The Bush Institute is focused on ensuring opportunity for all, strengthening democracy, and advancing free societies.
A note from David J. Kramer
In this complex environment, the George W. Bush Institute remains focused on our core values that guide our solutions-oriented policy work, designed to bring about a safer and more prosperous future both at home and around the world.
We took our new policy recommendations on ensuring opportunity for everyone, strengthening our democracy, and advancing free societies to Washington in February for lawmakers and the media, including C-SPAN, NBC, and others. An issue of The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute titled “Memos to Washington: Advice for the New Administration” also amplified our ideas.
Helping raise the profile of our democracy, foreign policy, freedom, human rights, and leadership work, we were excited to welcome Nicole Bibbins Sedaca to our full-time staff in the first quarter. The Bush Institute’s Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow, she is the former Executive Vice President for Strategy and Programs at Freedom House.
Senior Fellow Dr. Victor Cha testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in March on U.S.-Indo-Pacific alliances, and our team submitted a statement for the record for a hearing held by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa.
Ken Hersh, President and CEO of the Bush Center; Igor Khrestin, the Bradford M. Freeman Managing Director of Global Policy; and I also published an article about how “America First” shouldn’t put Russia second.
We welcomed Oklahoma Senator James Lankford and former Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to the Bush Center in March for an Engage at the Bush Center event presented by NexPoint, on navigating global policy turbulence. It followed an incredible February Engage event on the quiet heroism of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only Women’s Army Corps unit of color during World War II and recent recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal
Immigration and housing gained considerable attention throughout the quarter, and Laura Collins and Cullum Clark, Directors of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, were in the thick of things. They were interviewed by outlets including POLITICO, USA Today, and The Dallas Morning News. Clark spoke regularly on housing and “eds and meds” institutions – the focus of this year’s and last year’s Blueprint for Opportunity series.
Our education team was also busy discussing the latest Nation’s Report Card data and the government’s role in education. In January, Anne Wicks, the Don Evans Family Managing Director of Opportunity and Democracy, and Andrew Kaufmann, Director of Communications and Marketing at the Bush Center, interviewed Mike Morath, Texas State Education Commissioner, on our Strategerist podcast.
At the Bush Institute, we will continue to model civility as we work to advance President and Mrs. Bush’s values of freedom, opportunity, accountability, and compassion. We thank you for your generous support which makes our efforts possible.
