APRIL 23, 2026 // RUTGERS DEMOCRACY LAB SHOWCASE
Time: 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: Cook Student Center, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
View the showcase agenda and register here. 

APRIL 23, 2026 // WELCOME RECEPTION
Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Location: The Heldrich Hotel – New Brunswick, NJ

APRIL 24, 2026 // CONVENING
Time: 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Location: Rutgers University Inn – New Brunswick, NJ

APRIL 24, 2026 // DINNER AND KEYNOTE (DANIELLE ALLEN)
Time: 5:00 pm - 7:00 PM
Location: Rutgers Club – Piscataway, NJ

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2026 // BREAKFAST AND NEXT STEPS
Time: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Location: The Heldrich Hotel – New Brunswick, NJ

View the detailed agenda with speakers and schedule here.

Danielle Allen

James Bryant Conant University Professor, Harvard University

Danielle Allen Danielle Allen is a political philosopher whose current research focuses on democracy renovation: how to reconnect citizens to civic power through education and institutional redesign, how to make political institutions more responsive, accountable, and participatory, and how to make public policy that supports democracy.

Her most recent book, Justice by Means of Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2023), provides the theoretical foundation for this work. Her forthcoming book, The Radical Duke, a biography of an 18th-century British political reformer, is due out with Liveright/Norton in 2026.

Through the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School, she leads applied research on electoral reform, civic infrastructure, institutional design, and democracy-supportive public policy. Through the Democratic Knowledge Project-Learn at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, she develops and scales civic education curricula for preK-12 students and higher education.

Nick Longo

Director, Rutgers Democracy Lab

Nicholas V. Longo is the inaugural director of the Rutgers Democracy Lab, which was created in 2025 at the Eagleton Institute of Politics with a singular mission: to strengthen American democracy. He is also a professor in the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Nick is an advisory board member for College Unbound, a college working to re-invent higher education for returning adult learners, where he also teaches in the prison education program. He consults with some of the leading national civic engagement organizations, including serving as a deliberative dialogue fellow for Campus Compact, a faculty consultant for AAC&U’s Institute for Experiential Learning and Engaged Dialogue, and an educator for the Constructive Dialogue Institute. He formerly served as a chair and professor of Global Studies and co-director of the Dialogue, Inclusion, and Democracy (DID) Lab at Providence College, where he was the 2022 recipient of the Innovation in Teaching Excellence Award.

Nick is author of a number of books, articles, and reports on civic education, deliberative dialogue, youth civic engagement, and community-based learning. His publications include Why Community Matters: Connecting Education with Civic Life (SUNY Press) and several co-edited volumes. He holds a master’s in public affairs and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Minnesota.

Lt Governor Dr. Dale G. Caldwell

4th Lieutenant Governor and 35th Secretary of State, New Jersey

Dr. Dale G. Caldwell is New Jersey’s 4th Lieutenant Governor and 35th Secretary of State, serving with Governor Mikie Sherrill. As Secretary of State, Dr. Caldwell leads the New Jersey Department of State and serves as New Jersey’s chief election officer. In this role, he brings decades of leadership experience across government, education, community development, faith, and business.

Prior to his election, Dr. Caldwell served as President of Centenary University, where he led transformative initiatives focused on access, innovation, workforce development, and student success. His career includes senior leadership roles at the Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey (ESCNJ), and the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. He is a graduate of Princeton University and earned his MBA from the Wharton School.

Dr. Caldwell is a graduate of Princeton University, earned his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his Doctorate in Education Administration at Seton Hall University. He resides in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and is the proud father of his daughter, Ashley, who studies public policy at Rutgers University.

Elizabeth Matto

Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics

Elizabeth Matto is a Research Professor at Rutgers University and Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Prior to her appointment, she served as the Director of the Institute’s Center for Youth Political Participation. In 2022, Matto served on a Presidential Task Force for the American Political Science Association focused on rethinking the political science major. For Rutgers University, Matto served as the co-chair of the Presidential Task Force on Civic Engagement and Public Service convened by President Jonathan Holloway.

She is the author of the books Citizen Now: Engaging in Politics and Democracy and To Keep the Republic: Thinking, Talking, and Acting Like a Democratic Citizen. Matto earned her Ph.D. from George Washington University.

Timothy Shaffer

Director, SNF Agora Institute

Timothy J. Shaffer is the inaugural Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Chair of Civil Discourse and director of the SNF Ithaca Initiative in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration with joint appointments in the Department of Communication and School of Education at the University of Delaware.

Shaffer is also a senior advisor with the National Institute for Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona.

Connected to these efforts, Shaffer also serves as the associate editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy, as a country expert on deliberative democracy with the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem Institute) research project, and as a co-director guiding the work of the Deliberative Pedagogy Lab, an international project focused on applied scholarship about the ways that deliberation can transform higher education educational approaches and environments.

Allison Briscoe Smith

Senior Fellow, Greater Good Science Center

Allision Briscoe Smith is a senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center and the co-instructor of the GGSC’s Bridging Differences online course. She is also the project lead on the GGSC’s Connecting Californians Through Service project, a partnership with California’s Office of the Governor to strengthen bonds between people engaged in public service in the state and the communities they serve. Previously she was an assistant professor and director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Wright Institute.

