Skip to content
Project 2025
Donate to support
diverse voices
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
We Can’t Let Hegseth Win His War on Women

We Can’t Let Hegseth Win His War on Women

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

Trump’s Plan to Gather Data on Every Voter Will Cripple Democracy

A car with a bullet hole in the windshield.

States Sue D.C. at Record Levels — MN Case May Be the Turning Point

People voting at voting booths.

The Quiet Campaign That Could Rewrite the 2028 Election

The Fulcrum Opens Applications for 2026 Summer Journalism Fellowship

The Fulcrum Opens Applications for 2026 Summer Journalism Fellowship

Meet the change leaders: Suzette Brooks Masters

Suzette Brooks Masters
www.citybiz.co
David L. Nevins
By David L. NevinsJun 07, 2024
David L. Nevins
David L. Nevins serves as publisher of The Fulcrum. Additionally, Nevins serves as co-founder and Board Chairman of the Bridge Alliance. Nevins brings business acumen, vision and a tireless this-must-and-can-be-done zeal to the burgeoning movement to bridge divides to transform the political process. As a business leader, Nevins excels at building bridges between people and organizations from the right, left and center for civilized conversation and then action. He co-founded the Bridge Alliance because, as he says, “No matter how well managed and how well funded anyone organization is, significant political reform will not happen without an alliance to further collaborative interactions. Together we can and will raise the collective impact of all.” He is a member of the Aspen Institute Society of Fellows, with a focus on the Aspen Rodel Fellowship in Public Leadership, he established and continues to work with The Nevins Democracy Leaders program at Penn State University. Nevins graduated with honors in economics from Penn State in 1969 and received an M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.
See More Writings by author

Nevins is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and co-founder and board chairman of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Suzette Brooks Masters is a senior fellow at the Democracy Funders Network and director of DFN’s Better Futures Project. She prides herself on seeing around the corner and challenging conventional thinking.

She is a social entrepreneur, philanthropic advisor, thought leader, and strategist in the fields of democracy, futures, and pluralism. Previously, she advised foundations, nonprofit organizations, policy makers and corporations on the impact of immigration on America. She did so from roles at the American Immigration Council, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, Welcoming America, the J.M. Kaplan Fund (where she directed the Migration Program from 2007 to 2016) and as a consultant.

She has received numerous awards for her philanthropic vision and impact, and accolades for her publications. She has served on the boards of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Define American, the New York Immigration Coalition, the Tenement Museum, HIAS, the National Immigration Forum and New York Cares, which she co founded. Masters is a graduate of Harvard Law School, Cambridge University and Amherst College. A lifelong New Yorker, she is the daughter and granddaughter of immigrants.

I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Masters in May for the CityBiz “Meet the Change Leaders” series. Watch to learn the full extent of her democracy reform work:

The Fulcrum Democracy Forum Meets Suzette Brooks Masters, Sr. Fellow, The Democracy Funders Networkwww.youtube.com


Latest news

Is the U.S. Better Off Today Than a Year Ago?
Governance & Legislation

Is the U.S. Better Off Today Than a Year Ago?

election, people voting
Bridging & Common Ground

I Ran as a Democrat in a Red State. Here’s What I Learned

Illustration of someone holding a strainer, and the words "fakes," "facts," "news," etc. going through it.
Governance & Legislation

The Need for a Truth in Politics Law: Defrauding American Politics

The Finish Line Is a Commons
Health

The Finish Line Is a Commons

Read More

USA, Washington D.C., Supreme Court building and blurred American flag against blue sky.
Americans increasingly distrust the Supreme Court. The answer may lie not only in Court reforms but in shifting power back to states, communities, and Congress.
Getty Images, TGI /Tetra Images

Hypocrisy in Leadership Corrodes Democracy

Promises made… promises broken. Americans are caught in the dysfunction and chaos of a country in crisis.

The President promised relief, but gave us the Big Beautiful Bill — cutting support for seniors, students, and families while showering tax breaks on the wealthy. He promised jobs and opportunity, but attacked Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs. He pledged to drain the swamp, yet advanced corruption that enriched himself and his allies. He vowed to protect Social Security, yet pursued policies that threatened it. He declared no one is above the law, yet sought Supreme Court immunity.

Keep ReadingShow less
Portrait of John Adams.

This vintage engraving depicts the portrait of the second President of the United States, John Adams (1735 - 1826)

Getty Images, wynnter

John Adams and the Line a Republic Must Not Cross

In an earlier Fulcrum essay, John Adams Warned Us: A Republic Without Virtue Cannot Survive, I reflected on Adams’s insistence that self-government depends on character as much as law. Adams believed citizens had obligations to one another that no constitution could enforce. Without restraint, moderation, and a commitment to the common good, liberty would hollow out from within.

But Adams’s argument about virtue did not stop with citizens. It extended, with equal force, to those who wield power.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Man Who Keeps His Word — Even When He’s Joking

U.S. President Donald Trump tours the Ford River Rouge Complex on January 13, 2026 in Dearborn, Michigan.

(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A Man Who Keeps His Word — Even When He’s Joking

We’ve learned why it’s a mistake to treat Trump’s outrageous lines as “just talk”

“We shouldn’t need a mid-term election” is his latest outrageous statement or joke. Let’s break down the pattern.

When a candidate says something extreme, we, the public, tend to downgrade it: He’s joking. He’s riffing. He’s trolling the press. We treat the line like entertainment, not intent.

Keep ReadingShow less
From “Alternative Facts” to Outright Lies

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on January 7, 2026 in Brownsville, Texas.

(Photo by Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images)

From “Alternative Facts” to Outright Lies

The Trump administration has always treated truth as an inconvenience. Nearly a decade ago, Kellyanne Conway gave the country a phrase that instantly became shorthand for the administration’s worldview: “alternative facts.” She used it to defend false claims about the size of Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd, insisting that the White House was simply offering a different version of reality despite clear photographic evidence to the contrary.

That moment was a blueprint.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026