UGA and Albany State University will co-sponsor a public policy institute at the Jimmy Carter Library June 9-10 in Atlanta. This is the third year the institute has prepared participants to serve as forum moderators to lead discussions on critical public issues.
Faculty, staff and students from UGA, Albany State and other Georgia institutions, as well as leaders from community organizations from in- and out-of-state, will attend the two-day institute.
A separate National Issues Forum, “Democracy’s Challenge: Reclaiming the Public Role,” will be held from 10 a.m. to noon June 10 in the Carter Library’s Town Hall. The forum is free and open to the public.
“The collaboration and expanded partnership among colleges at UGA and Albany State is yet another reason to celebrate the 25th anniversary of National Issues Forums,” says Pamela Kleiber, associate director of UGA’s Honors Program and institute organizer.
Leading the training efforts are Margaret Holt, a retired adult education professor from UGA who works with the Kettering Foundation, an Ohio-based nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute, to assist groups with public policy institutes nationwide; Michelle Garfield, associate dean in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, who has used National Issues Forums in her classroom teachings; and Veronica Adams-Cooper, an assistant professor of public administration and director of the Estus Smith Vineyard Healing Foundation Center for Public Deliberation and Engagement at Albany State.
“Students, staff and faculty as well as community residents should be involved in as many civic-engagement and citizen-participation opportunities as possible. Participating in National Issues Forums is an excellent and flexible approach to achieving this goal,” says Adams-Cooper.
