Keith Allred is the Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse (NICD), an organization that works to build our nation’s capacity to engage differences constructively. His work has been featured in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Hill, and Congressional Quarterly.
He was recruited to lead NICD because he had recently launched CommonSense American, a new organization that brings Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together from across the country to identify solutions with broad grassroots support and then champion them in Congress. CommonSense American’s more than 50,000 members are three-for-three. They played meaningful roles in helping Congress pass bipartisan legislation ending surprise medical billing in 2020, investing in America’s physical infrastructure in 2021, and updating the Electoral Count Act in 2022.
Keith piloted CommonSense American at the state level in Idaho from 2005 – 2009. Its major legislative achievements led the Idaho Democratic Party to make the unusual move of asking him, as an independent, to be their nominee for Governor in 2010.
Prior to returning home to pilot the citizens’ group, Keith was the first professor of conflict resolution at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He started his academic career as a professor at Columbia University.
Keith has also served in a variety of business leadership roles. Most recently, he was a senior partner at the Cicero Group, ranked the 12th best boutique management consulting firm in the world by Vault.com. He was also a member of the Board of Directors for Perpetua Resources, which trades on NASDAQ (PPTA), where he chaired the Compensation Committee and served on the Governance and Audit Committees.
Keith earned a PhD in Organizational Behavior from UCLA and BA in American History from Stanford.
A fifth-generation Idahoan who grew up working summers on the family cattle ranch, Keith finished eighth in the world standings of the National Cutting Horse Association in 2017 after competing in the World Finals in Fort Worth.
He and Christine are the proud parents of Anna, Dan, and Cate.