New America (organization)

New America

Formation	1999; 26 years ago (1999)
Founders	Ted Halstead Sherle Schwenninger Michael Lind Walter Russell Mead
Type	Think tank
Headquarters	740 15th Street NW, Ste 900
Location	Washington, D.C.
Chair	Helene D. Gayle
CEO	Anne-Marie Slaughter
Revenue	$39,313,077[1] (2017)
Expenses	$36,069,449[1] (2017)
Website	newamerica.org

New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is a liberal think tank in the United States founded in 1999.^[2][3][4] It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security studies, technology, asset building, health, gender, energy, education, and the economy. The organization is based in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California.^[5] Anne-Marie Slaughter is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the think tank.^[6]

History

New America's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

New America was founded in 1999 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind, and Walter Russell Mead as the New America Foundation.^[7] The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, and also has an office in Oakland, California and Chicago, Illinois.^[5][8]

Ted Halstead served as New America's founding President and CEO from 1999 to 2007.^[9] Steve Coll served as New America's second President,^[10] before being succeeded by Anne-Marie Slaughter in 2013.^[11]

On June 27, 2017, Barry C. Lynn, the director of the anti-monopoly Open Markets program at New America, issued a statement, criticizing Google, one of the organization's main sponsors. On August 30, 2017, it became known that Lynn was fired, and the Open Markets program was closed.^[12][13] According to The New York Times newspaper, New America did it to please Google.^[14][15] In response to the decision to fire Lynn and his team, twenty-five former and current employees of the think tank signed a letter expressing concern about the extent to which sponsors are influencing New America's work.^[16]

Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America

Reportedly, Google made New America take this action because the researchers, including prominent young competition law scholar Lina Khan,^[17] had lauded the EU's antitrust ruling against Google.^[18] New America's president Anne-Marie Slaughter denied the allegations of improper influence by Google.^[14]

The foundation's Economic Growth Program, directed by New America co-founders Sherle Schwenninger and Michael Lind, aims to take a policy look at America and the world's economic problems. In 2011, the program commissioned a paper "The Way Forward: Moving From the Post-Bubble, Post-Bust Economy to Renewed Growth and Competitiveness".^[19]

Maya MacGuineas, who has worked at the Brookings Institution as well as on Wall Street, led the committee and now leads Fix the Debt. After advising politicians from both parties, she serves as a trusted mediator on budget talks between Democrats and Republicans.^[20] In addition, in April 2010 the committee's policy director, Marc Goldwein, joined President Obama's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.^[21]

Political stance

In 2002 Newsweek's Howard Fineman called New America a "hive of state-of-the-art policy entrepreneurship".^[22] New America has been characterized as "liberal" by the Pacific Standard online magazine,^[23] "left-leaning" by The Washington Post,^[24] and "left-of-center" by the Capital Research Center organization.^[8]

Open Technology Institute

Not to be confused with Open Technology Fund.

The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is the technology program of the New America Foundation. OTI formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open-source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks.^{[citation needed]}

Commotion Wireless

Main article: Commotion Wireless

Commotion is an open source "device-as-infrastructure" communication platform that integrates users' existing cell phones, Wi-Fi-enabled computers, and other wireless-capable devices to create community- and metro-scale, peer-to-peer communications networks.^{[25][third-party source needed]} The project builds on existing mesh wireless technologies and gained widespread attention when, in 2011, the U.S. State Department announced funding for Commotion to lower barriers for building distributed communications networks. The project has been described as the "Internet in a Suitcase" by The New York Times.^[26]

Red Hook Wi-Fi

Main article: Red Hook Wi-Fi

Founded in 2011 through a collaboration with OTI and Commotion Wireless, Red Hook Wi-Fi is a mesh network which services residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn, in New York City. The Wi-Fi network reached prominence in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy shut down many internet and communication systems throughout the city, but Red Hook remained connected through its mesh network.^[27][28]

Center on Education and Labor at New America

The Center on Education and Labor at New America (CELNA) is a New America Foundation research program. CELNA focuses on workforce development, education, and labor policy with a focus on youth and registered apprenticeships, labor policy, community colleges,^[29] credentials, skills, STEM education, and the future of work.^[30]

The center's Future of Work and Innovation Economy initiative focused on promoting policies that grow the knowledge economy and guide technology-driven economic development to rebuild the American middle class.^[31] Its Partnership for Advancing Youth Apprenticeship promotes apprenticeship opportunities for high school students.^[32],

Assets and funding

As of 2024, the New America had net assets of $56,424,720.^[1] Top donors to the organization in 2021 included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation.^[33]

Board of directors

As of 2020:^[34]

