Events & Outreach Division

As a state-based think tank, the John Locke Foundation certainly fulfills its traditional role as a source of credible, cutting-edge research reports while also investing significant time and resources communicating to politically active North Carolinians through print, broadcast, and online media. But these activities are not sufficient to accomplish JLF’s mission of transforming government in North Carolina based on principles of competition, innovation, personal freedom, and personal responsibility.

That’s why JLF also operates its Events & Outreach Division to encourage public discussion, networking, leadership training, and personal interaction with public officials, activists, and other community leaders. Events & Outreach programs take advantage of the unique strengths of former public officials, educators, and other professionals affiliated with JLF:

Headliners

JLF hosts an event somewhere in North Carolina at least once a week. The organization’s main events program is its Headliner series of luncheons and receptions, held about once a month in Raleigh and several times a year in Charlotte, Wilmington, the Triad, and other communities around the state. Directed by Executive VP Kory Swanson with assistance from Senior Fellow Marc Rotterman, the Headliner program draws large and diverse crowds, including state and local policymakers and members of the news media. They are also filmed for broadcast on JLF’s statewide network of cable-access channels.

Headliners have featured elected officials such as Dick Cheney, Elizabeth Dole, John Bolton, Jim Hunt, Jim Martin, Dan Blue, Harold Brubaker, Marc Basnight, and many members of Congress. They have also included policy experts such as Cato Institute President Ed Crane and social policy scholar Linda Chavez; Washington journalists such as Robert Novak, Michael Barone, Christopher Hitchens, Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke, and Larry Kudlow; and other national figures such as Ken Starr, Dick Morris, Newt Gingrich, Jack Kemp, and P.J. O’Rourke.

« A complete list of upcoming events is available online.

Academic & Educational Programs

Directed by Dr. Karen Palasek, these programs include Academic Outreach to scholars and student groups via special web features and events; the E.A. Morris Fellows, a statewide leadership-training program; JLF’s Internship Program, providing on-the-job training and formal educational programs for promising high school and college students; and the Shaftesbury Society, a weekly luncheon and discussion club in Raleigh that promotes networking in the capital city and provides interesting speakers on a wide variety of topics: politics, government, philosophy, history, journalism, science, and the arts.

Special Projects

Through the innovative use of meetings, websites, and other means, JLF helps to build communities of North Carolinians interested in particular issues. With staff assistance from Special Projects Coordinator Paul Messino, these include the North Carolina Education Alliance, directed by Lindalyn Kakadelis; the Center for Local Innovation, directed by Chad Adams; and the North Carolina History Project, directed by Dr. Troy Kickler.