Richard lives in Fayette County, Kentucky, and works at the intersection of democracy, public policy, social practice, and creativity. He is the Founder and Executive Director of CivicLex, a civic health organization that has been recognized by the Library of Congress and the American Academy of Arts and Science as a solution for rebuilding American Democracy for the 21st Century.
Richard is a founding Steering Committee member and steward for the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange, the United States' most prominent framework for bringing together rural and urban communities to understand their interdependence. He is also a founder of Kentucky’s first El Sistema-inspired music program and Lexington’s first place-based community development corporation.
Since 2014, Richard’s work has been featured on/in Lenfest Institute for Journalism, PBS NewsHour, Foreign Affairs, On Point, the Wall Street Journal, and more. His work has directly invested more than $4.5M into Kentucky’s civic and creative fabric. Richard is a Marshall Memorial Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States and a NextCity Vanguard.