Month: September 2024

By Kinsey Clemmer

Growing up in a home with domestic violence, Danielle Rugoff learned the importance of language from a very young age, quickly realizing that her word choice could decrease or increase the temperature in her household when her father came home from work. 

Now the Presidential Leadership Scholar and Dallas-Fort Worth native is urging all Americans to be more intentional with their language as the country experiences increased polarization.

“It’s no surprise to any of us that the country is toxically divided and that we struggle to communicate effectively across the divide,” Rugoff said.

Rugoff is one of 537 Presidential Leadership Scholars who are all facing critical challenges at home or around the world. Through the program, she’s working to bridge divides in language with her new initiative, Purple Lexicon. It’s designed to flag words that may carry political weight for certain groups so that communicators can be more intentional and effective when they speak or write.

For example, many don’t realize that two common terms for people who lack a place to live – “unhoused” and “homeless” – carry with them a lot of political baggage. The words have similar dictionary definitions, but progressives tend to favor “unhoused,” while conservatives are more likely to use “homeless,” said Rugoff.

“Unhoused,” she explained, is a more passive term which implies that the person may not have shelter because of social conditions or circumstances beyond their control. But “homeless” connotes more agency – that the situation arose because of their own choices. She recommends using both unhoused and homeless in the same sentence when trying to reach people across the political spectrum.

There are in fact very few politically neutral terms today, so when a speaker uses a specific word, many listeners may tune out because they hear a term they perceive as partisan, and as a result, no longer trust the speaker, Rugoff argues. This leads to uninformed citizens and lack of progress with policy issues, circumstances she’s trying to combat.

“I’m using social science – which indicates that people are more willing to keep reading, and can ignore a word they view as from “the other side” of the aisle, if they also see a word or phrase that they trust –to guide people to simultaneously use the most trusted terms from both sides of the aisle in an effort to rebuild our ability to solve problems together,” she said.

Even the most well-meaning and well-intentioned individuals who want to effectively communicate to broad audiences suffer from either only knowing the words used predominantly in their sector and network or not understanding the implications of how their words might be received, she said.

Through Purple Lexicon, she’s targeting leaders in our communities who have a large daily audience and circle of influence. Think media, business and political leaders, and educators. But she also hopes Purple Lexicon will become a resource for ordinary Americans having conversations on polarizing or tense topics.

Her experience in the 2024 Presidential Leadership Scholars program – a joint effort of the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the Clinton Presidential Center, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and the LBJ Foundation – has helped her catapult Purple Lexicon forward as she works to build out her team and fundraise for launch.

“I really do believe that PLS and the four presidential institutions that are behind it are building a nucleus of leaders and moving the country forward by developing business leaders and social sector leaders who want to work across the aisle and solve problems,” she said.

But Rugoff’s servant heart and drive to lead change started long before she thought of Purple Lexicon or joined the program.

And as a young Jewish girl from a family that experienced generations of antisemitism in Texas and Oklahoma, she was determined to help do the work needed to improve our nation. Rugoff attended the Richardson Law Magnet school as a teen because she wanted to be a civil rights lawyer or Supreme Court Justice. She later attended the University of Texas at Austin where she got involved in student government after someone she knew from Dallas was attacked by a neo-Nazi while standing in front of their fraternity house.

“I realized UT Austin didn’t have a non-discrimination policy,” she said. “They had one for professors, but they didn’t have one that affected students and involved hate crimes. And so I worked with the administration and wrote the anti-hate crime policy.”

It’s this drive to make social and civic change along with her experience in the Presidential Leadership Scholars program that will fuel her rollout of Purple Lexicon over the next year, creating a tool for everyone that might help turn down the temperature.

“What I hope to create is a tool in one single location, in a very digestible, end user-centric way, [where] people can simultaneously understand the etymology, policy implications, and political connotations of language with the X factor being using polling to show social trust,” she said. 

Kinsey Clemmer is a Communications Manager at the George W. Bush Institute.

Randell Trammell, 2023 Presidential Leadership Scholar, Georgia Commissioner on Civic Education, and CEO of Georgia Center for Civic Engagement, discusses his passion for education and the lessons he learned in the Presidential Leadership Scholars program.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your personal leadership project.  

I am passionate about education as I know firsthand it is the universal key to improving the future for our nation’s children. Regardless of where a child begins and what ZIP code they are born into, education offers an opportunity – a path and even at times a plan – for students to pursue their own version of life, liberty, and happiness. I’ve been in the education/youth development field for over two decades. My specialization is civic education and youth civic development, which is what my personal leadership project was built upon. 

The project itself, Civic Sunrise, is designed to enhance students’ civic knowledge, identity, and engagement through a multitiered approach. The project is based on the idea that increased civic knowledge leads to greater civic identity and engagement. Named after Benjamin Franklin’s “rising sun” metaphor during the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Civic Sunrise has a two-part strategy: one focused on training teachers as civic coaches and another on providing students with interactive civic experiences. Teachers receive training to improve civic education in classrooms, while students participate in simulations, forums, leadership opportunities, and mock elections, helping them understand and exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens. This hands-on approach aims to inspire students to see themselves as essential contributors to democracy.

