping communities and our democracy thrive by building partnerships, designing programs, and strengthening the civic infrastructure that enables people to talk, decide, and act together. Before joining NIFI, Brawner served as Executive Director of the David Mathews Center for Civic Life in Alabama. Brawner also founded the Southern Deliberative Democracy Network and is a former Associate with the Kettering Foundation.
Valerie Lemmie is senior advisor for state and local government at the Kettering Foundation. An
adept strategic thinker and local government thought leader, Lemmie is a distinguished
pracademic with over 40 years of experience solving public problems and controversial issues in
governmental organizations; leading research on democratic practices and public engagement;
and advising public officials across the United States on innovative and effective strategies for
advancing an inclusive democracy. Currently, Lemmie works to advance democratic innovation
through public deliberation; encourage and support initiatives that strengthen democracy; and
promote public accountability, transparency, and collaboration. Lemmie serves on numerous boards including the National Conference on Citizenship. She is a published author and
international speaker on democracy, public governance, leadership, and innovative civic
engagement strategies. See full bio here.
Richard Young is the Founder & Executive Director of CivicLex, an organization working to strengthen civic health in Lexington by helping the community understand and get involved in local issues, connect with neighbors, and have a say in decision making. CivicLex has been nationally recognized as a solution for strengthening American democracy. Young is also involved in several other projects in his home state of Kentucky, and is a Visiting Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins working on recommendations for investing in local civic life.
Speakers
Dr. Elissa Lee, OTD, most recently served as Director and Senior Advisor of Community Engagement for California Governor’s Office of Service and Community Engagement. In this role, she created and led the Neighbor-to-Neighbor and Meet 6 Neighbors initiatives, which build social connection in Californian neighborhoods to improve community health and disaster resilience. Dr. Lee has worked on several physical and mental health initiatives across sectors: running awareness and action health campaigns for Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and Clinton Foundation; consulting for the Obama Foundation on trust and pluralism; designing chronic care and homeless prevention programs in research and health administration; and writing an Oxford University Press book and several articles on health disparities in BIPOC, LGBTQ+, immigrant and disabled communities. She received her doctorate at USC and her bachelor’s from UC Berkeley.
Evan Weissman is the founding executive director of Warm Cookies of the Revolution, a civic health club that blends innovative arts and culture with crucial civic issues. Prior to founding Warm Cookies of the Revolution, he spent 12 years as a company member of the collaborative Buntport Theater Company, who the Denver Post called “Monty Python’s anarchist grandchildren,” winning over 100 awards as playwright, director, designer, and actor. His work with Warm Cookies includes creating over 400 arts-based civic programs (live events, installations, videos, music, and books) including Tax Day Carnival, Sunday School for Atheists, Civic Stitch ’n Bitch, The Huddle, The Living Eulogies Project, Eco-Disaster Fashion Show. Evan can be found giving talks and workshops at fancy universities, conferences, alleyways, and kindergarten classrooms.
Richard Young is the Founder & Executive Director of CivicLex, an organization working to strengthen civic health in Lexington by helping the community understand and get involved in local issues, connect with neighbors, and have a say in decision making. CivicLex has been nationally recognized as a solution for strengthening American democracy. Young is also involved in several other projects in his home state of Kentucky, and is a Visiting Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins working on recommendations for investing in local civic life.