• Helene D. Gayle; Chicago Community Trust, President and Chief Executive Officer
• William W. Gerrity, Treasurer; Gerrity Group, Chief Executive Officer
• Anne-Marie Slaughter, Chief Executive Officer
• Robert J. Abernethy; American Standard Development Company, Chairman
• David G. Bradley, Secretary; Atlantic Media, Chairman
• David Brooks; The New York Times, op-ed columnist
• Maxine Clark; Build-A-Bear Workshop, Founder
• Michael M. Crow; Arizona State University, President
• R. Boykin Curry; Eagle Capital, Partner
• James Fallows; The Atlantic, National Correspondent
• Tom Freston; Firefly3 LLC, Principal
• Atul Gawande; Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health, Professor
• Katherine Gehl; Venn Innovations, Founder
• Reid Hoffman; LinkedIn, Co-Founder
• Zachary Karabell; River Twice Research, President
• Ashton Kutcher; A-Grade Investments, Co-Founder
• Walter Russell Mead; Foreign Affairs & Humanities, Bard College, James Clarke Chace Professor
• Mona Mourshed; Global Social Responsibility and McKinsey & Company, Senior Partner & Head
• Sally R. Osberg; Camfed USA, Chair
• Ashley Swearengin; Central Valley Community Foundation, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Fareed Zakaria; Fareed Zakaria GPS and CNN, Host; The Washington Post, columnist

References

1. "New America Foundation" (PDF). Foundation Center. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
2. "Press Room". New America. Retrieved August 3, 2018.
3. Nissenbaum, Dion (June 28, 2015). "Author Warns U.S. Military to Focus on China". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 8, 2015.
4. "Steve Coll, New America President, Stepping Down, Writing 'Ghost Wars' Sequel". The Huffington Post. June 25, 2012. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
5. "Contact New America". New America. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
6. "Anne-Marie Slaughter". New America. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
7. Slaughter, Anne-Marie (September 9, 2020). "A Tribute to Ted Halstead" (Press release). New America. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
8. "New America (New America Foundation)". influencewatch.org. Capital Research Center. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
9. Morin, Richard; Deane, Claudia (December 10, 2001). "Big Thinker. Ted Halstead's New America Foundation Has It All: Money, Brains and Buzz". Style Section. The Washington Post. p. 1.
10. Weil, Martin; Silverman, Elissa (July 23, 2007). "Author, Ex-Post Editor To Head D.C. Think Tank". The Washington Post.
11. Cohen, Patricia (April 2, 2013). "New America Foundation Naming Anne-Marie Slaughter as President". ArtsBeat. Retrieved May 22, 2023.
12. Dayen, David (September 1, 2017). "New Think Tank Emails Show 'How Google Wields Its Power' in Washington". The Intercept. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
13. Biddle, Sam; Dayen, David (August 30, 2017). "Google-Funded Think Tank Fired Google Critics After They Dared Criticize Google". The Intercept. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
14. Vogel, Kenneth (August 30, 2017). "Google Critic Ousted From Think Tank Funded by the Tech Giant". The New York Times. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
15. Slaughter, Anne-Marie (August 30, 2017). "New America's Response to The New York Times". New America. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
16. Vogel, Kenneth P. (September 1, 2017). "New America, a Google-Funded Think Tank, Faces Backlash for Firing a Google Critic". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
17. Meyer, Robinson (June 12, 2018). "How to Fight Amazon (Before You Turn 29)". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 8, 2018.
18. Rushe, Dominic (August 30, 2017). "Google-funded thinktank fired scholar over criticism of tech firm". The Guardian. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
19. Nocera, Joe (October 10, 2011). "This Time, It Really Is Different". New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
20. Brady, Jessica (November 15, 2011). "Maya MacGuineas in High Demand During Fiscal Debate". Roll Call. Retrieved December 18, 2014.
21. Froomkin, Dan (December 6, 2017). "Obama's Fiscal Commission: What's Going On In There?". HuffPost. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
22. Fineman, Howard (November 12, 2002). "Living Politics: Election Gave '04 Brokers More Clout". Newsweek. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
23. Gunn, Dwyer (January 31, 2019). "Betsy DeVos Is Right, the U.S. Should Rethink Higher Ed—Just Not the Way She Wants To". Pacific Standard. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
24. Nakamura, David (January 10, 2019). "'The story keeps changing': Trump falsely asserts he never promised Mexico would directly pay for the border wall". The Washington Post.
25. "Commotion Wireless". Retrieved July 2, 2012.
26. James Glanz and John Markoff (June 12, 2011). "U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors". The New York Times. Retrieved August 8, 2011.
27. "United States of America Global Information Society Watch". www.giswatch.org. Retrieved April 15, 2019.
28. "Rising to the Challenge: Red Hook Initiative". NYCEDC.
29. "Community Colleges". New America. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
30. "Center on Education and Labor". New America. Retrieved May 27, 2024.
31. "Future of Work and Innovation Economy initiative". New America. New America. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
32. "Partnership for Advancing Youth Apprenticeship". New America. New America. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
33. "Our Funding". New America. New America. Retrieved December 25, 2024.
34. "Board of Directors". New America. Retrieved February 13, 2020.

External links

• Official website
• Open Technology Institute's website
• Commotion Wireless webpage
• Measurement Lab webpage
• "Health Care Reform: A Nonpartisan Look at the Issue Under Debate" (video)—Elizabeth Carpenter speaking at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
• Terrorism in America After 9/11—"A comprehensive, up-to-date source of online information about terrorist activity in the United States and by Americans overseas since 9/11" by New America