Experts

John Bridgeland

Practitioner Senior Fellow

Fast Facts

  • Executive chairman, Office of American Possibilities
  • Cofounder, executive chairman, and CEO, More Perfect
  • Former director, White House Domestic Policy Council
  • Expertise on domestic policy, volunteerism, education, environment

Areas Of Expertise

  • Domestic Affairs
  • Education
  • Law and Justice
  • Social Issues
  • Leadership

John Bridgeland is executive chairman of the Office of American Possibilities, a civic moonshot factory that taps the entrepreneurial talent of Americans to solve public challenges together across divides. In that capacity, he is cofounder, executive chairman and CEO of More Perfect, a bipartisan initiative with 34 presidential centers (from Washington’s Mount Vernon through the Obama Foundation), the National Archives Foundation, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, UVA's Karsh Institute of Democracy, and 100 partners to protect and renew American democracy by advancing five foundational democracy goals.

Bridgeland is also cofounder and CEO of the COVID Collaborative; cofounder and cochairman of Welcome.US, which engages Americans in supporting the resettlement of Afghan, Ukrainian, and other refugees; and founding CEO and vice chairman of Malaria No More, launched at the White House Summit on Malaria he coled. Since 2001, more than 14 million lives have been saved from malaria. 

He has been a leader for 20 years on the high school dropout challenge, with his report The Silent Epidemic generating a TIME cover story, two Oprah shows, and other coverage, and he is cofounder of the Grad Nation campaign, which held more than 200 summits across all 50 states. Graduation rates have climbed from 71 percent in 2001 to 86.5 percent in 2020, translating into more than 5 million more students graduating from high school rather than dropping out. 

Bridgeland is also cofounder and vice chairman of the Service Year Alliance to expand civilian national service, and he is the founder of Tennis for America with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Wimbledon Champion Stan Smith. He is also author of the book, Heart of the Nation: Volunteering and America's Civic Spirit, with a foreword by General Stanley McChrystal, and he gave a TED talk, One Nation Indivisible.

In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Bridgeland to the White House Council for Community Solutions. In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Bridgeland as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, assistant to the president, and first director of the Freedom Corps to coordinate policy on international, national, community, and faith-based service in the aftermath of 9/11. He also oversaw the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

Bridgeland began his professional career by practicing law in the New York and Paris, France offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell. Bridgeland graduated with honors in government from Harvard University, where he wrote his senior honors thesis under James Q. Wilson and played on the Harvard varsity tennis team; studied at the College of Europe and Université Libre de Bruxelles as a Rotary International Fellow; and received his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. Bridgeland has honorary degrees and has delivered the commencement address at half a dozen colleges, including the College of William and Mary and Johns Hopkins University.

 

John Bridgeland News Feed

A 20-year campaign to address America’s high school dropout crisis produced unprecedented gains in graduation rates nationwide. Can lessons from this campaign help the nation cross this elusive threshold and inspire action on other social issues?
John Bridgeland Stanford Social Innovation Review
Higher education should focus on fostering students’ understanding of democratic norms, values, and institutions, equipping them with the necessary skills and attitudes for active civic participation.
John Bridgeland Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning
Melody Barnes, executive director of UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy, and John Bridgeland ’87, founder and executive chairman of the Office of American Possibilities, discuss their roles at the White House, how they became partners in several public policy efforts, and what Americans can do to strengthen democratic institutions and work together across differences.
John Bridgeland, Melody Barnes, Risa Goluboff University of Virginia School of Law
Across our country, concern about the mental health of our children coming out of the pandemic has skyrocketed in the last year. Rates of depression and anxiety are at all-time highs. Young people are struggling to adapt to the routines of school, develop and manage relationships, and avoid the risks of drugs, alcohol, and violence.
John Bridgeland Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper
"The midterm elections, particularly for the next U.S. senator from Ohio, call the question on whether voters will support candidates who will defend our democracy and sustain our republic," writes John Bridgeland, practitioner senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center.
John Bridgeland cleveland.com
John Bridgeland, practitioner senior fellow at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, said that "It's a divisive time. That's just the reality. And yet this is something the nation should be awakened to do something about."
John Bridgeland NPR