The National Issues Forums Institute Welcomes
Four New Members to its Board
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At the December 9, 2021 meeting, the National Issues Forums Institute (NIFI) elected four new members to the NIFI board of directors. The incoming members are Hollie Cost, Assistant Vice President of Auburn University Outreach and Public Service; Sara Mehltretter Drury, Associate Professor and Chair of Rhetoric at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana; Jon Gant, professor and dean at the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University; and Robert Richards, assistant professor of communication at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
“From their significant local work with National Issues Forums, NIFI board members glean valuable insights that can be shared nationwide,” said Betty Knighton, National Issues Forums Institute president. “Hollie, Sara, Jon, and Robert have each inspired deeply impactful civic engagement in their states, and we appreciate their willingness to contribute their experiences to the broad national network of NIF practitioners.”
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Meet the New Board Members
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Hollie Cost
Hollie Cost serves as the Assistant Vice President of Auburn University Outreach and Public Service. Her personal and professional passion is working collaboratively with community members to develop a shared vision and implement needed change. An Auburn University graduate, she joined the University of Montevallo faculty in 2000 after serving on the faculty of Stephen F. Austin State University for two years. She began her public service as a Montevallo City Council member in 2004, completing two terms before being elected mayor in 2012. In her capacity as a university professor, she established four special education degree tracks, multiple outreach programs, and the Office of Service Learning and Community Engagement.
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Sara Mehltretter Drury
Sara Mehltretter Drury is Associate Professor and Chair of Rhetoric at Wabash College, in Crawfordsville, Indiana. She also serves as Director of Wabash Democracy and Public Discourse, an interdisciplinary initiative that partners with campuses and communities to foster dialogue and deliberation on a range of topics. In this program, Drury trains undergraduate students at Wabash College to research and facilitate public dialogues and deliberations. Drury teaches a course focusing on deliberation and democracy each year.
Drury’s research and practice focus on the intersections of rhetoric and deliberative democracy, with particular attention to deliberative pedagogy, argumentation, and political communication. She also collaborates with colleagues to focus on deliberative pedagogy in the natural and hard sciences, including a recent National Science Foundation grant focusing on deliberation in the chemistry curriculum.
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Jon Gant
Jon Gant is a leader in higher education who helps to make information and digital technologies accessible for everyone. He has published numerous research studies on the disparities in broadband adoption, the future of work and information technology, and advances in digital government. Most recently, his research and public engagement has focused on improving digital equity and inclusion in urban and rural communities worldwide, particularly to support human development and achievement, democratic engagement, and the transformation of communities and community anchor institutions.
As professor and dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University, Gant has helped to double enrollment to over 330 graduate students. This 80-year-old school is the only accredited graduate program in the field offered by a historically Black college and university.
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Robert Richards
Robert C. Richards, Jr. is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, where he teaches courses in communication and public engagement and legal and ethical dimensions of public service. He is also an interdisciplinary affiliate at the Center for Communication Research at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a co-investigator on the Participedia Project, which studies citizen participation in governance around the world.
Richards’ research focuses on democratic deliberation, participatory democracy, and online dialogue and discussion. He works with colleagues at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute of the University of Arkansas and the Central Arkansas Library System in the Partnership for Democratic Practices in Arkansas, under the auspices of the Kettering Foundation and in collaboration with the National Issues Forums Institute, to conduct public deliberations about issues of importance to Arkansas residents...
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About Deliberation in National Issues Forums |
National Issues Forums issue guides are designed to stimulate public deliberation, which is a way of making decisions together that is different from discussion or debate. The purpose of deliberative forums is to inform collective action. As citizens, we have to make decisions together before we can act together, whether with other citizens or through legislative bodies. Acting together is essential for addressing problems that can't be solved by one group of people or one institution. These problems have more than one cause and therefore have to be met by a number of mutually reinforcing initiatives with broad public participation.
About the National Issues Forums Institute
The National Issues Forums Institute's mission is to promote the use of public deliberation in schools, colleges, civic organizations, and religious institutions in the United States. The institute's board members are volunteers drawn from leaders in government, colleges and universities, libraries, civic organizations, the media, and medicine. For more information visit www.nifi.org.
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