Eighth Annual Bruce E. Meyerson Lecture with Keith Allred
From Division to Dialogue: Four Citizen Led Breakthroughs in Congress
We are excited to feature Keith Allred at the 8th Annual Bruce E. Meyerson Lecture on Dispute Resolution on April 1, 2026.
Keith Allred is the Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), an organization that works to build our nation’s capacity to engage differences constructively. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Hill and Congressional Quarterly.
At a time when our politics seem hopelessly divided, a group of 89,000 Americans has successfully championed four major bills into law by identifying bipartisan points of citizen agreement. CommonSense American founder Keith Allred will discuss how this rapidly growing grassroots group is successfully swimming against the polarization tide in Congress to achieve concrete results. A former professor of negotiation and conflict resolution at the Harvard Kennedy School, Allred will describe how polarization research and the Founder’s thinking informs this powerful way for citizens to make a difference and the lessons it provides on how we get to a better place as a nation.
CommonSense American is the flagship NICD program that brings Republicans, Democrats and Independents together from across the country to identify solutions with broad grassroots support and then champion them. The members are now four-for-four in Congress. Keith started his academic career as a professor at Columbia University. He earned a PhD in Organizational Behavior and Social Psychology from UCLA and a BA in American History from Stanford.
A fifth-generation Idahoan who grew up working summers on the family cattle ranch, Keith finished eighth in the world standings of the National Cutting Horse Association in 2017 after competing in the World Finals in Fort Worth.
