The Sycamore Institute invites you to our inaugural annual forum on May 2, 2024 with keynote speaker, Colin Woodard and special guests former Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell, former mayor of Memphis and Shelby County A C Wharton, and former editor of the Tennessee Journal Ed Cromer.

Mr. Woodard, a New York Times bestselling historian, will share insights on regional political identities in the U.S. and their historical underpinnings from his book American Nations. Following those remarks, Speaker Harwell, Mayor Wharton, and Mr. Cromer will engage him in a conversation about the past, present, and future of political coalitions and policy priorities in Tennessee.

See the full event agenda here.

Colin Woodard is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.

A native of Maine, he has reported from more than 50 countries and seven continents and lived for more than four years in Eastern Europe during the collapse of the Soviet empire and the transition that followed. A graduate of Tufts University and the University of Chicago he is past Pew Fellow in International Journalism at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a recipient of the Jane Bagley Lehman Award for Excellence in Public Advocacy.

Sponsors

Adams & Reese
Belmont University
Bridge Public Affairs
Calvert Street Group
Coeo Public Affairs
Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga
Guy Cammilleri Democracy Fund
The Housing Fund
Jigsaw Strategic Consulting
Lipscomb University College of Leadership & Public Service
Parthenon Strategies
Pinnacle Financial Partners
Stones River Group
The Tennessean
Tennessee Commission on Children & Youth
Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities
Tennessee Health Care Association
Tennessee Hospital Association
United Ways of Tennessee

Interested in sponsoring this event? Check out our sponsorship opportunities and email our team at info@sycamoretn.org.