Robert Doar and Cecilia Elena Rouse: Chautauqua Institution Lecture Series
Route 394, Chautauqua, NY 14722
Robert Doar and Cecilia Elena Rouse, presidents of two of the nation’s most highly regarded public policy think tanks, come together in conversation on the Amphitheater stage to lead off a week of dialogue on “The Future of the American Experiment,” presented at Chautauqua in partnership with AEI and Brookings. In providing their perspectives on the state of our democratic republic today — plus thoughts on its immediate and long-term future, and how Americans can find common ground on our most urgent challenges — the pair will set the stage for the week’s remaining Chautauqua Lecture Series programs, all featuring experts from both organizations.
Robert Doar became American Enterprise Institute’s 12th president in July 2019. Since then, he has recruited dozens of leading scholars and fellows across multiple issue areas and launched a new research division focused on Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies. By supporting the extensive work of AEI scholars in areas including foreign and defense policy, education, the reform of key institutions, the U.S. economy, and in opportunity and mobility studies, Doar has helped to solidify AEI’s position as a leading voice on the major issues facing the United States.
While at AEI, Doar has served as a co-chair of the National Commission on Hunger and as a lead member of the AEI-Brookings Working Group on Poverty and Opportunity. Doar joined AEI in 2014 to lead the Institute’s opportunity and mobility studies program after serving for more than 20 years in leadership positions in the social service programs of New York state and New York City.
Cecilia Elena Rouse is the president of the Brookings Institution. From 2021 to 2023, she served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, the first Black American to fill that role in the CEA’s 75-year history. Confirmed with 95 votes in the U.S. Senate, she served as CEA chair while on public service leave from Princeton University, where she joined the faculty in 1992. The university’s Katzman-Ernst Professor in Economics and Education and a professor of economics and public affairs, she served as dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs from 2012 to 2021.
A labor economist with a focus on the economics of education, Rouse is the founding director of the Princeton Education Research Section and a member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Education, and the National Academy of Sciences. A member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2011, she was Special Assistant to the President at the National Economic Council from 1998 to 1999.