Dr. Helene Gayle Appointed Chair of New America’s Board of Directors; Katherine Gehl, Reid Hoffman, Ashton Kutcher Join New America’s Board of Directors

Washington, D.C.—New America is pleased to announce that Dr. Helene Gayle has been appointed chair of New America’s Board of Directors.

Dr. Helene Gayle is the president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust, a community foundation dedicated to improving the Chicago region through strategic grant making, civic engagement, and inspiring philanthropy. Dr. Gayle was previously president and CEO of CARE, a program director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and spent 20 years with the U.S. Government with the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Agency for International Development, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. Dr. Gayle serves on the boards of several public companies and nonprofits, including The Coca-Cola Company, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the ONE Campaign. She earned an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.P.H. from Johns Hopkins University.

“This is an exciting moment in New America’s history, and I am proud to help lead it into the future. In its first 20 years, New America has proven itself a home for bold, innovative ideas and practical solutions to the problems facing America and the world. I am enthusiastic about the work ahead and eager to help advance the organization's more recent commitment to working in cities and communities to promote ground-up approaches to policymaking," Dr. Gayle said.

David Bradley, chairman of Atlantic Media, has been serving as Acting Chair & Secretary of New America since January 2019. He will remain on the board of directors.

“I am honored to transition the leadership of New America’s board to Dr. Helene Gayle. Helene is an accomplished professional and humanitarian. Her leadership will greatly support New America’s dedication to achieving this country’s highest ideals,” Bradley said.

New America is also pleased to welcome three new members to New America’s board of directors. Katherine Gehl, former president and CEO of Gehl Foods, and founder of Venn Innovations, a national initiative working to revitalize democracy; Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, partner at Greylock Partners, and best-selling author; and Ashton Kutcher, actor, co-founder of venture funds A-GRade Investments and Sound Ventures, and co-founder of Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children.

Katherine Gehl is a business leader, political innovation activist, author, and speaker. Gehl leads Venn Innovations, a national, nonpartisan political innovation group, and is the author of the forthcoming book, The Politics Industry, from Harvard Business Publishing. Gehl was president and CEO of Gehl Foods, a $250 million high-tech food manufacturing company in Wisconsin.

Reid Hoffman is an accomplished entrepreneur, executive, and investor. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn and is currently a partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners. He is a New York Times best-selling author and the host of the original podcast series Masters of Scale.

Ashton Kutcher is an actor, entrepreneur, tech investor, producer and philanthropist. Kutcher has been investing in technology for over a decade, both as an angel investor and a founding partner of two investment firms, A-GRade Investments and Sound Ventures. He has appeared on TIME’s “100 Most Influential People in the World,” Vanity Fair‘s “New Establishment List,” and Fast Company’s “Most Creative People.”

“Dr. Helene Gayle has been a wonderful partner and supporter of New America since she joined the board in 2013. Helene has worked closely with New America’s leadership during her time on the board and I am so looking forward to working with her in this new capacity during the rest of our 20th anniversary year and beyond,” New America CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter said. “Katherine Gehl, Reid Hoffman, and Ashton Kutcher all strengthen our board in various important ways and I look forward to working with them. Each of them has thought hard about how to combine technology and public problem solving while also recognizing the limits of technological solutions. They also reflect a range of substantive interests and come from different backgrounds and parts of the country that are experiencing social and technological change in very different ways.”

The New America board of directors is chaired by Helene Gayle, and includes top leaders from media, academia, civil society, and the private sector. In 2019, New America celebrates 20 years of innovation and impact. Since our founding in 1999, we have promised to bring new ideas and new voices into America’s public discourse: big, bold ideas that anticipate the need for sweeping reform. Over the years, we’ve also made it clear that we don’t stop at just developing big ideas—we want to ensure that those ideas have impact, through law, policy, or technological and practical solutions that help Americans and people around the world. Twenty years on, we are dedicated to renewing the promise of America by continuing the quest to realize our nation’s highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges presented by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create to expand opportunity and equity for all.