Join us October 19 & 20 at Hendrix College in Conway, AR, for the Pulaski Institution Regional Summit: Place and Democracy in the Mid-South. Our mission is to understand and improve liberal democratic life in these regions and to engage wider questions of global politics and economics while retaining a sense of place. Learn more about our vision here.
Our first regional summit is focused on the Mid-South and will feature panels and keynotes on the urgent challenges facing democracy and prosperity in places like Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, and beyond. Attendance is limited, so please purchase your ticket as soon as you can!
There will be a reception for attendees on October 19, sponsored by our partners at Brookings and AEI.
Dress for the weekend is business casual.
VENUE: Worsham Hall, located in the Student Life and Technology Center
Our conference and reception will be held in Worsham Hall. The most convenient parking lots are located off of Harkrider.
Check in will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Day-of registrations are welcome.
CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS (MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED!)
Nate Bell
Nate Bell is the Chair of Arkansas Citizens for Transparency, the ballot question committee who's working to pass a constitutional amendment protecting the right of Arkansas citizens to access public documents and participate in public meetings. When he's not volunteering, he's a managing partner at Liberty Strategies. LLC where he provides government affairs, strategy, lobbying and campaign services to clients in multiple states. In his spare time, he also consults on commercial and off grid solar power projects. Nate served in the Arkansas House from 2011-2017 where he chaired the State Agencies and Government Affairs Committee, served as House Chair of the Legislative Audit Subcommittee on State Agencies and served as House co-chair of the Joint Committee on Constitutional Amendments. He resides in Lincoln, AR with his wife of 34 years. They have 2 grown daughters and one grandson.
Matt Campbell
Matt Campbell spent more than a decade writing Blue Hog Report on the side while a full-time attorney. In 2023, he left the practice of law and started working as an investigative reporter for the Arkansas Times. Originally from Missouri, Matt currently lives in Little Rock with his fiancée, his daughter, and three dogs.
Brent Orrell
Brent Orrell is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), specializing in job training and workforce development with a special focus on disconnected and disadvantaged populations, including youth, justice-involved, veterans, and neurodivergent persons. His recent work has focused on the workforce opportunities and challenges resulting from generative AI and automation, as well as strategies for improving economic mobility in rural, redeveloping, and non-metropolitan areas throughout America. Brent has spearheaded AEI’s involvement with the Workforce Futures Initiative, in collaboration with the Brookings Institution and the Harvard Kennedy School, which has produced multiple reports, working group sessions, and interest from communities across the US.
He has written, coauthored, and edited multiple reports for AEI, and frequently contributes to the popular press, including The Bulwark, Deseret News, The Dispatch, Law and Liberty, The Hill and RealClearPolicy.
Anthony F. Pipa
Tony Pipa is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development at the Brookings Institution. Tony launched and leads the Reimagining Rural Policy initiative, which seeks to modernize and transform U.S. policy to better enable equitable and sustainable development across rural America. He also launched and leads the Local Leadership on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) initiative, which explores the approach cities and local institutions are taking to solve local problems while driving progress on global policy and transnational issues.
Tony has three decades of executive leadership experience in the philanthropic and public sectors addressing poverty and advancing inclusive economic development in the U.S. and globally. He served as chief strategy officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development and held multiple senior policy positions at the agency. He also led the U.S. delegation at the U.N. to negotiate and adopt the SDGs, serving as U.S. special coordinator for the Post-2015 Agenda at the U.S. Department of State.
Jessica Pishko
Jessica Pishko is the author of The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy.
She is a non-resident fellow at The Pulaski Institution, a 2023 New America Fellow, and, previously, a fellow at the Rule of Law Collaborative at the University of South Carolina, researching sheriff accountability. She has received grants from the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting and Type Investigations. Her work has appeared in the New York Times op-ed section, Politico, Slate, the Atlantic, and the Appeal.
Jim Hendren
James (Jim) Hendren served for eight years as an F-15 fighter pilot in the United States Air Force. He returned to service with the Missouri Air National Guard following the 9/11 attacks and retired from the Arkansas Air National guard in 2019 with the rank of Colonel. Hendren is also a businessman and former public official who served the state of Arkansas for decades in elected office. First elected in 1996, Hendren was a member of the Arkansas State House of Representatives for six years, serving as House Minority Leader for four. Elected to the Arkansas State Senate in 2012, he went on to serve four years as Senate Majority Leader and then two years as President pro tempore. Originally a Republican, Hendren became the Arkansas Senate’s only sitting Independent in 2021. He left office after the 2022 elections.
Jeremy Horpedahl
Jeremy Horpedahl is an associate professor of economics and the Director of the Arkansas Center for Research in Economics at the University of Central Arkansas. His academic research has been published in Econ Journal Watch, Constitutional Political Economy, and Public Choice. He has also written for numerous local and national popular media publications such as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Business, as well as appearing on local television programs such as Arkansas Week, Capitol View, and local nightly news shows in Arkansas. He has also been quoted in or had his research featured in major national publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Hill, and Financial Times.
