The Taylor L. Willingham Fund was established to honor the work of Taylor Willingham and is administered by the National Issues Forums Institute.

Throughout Taylor's public work, she encouraged countless newcomers to develop their capacity to convene and to moderate deliberative forums. In that spirit, this award is intended to support the learning and leadership of those who are relatively new to deliberative dialogue as they work to increase opportunities for Americans to examine and address public issues.

Grants are provided to individuals to enable them to develop an understanding of deliberative democracy and launch one or more deliberative dialogues in their communities and organizations in order to advance NIFI’s overall mission, which is to promote public deliberation about national issues.

Grants will be awarded and the Fund will be administered in accordance with the Grant guidelines which precede this application.

Taylor L. Willingham (1957-2011) was a pioneer in the public engagement field, and in National Issues Forums (NIF) work, including her service as a National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) director. During her career Taylor designed, organized, and led numerous public engagement projects; taught university courses online; founded Texas Forums, along with her work with the LBJ Presidential Library; worked in the adult literacy field, and with the American Library Association; and wrote about public engagement, just to name a few of her many accomplishments.