My personal leadership project, Civic Sunrise, has been more clearly defined with a focus on building a pipeline to public service. We have successfully developed and launched a high school pathway on government and public administration with the Georgia Department of Education. Students take an in-depth journey through local, state, and national government structures, careers, and explore their own role as both citizens and perhaps employee in a series of three career and technical education (CTE) courses. The goal is not to build a pipeline of elected officials, though some will rise from the process, but rather to help students understand that there is a whole world of public service (elected, employed, and volunteer) that desperately needs workers.

My organization, the Center for Civic Engagement, serves as the Career Technical Student Organization (CTSO) for the pathway, which includes junior ROTC. We are for government what the National FFA Organization (FFA) – formerly known as the Future Farmers of America – is for agriculture education. In our programs, students participate in simulations, engage with government employees and elected officials, and chart their own pathway to public service. Success for us is a post-graduation plan that includes enrollment in a postsecondary institution, enlistment in the armed forces, or employment. We are having conversations with other state departments of education about expanding the work of the CTSO into other states to support building their pipeline to public service.

Outside of work, I’m a husband to Catherine, a special education administrator for a school system, and have three very busy kids (Georgia Caroline, 9; Lincoln, 7; and Emery Claire, 4). As a hobby, I have also picked up writing children’s books, mostly on government or historical topics, to help teach my children and others. I have recently published my sixth children’s book, which happens to be on President Jimmy Carter. 

Please give us an update on what you have been working on since completing the Presidential Leadership Scholar program.

While I was in the class of 2023, the program seems like a lifetime ago and last week all at the same time. Since completing the program, I have been working on the leadership project above through my work. I have been appointed by Governor Brian Kemp as the Chair of the Georgia Commission on Civics Education. I have written a few children’s books as well.

Which lessons learned during the Presidential Leadership Scholar program have stayed with you the most, and how have you put them into action?

Two recurring themes from the program have been especially important to me over the past year, influence and persuasion as well as strategic partnerships. Through my roles at the Center for Civic Engagement and as Chair of the Georgia Commission for Civics Education, our focus is on boosting civic education in Georgia schools. The lessons from the LBJ Library module on influence and persuasion stand out – like LBJ’s creative use of postmasters to enforce integration during the Civil Rights Movement. STEM and literacy are critical, but every student will become a citizen, and the question is, what kind of citizen do we want to produce – active and informed or uninvolved?

After influencing and persuading others, the work truly begins with strategic partnerships – another PLS lesson. My focus is building a pipeline to public service to address the upcoming wave of retirements, what I call the “Silver Tsunami.” Strategic partnerships with groups like the Georgia Municipal Association and the Georgia Department of Education have been essential, as we work together on a unified plan for public service sustainability.

One of the greatest, unexpected gifts from the PLS program is the support of my classmates and alumni. They provide inspiration, connections, and help when needed, pushing me to make a bigger difference every day.

What drives your work supporting youth civic engagement, and what is your advice for children and young adults who are curious about becoming more informed and active citizens?

The key message is that we are shaping citizens every day, whether we realize it or not. Turning 18 doesn’t magically grant young people an understanding of their rights and responsibilities; they learn by example, through community service, and by witnessing how things are done.

When I speak to young people, I often compare civics to a video game. I tell them: “Wouldn’t you want to know the controls, rules, and how to win? Civic education gives you the tools to `play’ democracy and make your community better. The Constitution is like a cheat code, outlining the rights and rules for everyone, including you.”

I remind them that young people have always been drivers of change, from the Civil Rights Movement to environmental advocacy. Their voices are powerful and needed now more than ever.

You recently published a new children’s book, Presidential Pals: Discovering the Legacy of Jimmy Carter, about three siblings exploring the fascinating life of President Jimmy Carter. What inspired you to write about President Carter’s life? 

The journey of writing children’s books was to help teach my own children about the State Capitol, what city workers do, etc. When I was looking for age-appropriate resources, I couldn’t find any. So I decided to write some myself. 

The project on President Carter was a special one as he is a son of Georgia – a state senator, a governor, a president. When I started writing the book, there was not one single children’s book telling the story of his remarkable life. I wanted my children, and all of Georgia’s children, to have something that would help them know that an ordinary person can have extraordinary impact. I treat the book as if it were a family outing and tell it through the perspective of my own three children (Georgia Caroline, Lincoln, and Emery Claire). In a common adventure that feels like going to their grandparents’ house, their imaginations come to life through the stories that Mr. Jimmy and Mrs. Rosalynn shared.  

You’ll notice the title is Presidential Pals: .…  This is intentional as there are other presidential stories to be told. Who’s next? Bush 41? Bush 43? Clinton? LBJ?  Stay tuned.…