John Bridgeland is Founder & CEO of More Perfect, an alliance of all 44 Presidential Centers (from
Washington’s Mount Vernon through the Obama Foundation), National Archives Foundation, and more than
100 organizations to protect and renew American democracy by advancing 5 foundational Democracy Goals,
advancing initiatives in connection with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and U.S.
Constitution, and developing civic moonshots that bring Americans together to solve public problems.
Bridgeland was also Founder & CEO of the COVID Collaborative, which partnered with the Ad Council on a
$330 million vaccination education campaign; and is Co-Chairman of Welcome.US that helped mobilize more
than 2 million Americans across 26,000 zip codes to sponsor and support the resettlement of Afghan,
Ukrainian and other refugees. He is Founding CEO & Co-Chair of Malaria No More, launched at the White
House Summit on Malaria he co-led. Since 2001, more than 14 million lives have been saved from malaria. He
was Executive Producer of the documentary film Sea of Hope to bring the national park idea to the world’s
oceans, and served on the National Advisory Board of the National Park System.
He has been a leader for 20 years on the high school dropout challenge, with his report The Silent
Epidemic generating a TIME cover story and two Oprah Shows, co-development of a civic marshal plan to
address it, and co-leadership of the Grad Nation campaign for 20 years. His work was the subject of the lead
cover story in the August 2024 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Graduation rates climbed from
71 percent in 2000 to 86.5 percent in 2020, translating into more than 5 million more students graduating rather
than dropping out.
In 2010, President Obama appointed Bridgeland to the White House Council for Community Solutions. In
2001, President George W. Bush appointed Bridgeland to serve as Director of the White House Domestic
Policy Council, and then as Assistant to the President and first Director of the Freedom Corps, where he grew
national service opportunities to historic levels after 9/11. He co-chaired the White House Task Force for
Disadvantaged Youth, co-led the Cabinet-level review of Climate Change, and co-chaired the White House
Task Force on the Revitalization of New York City after 9/11. He is also author of the book, Heart of the Nation:
Volunteering and America’s Civic Spirit, which was reissued in paperback on the 15th anniversary of 9/11 with
a foreword by General Stanley McChrystal.
Bridgeland graduated with honors in government from Harvard University, where he played on the Varsity
Tennis Team, and received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He practiced law in the New
York and Paris, France offices of Davis, Polk & Wardwell. He has delivered commencement addresses at the
College of William and Mary, Johns Hopkins University, and half a dozen other colleges.