AMERICAN POLARIZATIONS B
Participant Backgrounds
Chris DeMuth is a fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., and was president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research from 1986-2008. Following Harvard graduation, he worked as campaign coordinator for the James Farmer for Congress campaign (NY-12th District) and then as staff assistant to President Richard Nixon in 1969-1970. He attended the University of Chicago Law School in 1970-1973, practiced law with Sidley & Austin in 1973-1976, and from 1976-1981 was lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School of Government and director of the Harvard Faculty Project on Regulation. During President Ronald Reagan’s first term, DeMuth was administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, and executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief. His writings are posted at ccdemuth.com.
Ellen Hume is a Boston-based journalist and teacher who has spent her life promoting public engagement in democracy. Her recent work includes media literacy and “fake news”, inclusion of minorities, and developing investigative journalism. Hume began her career as a reporter for the Somerville Journal, then went on to the Detroit Free Press, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal, where she covered the White House, and as a commentator on PBS and CNN. She was research director of the Center for Civic Media at the MIT Media Lab from 2007-9, executive director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press Politics and Public Policy at Harvard from 1989-93, and head of the Democracy Project at PBS from 1996-8. While living in Budapest from 2009-16, she worked to support investigative journalists, civil society, and the embattled Roma minority. Her full bio and travel blog of a recent cross-country trip across America with her husband is on her website, ellenhume.com
Tom Reston is the author of the forthcoming book, Soul of a Democrat: The Seven Core Ideals That Made Our Party—And Our Country—Great, to be published by St. Martin’s Press, New York, the week after our Reunion, May 29. The book suggests a different way for Democrats to think about themselves and their political party, and opens with the question “Has the Democratic Party lost its soul?” Reston is the veteran of eight Democratic presidential campaigns at the national level; was twice elected as Secretary of the State Democratic Party of Virginia; and held the post of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs as a political appointee in the Foreign Service during the Administration of President Jimmy Carter. A civil rights advocate, he served two terms as Chairman of the Board of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). He started as a journalist, is a lawyer by profession, and returns to writing at the end of his career.