Alan Khazei

September 08, 2010
8:00 AM -10:00 AM
The Kennedy Room at The Omni Parker House, 60 School Street, Boston

About

Join us for a conversation with Alan Khazei, former US Senate candidate and cofounder of City Year, as he debuts his first book, Big Citizenship: How Pragmatic Idealism Can Bring Out the Best in America.

Alan Khazei has pioneered ways to empower citizens to make a difference throughout his life. As a young graduate from Harvard Law School, he turned down lucrative offers from corporate law firms to found a non-profit called City Year with his friend, Michael Brown.

Khazei not only built and ran a hugely successful organization with Brown, he explored how social change could be achieved through Congress, popular movements, and motivated alliances of groups. Khazei led the effort to defend AmeriCorps and then through his second organization, Be The Change, Inc., worked to secure its longterm future through the passage of the bipartisan Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. This journey—from the most local of grassroots engagement to the halls of Washington—is extraordinary in itself and a vital model for anyone despairing that change can ever be effected in a sclerotic political system. It can. Khazei has already proved it.

MassINC and CommonWealth magazine staff and policy experts are often called upon to speak at events, join panel discussions, and provide public commentary. Please contact Marjorie Malpiede at mmalpiede@massinc.org if you would like to book a speaking engagement.

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Alan Khazei

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