A deliberative forum held on February 28, 2017, at Lawson State Community College in Birmingham, Alabama, focused on the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) issue guide, Safety and Justice: How Should Communities Reduce Violence?. The forum was just one part of a larger project intended to introduce deliberation to the teacher education curriculum and to campus life.

You can now watch several National Issues Forums (NIF) that were held in El Paso, Texas. Community residents participated in the forums that were broadcast and recorded by KCOS13 Public Television. Each forum is approximately one-and-one-half hour long.

Upcoming forum topics include: End of Life (March 7, 2017), and Safety and Justice (April 4, 2017).

What is A Public Voice? A Public Voice is the Kettering Foundation and National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI)’s annual program where we communicate the public voice emerging out of National Issues Forums to policymakers in Washington DC. We’ve been experimenting with the most effective way to do that since 1983, and this year is no exception.

At its December, 2016 meeting, the National Issues Forums Institute voted to appoint four new directors who will each serve a three-year term, beginning in May, 2017. The four new directors include Kara Lindaman, Kim Pearce, Lisa Strahley, and John (Jay) Theis. Outgoing directors include Barbara Brown, Doug Garnar, Gregg Kaufman, and Gail Leftwich-Kitch.

More about the new directors:

  Kara Lindaman