about the 2018 Summit
The 2018 Reagan Leadership Summit took place at the Reagan Library Oct. 12-13, 2018. The conference featured a full schedule of speakers and sessions exploring the theme of “Uniting the Divide.” The opening keynote address was presented by internationally recognized speaker and writer Shelby Scarbrough. Scarbrough’s experience was well-suited for the conference theme: she is a contributing author of “The Power of Civility,” a book that emphasizes that civility remains a worthy goal of society, and she has a chapter titled “Engaging in Civility” in the forthcoming business publication “The Crisis of Engagement.” The entrepreneur also boasts a lengthy list of public service projects, including serving as an appointee for the Reagan administration.
The second day of the conference opened with a young professionals keynote address by Cole Scanlon. The recent Harvard graduate and master’s student at Oxford is the co-founder and co-director of Fair Opportunity Project, a nonprofit organization that annually distributes free college application and financial aid information to tens of thousands of public high schools. In 2017, this work landed Scanlon a coveted spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Drawing upon his experiences as a student, during the Summit he discussed ways in which diverse groups can thrive through shared experiences, values and goals, offering insights on how to bridge ideological divides. Scanlon was first introduced to the Reagan Foundation in 2014 when he applied for and subsequently received a prestigious GE-Reagan Foundation Scholarship.
Plenary talks and four rounds of breakout workshops presented by dozens of college and high school students from across the country complemented the keynote presentations. The summit closed with a panel discussion featuring Annafi Wahed and Jihan Varisco of The Flip Side, a media outlet that delivers concise summaries of political analysis from both left-leaning and right-leaning news sources. The company’s mission is to “help bridge the gap” between conservatives and liberals by offering differing perspectives on issues that can be consumed in five minutes or less.
Learn more about the 2018 Summit by watching the videos or reading the conference program below.
