David Blankenhorn is the founding president of Civic Life, an organization whose mission is to strengthen republican citizenship. In 2016, David co-founded Braver Angels, a citizens’ group working for less rancor and more goodwill in politics and society, and in 1988, he founded the Institute for American Values, a think tank on civil society.
Previously David founded the Mississippi Community Service Corps, the Virginia Community Service Corps, and the Committee for Economic Change at Harvard University. He co-founded the National Fatherhood Initiative and served two years as a VISTA volunteer.
David has spent a lifetime working across political divides. A profile in USA Today describes him as making “a career of thinking about big issues” and as “a catalyst for analysis and debate among those with differing views.” Profiles in the Deseret News say that Blankenhorn has “carved out a unique career cutting across ideological lines” and that “his peacemaking work is infused with the spirit of Lincoln.” A profile in .týždeň (“The Week,” Bratislava, Slovakia) says that Blankenhorn “in the spirit of [Václav] Havel” is “trying to hold America together.”
He is the co-editor of ten books and the author of five, including most recently In Search of Braver Angels: Getting Along Together in Troubled Times. His articles have appeared in many publications and he has served as lead author of nine jointly-authored public appeals to the nation.
David grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He graduated in 1977 from Harvard College, where he was president of Phillips Brooks House, the campus community action center, and the recipient of a John Knox Fellowship. In 1979 he received an M.A. with distinction in history from the University of Warwick in Coventry, England. He and his wife, Raina, have three children and live in New York City.
David says that serving as president of Braver Angels for nine years is the honor of his life.