Get Out the Vote: Civic Empowerment Gap with Meira Levinson and Sean A. Floyd
Meira Levinson and Sean A. Floyd
On July 30, 2020, Making Caring Common hosted “Civic Empowerment Gap” as part of our Get Out the Vote: Voter Mobilization and Civic Education Series.
Unfortunately the video is not available, but please see below for the audio recording.
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What is the civic empowerment gap, why does it matter, and how can it be eliminated? In this session, Professor of Education Meira Levinson and CEO Sean A. Floyd discussed insider politics and outsider activism, and why and how youth, people of color, first generation college students, and new Americans can upend traditional power disparities in U.S. politics.
About the Speakers
Meira Levinson is a normative political philosopher who works at the intersection of civic education, youth empowerment, racial justice, and educational ethics. In doing so, she draws upon scholarship from multiple disciplines as well as her eight years of experience teaching in the Atlanta and Boston Public Schools. She is currently working to start a global field of educational ethics, modeled in some ways after bioethics, that is philosophically rigorous, disciplinarily and experientially inclusive, and both relevant to and informed by educational policy and practice. Levinson’s work in this area has been supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center of Ethics, and the Spencer Foundation.
Levinson’s most recent books include Democratic Discord in Schools: Cases and Commentaries in Educational Ethics (2019, with Jacob Fay), Dilemmas of Educational Ethics: Cases and Commentaries (2016, with Jacob Fay), Making Civics Count (2012, with David Campbell and Frederick Hess), and No Citizen Left Behind (2012). She also shares educational ethics resources on JusticeinSchools.org, rich video materials to support higher education pedagogy at Instructional Moves, and resources for youth activists and teacher allies at YouthinFront.org. Each of these projects, like her previous research, reflects Levinson's commitment to achieving productive cross-fertilization—without loss of rigor—among scholarship, policy, and practice.
She earned a B.A. in philosophy from Yale and a D.Phil. in politics from Nuffield College, Oxford University.
Sean A. Floyd is the Chief Executive Officer of Nomadic Solutions, a management consulting firm. Focused on politics, community engagement and business development, Sean guides his firm with the belief that without vision, there is no action and without action, there is no progress.
Prior to launching his firm, he served for 3 years as Chief of Staff to the Senior Advisor to Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser. As Chief of Staff, Mr. Floyd oversaw agency operations for the Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs, the Office of Federal And Regional Affairs, and the Office of the Secretary of the City; all divisions of The Office of the Senior Advisor. He also served as the Director of Scheduling for Mayor Bowser as well.
Sean’s campaign experience extends across all levels of political office, having worked in various places across the county. His previous campaign experience includes the successful election of Angela D. Alsobrooks as the first female County Executive of Prince Georges County, MD, the winning mayoral campaign of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, President Barack Obama’s successful re-election effort in Pennsylvania, and the reelection effort of Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois. He also has experience working local level and issue based campaigns. His vast experience in campaigns and elections led to Mr. Floyd becoming an Adjunct Professor in the George Washington University’s Native American Political Leadership Program, where he teaches a practicum on local Campaigns and Elections. He has also been appointed to the Board of Directors for the Black Student Fund.
Sean’s other professional experience includes the National Association of State Workforces Agencies, the Democratic National Committee, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Mr. Floyd graduated from St. Mary’s College of Maryland with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Political Science and a Minor in Africa/African Diaspora Studies. His membership affiliations include the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, the National Forum for Black Public Administrators, the Young Philanthropist Society sponsored by the United Way, and the Project Management Institute. He also has a passion for youth mentoring.
About the Series
Get Out the Vote: Voter Mobilization and Civic Education Series is a new, non-partisan initiative designed to enable young people to become voter mobilization leaders.