Personal Choices. Every day, Americans are making choices in their personal and professional lives that affect the problems we are trying to solve. Some are made by famous politicians or chief executives whom you already know, but scores of others make their choices mostly below the media radar. The lack of a spotlight does not diminish their bold choices that in big ways and small support American values of freedom, diversity, and innovation while helping to make our communities, our country, and our world a better place to live for everyone.
Shared Aspirations. The American Leader is proud to showcase some of these leaders and the choices they’ve made to benefit the public good. Let’s not be confused if they should fall short of their goals or some character flaw be revealed: Their pursuit of our shared aspirations for a better life binds them to us, and us to them. Their stories present a glimpse of the many possible paths that a diverse range of courageous people can take to solve our common problems. We hope they inspire you to be bold in your own way, be it at the dinner table, in the office, or on a larger stage.
Jeannette Horwitz: Respecting America’s Immigrant Heritage
As the program coordinator for Welcome Dayton, Jeannette Horwitz works with all facets of city life — schools, libraries, businesses, fire and police departments, places of worship, and her colleagues in the city government — to make it easier for immigrants and refugees to integrate into the community.
Jim Vincent: Election Officer, American Made
Jim Vincent is an election precinct chief in Fairfax County, Virginia, and an enthusiastic proponent of the election system. The rules governing the system have two purposes, he says: “One is to ensure safety, and the other to ensure no team gets an unfair advantage over the other team.”
Dan Helmer: Leading the Charge Against Trump and the MAGA Narrative
Dan Helmer has been relentless in his efforts to oppose Trump and his MAGA agenda. His most recent effort — to ensure that Virginia students learn the truth about January 6 — was one of the nation's first attempts to formally counter the false narrative promoted by the Republican Party.
Laura Zapata: Solar Power as Carbon Offset, Economic Driver
Laura Zapata's path to leading a solar power company – one that is first-of-its-kind to sell carbon offsets to finance its projects and one that also emphasizes the economic benefits of solar investments in distressed communities – has been a winding road that saw her uproot herself several times.
Amanda Jones: An Accidental Activist
Concern for her community compelled Amanda Jones to stand up and speak out in summer of 2022 against injustice – in this case, a movement to ban books. Books save lives, she says. Her brief speech in support of books, diversity, and against censorship was a small act that launched her into the midst of a national battle over book banning that continues today.
DJ Yearwood: Advocate for Youth Representation
DJ Yearwood, a 19-year-old from Missouri, successfully campaigned for a fivefold increase in the state's investment in tobacco prevention and cessation. He followed that up with a campaign to lower the voting age in Missouri for local elections as a more effective way to engage teens in civic life and turn them into lifelong voters.
Bill Shireman: Building a Sustainable Economy
Bill Shireman is launching Circle America, an organization that aims to replace our extractive, throw-away culture with one that eliminates waste and pollution, reuses or recycles products and materials, and emulates the self-sustaining “circle” of natural systems.
Doug Oplinger: Journalism for the People
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Doug Oplinger relied on data analysis and an intimate knowledge of Ohioans and the state of Ohio democracy to predict Donald Trump’s election in November and his authoritarian second term.
Cedar Milazzo: Combating the Spread of Bad Information
Cedar Milazzo started a company to combat the spread of false, misleading, and dangerous information on the Internet. He and his team created a technology platform that can identify whether a web page contains credible or untrustworthy information. His challenge was to find an application for the technology that would sustain the business.
Cathy Giessel: Model for Governing, Election Reforms
A popular politician who served 10 years in the Alaska state Senate, including two years as Senate president from 2019-21, Cathy Giessel was defeated in the 2020 Republican primary for working too closely with the Democratic minority. Voting reforms passed that year opened a path for her re-election in 2022.
Ty Seidule: Dismantling the Lost Cause
Leveraging his identity as a career Army officer, historian, and born-and-bred Southerner once immersed in the Lost Cause and the heroism of Robert E. Lee, Ty Seidule has pushed the military and the country as a whole to confront and acknowledge the War of the Rebellion, as the war was formally known, for what it was – a treasonous act by the South’s leaders.
Emma Petty Addams: Restoring Faith in Democracy
As executive director at Mormon Women for Ethical Government (MWEG), Emma Addams is working to build a political center that models how people of religious faith can successfully advocate for democratic principles and build bridges where there is partisan discord.
