College of Law Professor Glenn Reynolds has been selected to serve on the Institute of American Civics Board of Fellows.
Earlier this week, University of Tennessee System President Randy Boyd announced the members of the recently established nonpartisan institute, centered in the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
The institute’s charge is to support statewide efforts to advance civic education and constructive debate and foster deeper understanding of American government and the principles that contributed to the country’s founding.
Reynolds is one of 13 members who will serve alongside former Tennessee governors Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam.
Reynolds, a College of Law professor since 1989 and a Yale Law School graduate, has a long history of high-level public service, having served as a member of the White House Advisory Panel on Space Policy, the Tennessee Juvenile Justice Reform Commission and the Tennessee Gubernatorial Succession Commission.
He has testified before Congressional committees on space law, international trade and domestic terrorism and has been the executive chairman of the National Space Society. He was recently named by the National Jurist as one of “23 Law Professors To Take Before You Die.”
University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman said the hope for the institute is to bring together people with different opinions who can pose solutions “that move our state and country forward.”
“Land-grant universities are going to need to take on an expanded role in supporting American democracy, and we are determined to lead our peers in defining that role,” Plowman said. “The newly appointed board is a significant step toward that goal.”
Reynolds is one of nine tenured professors, administrators, or professors of practice from American universities who make up the board that will advise the Institute of American Civics. He said he looks forward to participating in civil interaction that can affect change.
“‘Wide open, robust debate’ should, by definition, be wide open and robust. That means a commitment to the idea that everyone’s views are worthy of being heard, even if you personally disagree,” Reynolds said.
The institute was created last spring by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, and lawmakers have appropriated $6 million in the current state budget to support it.
Other board members include:
- A.B. Culvahouse, Of Counsel at O’Melveny & Myers and former U.S. ambassador to Australia
- Marianne Wanamaker, UT professor of economics and executive director of the Baker Center
- Danielle Allen, professor of government and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
- Arthur Brooks, William Henry Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School; Professor of Management Practice, Harvard Business School
- Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University
- Amy Elias, Chancellor’s Professor, Distinguished Professor of English, and director of the UT Humanities Center, the University of Tennessee
- Robert George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, Princeton University
- Claudia Williamson Kramer, Probasco Chair of Free Enterprise, Professor of Economics, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
- Jon Meacham, Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in American Presidency and co-chair of the Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy, Vanderbilt University
- Paul Stumb, president of Cumberland University