John Bridgeland

John Bridgeland is founder & CEO of Civic, a social enterprise firm in Washington, DC. He is also executive chairman of the Office of American Possibilities, a civic moonshot factory to tap the entrepreneurial talent of Americans to solve public challenges together across divides. In that capacity, he is co-founder and CEO of the COVID Collaborative, a national platform to combat COVID-19; co-chairman of Welcome.US, which works to inspire, educate, and engage Americans in supporting the resettlement of Afghan, Ukrainian, and other refugees; co-founder of ACT NOW, a ground-up effort to re-envision community safety and policing; and co-founder, executive chairman and CEO of More Perfect, a bipartisan initiative with all 14 presidential centers to protect and renew American democracy.

Bridgeland is the founding CEO and vice chairman of Malaria No More and senior advisor to the United Nations special envoy for malaria, which together are mobilizing the public and private sectors to end malaria deaths in Africa. He is the co-founder and vice chairman of the Service Year Alliance, an initiative to create a civilian national service counterpart to military service in the United States. He is also co-convener of the Grad Nation campaign to address the high school dropout crisis. In addition, he founded Tennis for America in 2020 with the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, which awarded him their lifetime achievement award.

Bridgeland led the White House Summit on American History, Civics and Service and worked with the National Archives to develop “Our Documents” to promote understanding of 100 important documents in American history. He testified before the National Academy of Sciences on his post-9/11 efforts to increase civic engagement. Bridgeland also served on the Bipartisan Policy Center's Commission on Political Reform, which released its bipartisan blueprint in 2014. 

Previously, Bridgeland was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the White House Council for Community Solutions. He also served as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, assistant to the president, and first director of the USA Freedom Corps after 9/11 under President George W. Bush. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law and has honorary degrees from the College of William & Mary, Averett University, Saint Anselm College, Ripon College, and Hamline University, where he delivered commencement addresses. He is the author of the book, Heart of the Nation: Volunteering and America’s Civic Spirit.