Katie Milligan
Katherine (Katie) Milligan currently serves as the Program Manager for Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Heartland Forward.
Katie previously served as the Chief of Staff for Start Co., a venture development organization based in Memphis, TN and as the Director of Small Business and Entrepreneurship for the Delta Regional Authority (DRA), a federal agency that works to improve regional economic opportunity in the eight-state Delta region. While at the DRA, Katie launched the Delta Entrepreneurship Network, a competitive fellowship program to identify entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship support organizations in the Delta.
Nathaniel Thomas III
Nate is a distinguished leader with expertise in entrepreneurship, educational leadership, communication, and business management. He is currently the Grants Manager at the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Arkansas, focusing on equity and community development. Previously, he served as Deputy Director of Impact and Design at the Clinton Foundation in New York. Nate holds a BA in Anthropology and Sociology from Hendrix College and an MA in Museum Studies & Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University. He is a proud alumnus of Leadership Arkansas Class X and a recipient of the Thomas J. Watson and Shafik Gabr Fellowships. Known for his commitment to social impact, Nate’s journey this year has been challenging, but he feels blessed to embrace new opportunities.
Cary Aspinwall
Cary Aspinwall is a staff writer for The Marshall Project. Much of her investigative reporting focuses on the effects of the criminal legal system on women and their children. She also won a Gerald Loeb Award for reporting on a Texas company's history of deadly natural gas explosions and is a past Pulitzer finalist for her work exposing flaws in Oklahoma's execution process. She previously worked at The Dallas Morning News and is a co-founder of The Frontier, a nonprofit devoted to investigative journalism in Oklahoma. She is a proud alumna of Oklahoma State University.
Dr. Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a recently retired Professor of Political Science and college dean who studies the institutional design of democratic systems. His work is comparative in nature and his recent work is focused on understanding the challenges of US democracy in a comparative context.
His published work includes being a co-author of A Different Democracy: American Government in a Thirty-One-Country Perspective from Yale University Press and contributing to The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Studies.
His cv can be viewed here. He writes regularly for the blog, Outside the Beltway.
Dr. Quintessa Hathaway
Dr. Quintessa Hathaway is an advocate for education. She was the 2022 Democratic Nominee for the United States Congress for Arkansas’ Second District (AR-02).
She is an academic honors graduate of Glencliff Comprehensive High School in Nashville, Tennessee. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science degree from The Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi; as well as a Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Curriculum and Instruction, Specialist in Education (Ed.S.) in Administration and Supervision, and Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership degrees from Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her dissertation, The Common Core State Standards Initiative and the Achievement Gap, was an educational analysis of all fifty (50) states plus the District of Columbia and United States territories. Her research is steeped in scholarship and supports better policymaking, practicum, and pedagogy in its approach to curriculum implementation and shrinking the racial achievement gap.
Dr. Hathaway is the founder, CEO, and lead consultant of her self-titled organization, Q. Hathaway & Associates, LLC, a results-driven education and business consultancy and professional development provider. In that capacity, she is responsible for providing strategic, financial, and operational leadership with a team of consultants who have over 120 years of combined expertise. Together, they bring transformative solutions and evidence-based strategies to schools, districts, colleges and universities, and business entities across the country.
William Haden Chomphosy
William is a non-resident fellow at The Pulaski Institution and Assistant Professor of Economics and Business at Hendrix College. His research focuses on environmental economic issues in the state of Arkansas, including ecosystem service valuation and renewable energy policies.
Jane Adams
Jane is a member of The Pulaski Institution’s board. She is currently the Government Relations Director for the Alabama Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
She is a ninth-generation Alabamian and lives in Huntsville, Alabama. She earned a master’s degree in theological studies M(TS) from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., where she studied the ethical implications of public policy. Jane previously worked at Alabama Arise, Bread for the World, the Department of Health and Human Services, Share our Strength, Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, U.S. House of Representatives office of Vic Snyder, Barack Obama 2008 campaign, and the Alabama Statehouse.
Dr. Bailey R. Fairbanks
Bailey R. Fairbanks is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas and a non-resident fellow at The Pulaski Institution. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science in 2021 from Georgia State University with concentrations in Public Law and American Politics. Her research and teaching focus on constitutional law, civil liberties, American institutional behavior, and judicial behavior. She is particularly interested in how diversity and identity, broadly defined, affect judicial decision-making and opinion writing in state appellate courts and state courts of last resort. Some of her other work looks at the impact of art on attitudes towards the criminal justice system as well as pedagogical development in higher education post-COVID-19. She is also a devoted teacher and currently serves as the Pre-Law advisor for UCA. Her work has been published in Social Sciences Quarterly, PS: Political Science & Politics, and New Political Science.
Two-Day Conference Agenda