Judy Woodruff and Jamelle Bouie on Freedom of the Press
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Pursuits of Knowledge
Storytelling and American Democracy
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Join us in conversation with historians and leaders from presidential sites and libraries as they explore the power of storytelling in shaping American democracy.
A keynote conversation from the Educating for American Democracy Community Learning Partners National Summit and the Tombstone Legacies Conference
Cohosted by Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, and Educating for American Democracy
Join us in conversation with historians and leaders from presidential sites and libraries as they explore the power of storytelling in shaping American democracy. This public program sits at the intersection of two overlapping conferences at Monticello: a national summit of Educating for American Democracy’s Community Learning Partners network and a public history conference examining Jefferson’s “tombstone legacies”—self-government, freedom of conscience, and freedom of mind. Together, these gatherings bring educators, historians, civic leaders, and philanthropic partners into conversation about democracy, historical memory, and the role of institutions in shaping the nation’s future.
Designed to connect these communities, the discussion considers how museums, historic sites, and cultural institutions help cultivate national narratives grounded in honesty, civic purpose, and shared possibility.
About the Speakers
Dr. Jane Kamensky
Dr. Jane Kamensky is President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. A leading historian of early America and the United States, she worked for three decades as a professor and higher education leader, most recently as Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. She brings to her work at Monticello a strong sense of civic purpose and a commitment to the ways that rigorous scholarship and compelling, honest storytelling help to build citizen capacity and revitalize the American experiment.
Kamensky is the author or editor of numerous books spanning four centuries of American history, including A Revolution in Color: The World of John Singleton Copley (2016), which won four major prizes and was a finalist for several others. Her most recent book, Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution (2024), was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation, among others.
A former Commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and past Trustee of the Museum of the American Revolution, Kamensky is a member of the National Advisory Council of More Perfect and of the Executive Committee of the national history-civics initiative Educating for American Democracy, among many other public history roles. From 2018 through 2025, she served as a scholarly advisor and on-camera expert for the Florentine Films/ Ken Burns documentary, The American Revolution. Kamensky holds a BA and a PhD in American history from Yale University.
Edward F. O’Keefe
Edward F. O’Keefe was named the Chief Executive Officer of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in October 2019. Ed is a native of North Dakota, who came to the role after a 20-year career in media. After 12 years with ABC News, he served as the founding editor-in-chief of media startup Now This. In 2014, O’Keefe joined CNN as the VP of CNN Money and CNN Politics, rising to Senior VP of Content Development. While at CNN, Ed won an Emmy Award for his work with Anthony Bourdain. In 2019, Ed was the Entrepreneur Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center, publishing his findings in his piece Streaming War Won. While at Harvard, O’Keefe also recovered never-before-published material that — alongside extensive research at the Library of Congress, the Theodore Roosevelt Center at Dickinson State University, the Theodore Roosevelt birthplace in New York City, and Sagamore Hill — will be the subject of a book, The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt, to be published by Simon & Schuster. He lives in New York City with his wife, Allison, daughter, Elsa, and son, Alton.
Tina Tchen
Tina Tchen is the Executive Vice President of Programs for the Obama Foundation. She oversees the Foundation's programming in Chicago and around the world to strengthen and build an active democratic culture. This includes the Foundation's Global Leadership programs, the Girls Opportunity Alliance, the My Brother's Keeper Alliance, the programs that will take place at the Obama Presidential Center, and the Foundation's annual Democracy Forum.
Ms. Tchen is an attorney, activist, and lifelong advocate for women and girls. She served in the Obama White House through both terms, and was an Assistant to President Barack Obama, Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama, and Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls.
Prior to the White House, Tchen practiced law for 23 years at Skadden. At the firm, she was a corporate litigation partner, chaired the pro bono committee, and was a long time leader of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation.
Janet Tran
Janet Tran serves as the director of the Center for Civics, Education, and Opportunity (CCEO) for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. She helped design the Foundation’s non-partisan civic learning portfolio to answer President Reagan’s call for an “informed patriotism.” In 2015, she established the Reagan Institute offices in Washington, D.C., with the launch of Leadership and the American Presidency (LTAP), an experiential leadership program for university students. She is the co-founder of the inaugural Reagan Institute Summit on Education (RISE), an annual bipartisan education policy that examines the health of our education system. Janet serves on the board of Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) as a senior advisor to the Campus Election Engagement Project, and the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) advisory board. Janet’s civic mission began while serving as a social studies and English teacher in Los Angeles. Janet earned her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her master’s of education in curriculum and instruction at California State University, Northridge. Most recently, she earned her doctorate in education learning technologies from Pepperdine University.
Program Cohosts
Educating for American Democracy Community Learning Partners (EAD-CLP Network)
Educating for American Democracy is an unprecedented effort that convened a diverse and cross-ideological group of scholars and educators to create a Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy— guidance and an inquiry framework that can be used to transform teaching of history and civics to meet the needs of a diverse 21st century K–12 student body. Launched in 2021, EAD is a call to action to invest in strengthening history and civic learning, and to ensure that civic learning opportunities are delivered equitably throughout the country.
The Education for American Democracy Community Learning Partners (EAD-CLP) Network is a collaborative initiative composed of more than 300 informal educators in museums, libraries, and historic sites across the country that aims to strengthen civic learning and education in the United States. The network focuses on integrating civic practices, skills, and content into museum interpretations and encourages participation in summits and surveys to gather insights and plan future events. With the EAD roadmap (described below) as a guide, the EAD-CLP Network represents field-wide commitment to educating for American democracy and the importance of civic education in fostering informed and engaged citizens.
The Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello (ICJS)
From its beginning in 1994, the dual purpose of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies has been research and education – to foster Jefferson scholarship and to disseminate its findings. The activities of the Center are diverse and multidisciplinary. It is a collaborative research hub for individual Jefferson scholars and teachers, as well as a venue for lectures, seminars, and conferences. The Center seeks a central role in the ongoing study of Thomas Jefferson internationally by supporting a wide range of inquiry; by building a network of scholars, teachers, and resources; by helping to define new areas of investigation; and by promoting the application of new technologies to Jefferson scholarship. An Advisory Board of acclaimed scholars and statesmen helps guide the Center’s activities.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation
Monticello is owned and operated by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., which was founded in 1923. As a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, the Foundation receives no ongoing federal, state, or local funding in support of its dual mission of preservation and education.
During its existence, the Foundation has steadily expanded Monticello’s functions and holdings. Its stewardship now includes approximately 2,500 of Jefferson’s 5,000 acres, of which more than 1,400 are held under protective easements. The 2004 purchase of Montalto, the neighboring mountain that rises 400 feet above Monticello, represents the Foundation’s most significant land acquisition. In addition to the David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center and Carl and Hunter Smith Education Center, large capital projects have included the Jefferson Library and the Saunders-Monticello Trail, both of which were dedicated in 2002.
