By Thom Little Ph.D. In my last blog, I introduced you to Donna Red Wing and Bob Vanderplatt and the power of a simple cup of coffee to break down barriers, build friendships and change lives. In today’s post, I want to tell you about the power of planes, trains, busses and translators to do [...]
By Thom Little, Ph.D. America is a divided nation. Everybody knows that. Everything we read and everything we hear or watch tells us that. We disagree on policies. We disagree on politics. We watch different cable networks. We read different websites. We follow different people on Twitter and Instagram. Democrats don’t like Republicans. Liberals don’t [...]
By Thom Little, Ph.D Coming to you from Gate B18 at the Boise Airport in Boise, Idaho, headed home after a great couple of days at the 7th annual meeting of the Conference of State Majority Leaders. It was great to be with and learn from so many friends from across the country. We shared [...]
By Thom Little, Ph.D. When my daughter Virginia was five years old, we signed her up for one-week ballet camp during the summer. We knew she loved to dance because we would often see her in our backyard or living room dancing to music that no one else could hear. So, we were not surprised [...]
By Thom Little, Ph.D. This weekend more than forty state legislative leaders from across the country will gather at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum for SLLF’s Spring Leadership Forum. Responsible Leadership: Working Together to Restore Confidence in Our Democracy will feature several state legislative leaders who are practicing the art of cross-party [...]
By Thom Little, Ph.D. I found a dinosaur- or at least something that I thought had become as extinct as the dinosaur: a high profile, competitive statewide campaign that was about issues and not personalities. In fact, it appears that the two candidates actually liked each other and treated each other with respect and dignity. [...]
By Thom Little, Ph.D. As we sit at the threshold of another new year with all of the possibilities and challenges it holds, I want to propose a new year’s resolution on behalf of SLLF for 2019: We resolve to do everything we can to bring this great nation together behind the democratic values and [...]
Eleven new legislative leaders have been appointed to the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF) board at its annual Board of Directors meeting in Las Vegas on November 30, 2018. The board also welcomes new Chair, Connecticut Senate President, Martin Looney and Vice Chair, Wisconsin Speaker, Robin Vos. “I’m eager to work with this great new group [...]
“Senator Ben Atchley will always be remembered by all of us here at SLLF as a man of humility, faith, love and integrity. He made me a better man knowing and working with him. Thank you, Senator, and Godspeed.” Steve Lakis, President, SLLF It is with great sadness that we must report that Senator Ben [...]
by Thom Little, Ph.D. My wife and I are now officially empty nesters. This year, our youngest daughter started college. She is a first year (they don’t call them freshmen) at Mr. Jefferson’s university, the University of Virginia. She has always done very well in school (all she got from me was her height), so [...]