Tom Schnaubelt

Director, Center for Revitalizing American Institutions, Stanford University

Thomas (Tom) Schnaubelt is the Executive Director of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  Tom explores the connections between democracy and education and the formation of healthy civic identity through civic education, democratic deliberation, and experiential learning. Tom is a member of the Civics and American Citizenship working group, which has developed the Civic Profile (an online citizenship self-assessment), and he led a national initiative to understand and track changes in college student predispositions to various forms of civic engagement. He serves as Senior Advisor to the Deliberative Democracy Lab and Stanford’s Democracy Hub and advises the Stanford Rural Engagement Network. 

Bobbie Laur

President, Campus Compact

Bobbie Laur is President of Campus Compact, the nation’s largest national organization dedicated to higher education civic and community engagement. Campus Compact’s mission is to advance the public purposes of colleges and universities by deepening their ability to improve equitable outcomes for communities. Bobbie previously served as the Executive Director of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU).

Allison Rank

Director, Center for Civic Education

Dr. Allison Rank is the inaugural director of the Center for Civic Education and professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Iowa. Her current research examines career competencies and learning outcomes associated with participation in campus-based voter engagement programs. Rank’s work has been recognized with the Barbara Burch Award for Faculty Leadership in Civic Education.

Shiri Spitz Siddiqi

Senior Researcher, Heterodox Academy

Shiri Spitz Siddiqi is a social scientist specializing in the psychology of moral judgment, political polarization, and motivated reasoning. As Senior Researcher at Heterodox Academy, she develops original research related to pluralism and constructive disagreement. Shiri completed a PhD in social psychology at the University of California, Irvine.

Timothy Eaton

Dean of the Honors Living-Learning Community

Timothy K. Eatman, Ph.D., is the inaugural dean of the HLLC. Most recently, he held an appointment as Associate Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education at Syracuse University.  From 2012 to 2017, Tim served as Faculty Co-Director of Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life (IA). He is co-author of Scholarship in Public: Knowledge Creation and Tenure Policy in the Engaged University, a seminal IA research report on faculty rewards and publicly engaged scholarship.

Tim’s research explores institutional policy and equity issues in higher education. He has published in such venues as the Journal of Educational Finance, Readings on Equal Education, Diversity and Democracy, and The Huffington Post, and has written several other book chapters and reports. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Handbook of Service Learning and Civic Engagement, released in 2017.

He serves in national roles including as a faculty member for Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Summer Institutes on High Impact Practices and the Advisory Panel for the Carnegie Engagement Classification for Community Engagement.

Tim sits on the editorial board of University of Michigan Press - The New Public Scholarship book series, Urban Education, Diversity, and Democracy and reviews for several scholarly journals and publications. The recipient of the 2010 Early Career Research Award for the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE) and now a member of the board, Tim often consults with Higher Education associations and institutions for collaborative research, keynotes, workshops and consultancies.

Varshini Rajanikanth

Student Researcher, Rutgers University

Varshini Rajanikanth is a student at Rutgers University pursing a double major in Finance and Political Science. She is a Think and Do Tank Member at the Rutgers Democracy Lab and founder of Common Grounds, a student-led initiative for civic dialogue.

Mariela N Flores

Student, Middlesex College

Mariela N. Flores is a first-generation undergraduate psychology student at Middlesex College. She is highly involved on campus, serving as a Senior Administrative Bonner Leader Intern and a Teaching Assistant at the Early Learning Center. In addition to her campus roles, Mariela actively volunteers for both on- and off-campus initiatives. She is also a member of Phi Theta Kappa, where she serves as Vice President of Service. Passionate about advocacy, Mariela aspires to pursue a career in psychology, focusing on promoting mental health awareness and creating more inclusive and supportive environments for individuals in educational and workplace settings.

Kaylei Voorhies

Student, Indiana University

Kaylei Voorhies is a student in the Political and Civic Engagement (PACE) program at Indiana University, majoring in Political Science and English with a PACE Certificate. She is an active leader on campus, serving as a Democracy Fellow, Vice President for Women in Government at IU, Director of State Relations for Indiana University Student Government, a member of the Board of Aeons, which is a 12-student advisory board for university president, Pamela Whitten, and the student liaison for the local League of Women Voters. Passionate about civic engagement, she is currently leading initiatives encouraging campus-wide nonpartisan voter engagement, including voter registration drives, educational campaigns, and election events for “IU Votes.” She is also involved in Phi Mu sorority and student organizations focused on law and government.

Andrew Hoover

Research Assistant, Rutgers University

Andrew Hoover is an Honors College student at Rutgers University–Camden majoring in Political Science and minoring in Legal Studies with sophomore standing as a first-year student. He plans to attend law school and pursue a career in governmental and public administrative law. On campus, Andrew serves as a Student Government Association representative, is a Bonner Civic Scholar, and works as a Digital Content Creator Intern with the Rutgers Democracy Lab. He will be interning this summer in Washington, D.C. for Congressman Jeff Van Drew, made possible by the Rutgers Eagleton Washington Internship Award.
 

Rutgers Democracy Lab will be providing accommodations and local transportation for all participants, as well as reimbursing for travel costs to the convening. 

Accommodations (pre-booked)

The Heldrich Hotel
10 Livingston Ave 
New Brunswick, NJ

Accommodations have already been booked and paid for. Rutgers will provide transportation to and from the convening venue.

RDL will reimburse the following expenses:

• Flights
• Transportation to and from the airport (uber, NJ Transit fare, etc.)
• Parking (hotel and campus)

Please click here to view the full reimbursement policy.