Keith Allred is the Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), an organization that works to build our nation’s capacity to engage differences constructively. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, and Congressional Quarterly.
He was recruited to lead NICD because he had recently launched CommonSense American, an organization that brings Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together from across the country to identify solutions with broad grassroots support and then champion them in Congress. CommonSense American’s over 85,000 members are four-for-four. They played meaningful roles in helping Congress pass bipartisan legislation ending surprise medical billing, investing in America’s physical infrastructure, reforming the Electoral Count Act, and extending Pell grant to Workforce programs.
Keith piloted CommonSense American at the state level in Idaho from 2005 to 2009. Its major legislative achievements led the Idaho Democratic Party to ask him, as an independent, to be their nominee for Governor in 2010.
Prior to returning home to pilot the citizens’ group, Keith was the first professor of conflict resolution at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He started his academic career as a professor at Columbia University.
Keith earned a PhD in Organizational Behavior and Social Psychology from UCLA and BA in American History from Stanford.
A fifth-generation Idahoan who grew up working summers on the family cattle ranch, Keith finished eighth in the world standings of the National Cutting Horse Association in 2017 after competing in the World Finals in Fort Worth.
He and Christine are the proud parents of Anna, Dan, and Cate.