The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1950 as the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. The organization is dedicated to "fostering enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues." The institute and its international partners promote the pursuit of common ground and deeper understanding in a nonpartisan and nonideological setting through regular seminars, policy programs, conferences, and leadership development initiatives. The institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, USA, and has campuses in Aspen, Colorado

Aspen, Colorado

The City of Aspen is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pitkin County, Colorado, United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the city population was 5,804 in 2005...

 (its original home) and near the shores of the Chesapeake Bay at the Wye River in Maryland. It has partner Aspen Institutes in Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Lyon, Tokyo, New Delhi, and Bucharest, as well as leadership initiatives in the United States and in Africa, India, and Central America.

The Aspen Institute is largely funded by foundations such as the Carnegie Corporation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund , , is an international philanthropic organisation created and run by members of the Rockefeller family. It was set up in New York City in 1940 as the primary philanthropic vehicle of the five famous Rockefeller brothers: John D...

 and the Ford Foundation

Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

, by seminar fees, and by individual donations. Its board of trustees includes leaders from politics, government, business and academia who also contribute to its support. Board members include Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Korbelová Albright is the first woman to become a United States Secretary of State. She was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton on December 5, 1996, and was unanimously confirmed by a U.S. Senate vote of 99–0...

, Sylvia Earle

Sylvia Earle

Sylvia Alice Earle is an American oceanographer. She was chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1990–1992. She is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence, sometimes called "Her Deepness" or "The Sturgeon General".-Education and career:Earle received a...

, Henry Louis Gates, David Gergen

David Gergen

David Richmond Gergen is an American political consultant and former presidential advisor who served during the administrations of Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He is currently Director of the Center for Public Leadership and a professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School. Gergen is...

, David H. Koch

David H. Koch

David Hamilton Koch is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and chemical engineer. He is a co-owner and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the U.S...

, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice

Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

. Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson is a writer and biographer. He is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of TIME...

 is President and CEO.

Mission

On July 27, 2008, the Aspen Institute Board of Directors approved a new mission:

• To foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues.

The Aspen Institute does this in four ways:

• Seminars, which help participants reflect on what they think makes a good society, thereby deepening knowledge, broadening perspectives and enhancing their capacity to solve the problems leaders face.
• Young-leader fellowships around the globe, which bring leaders together for an intense multi-year program and commitment. The fellows become better leaders and apply their skills to major challenges.
• Policy programs, which serve as nonpartisan forums for analysis, consensus building, and problem solving on a variety of issues.
• Public conferences and events, which provide a commons for people to share ideas.

History

The Institute was largely the creation of Walter Paepcke

Walter Paepcke

Walter Paepcke was a U.S. industrialist and philanthropist prominent in the middle-20th century.-Biography:A longtime executive of the Chicago-based Container Corporation of America, Paepcke is best noted for his founding of the Aspen Institute and the Aspen Skiing Company in the early 1950s, both...

, a Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 businessman who had become inspired by the Great Books

Great Books

Great Books refers primarily to a group of books that tradition, and various institutions and authorities, have regarded as constituting or best expressing the foundations of Western culture ; derivatively the term also refers to a curriculum or method of education based around a list of such books...

 program of Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California...

 at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

. In 1945, Paepcke visited Bauhaus

Bauhaus

', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...

 Artist and Architect Herbert Bayer

Herbert Bayer

Herbert Bayer was an Austrian American graphic designer, painter, photographer, sculptor, art director, environmental & interior designer, and architect, who was widely recognized as the last living member of the Bauhaus and was instrumental in the development of the Atlantic Richfield Company's...

, AIA, who had designed and built a Bauhaus-inspired minimalist home outside the decaying former mining town of Aspen, in the Roaring Fork Valley

Roaring Fork River

Roaring Fork River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States. The river drains a populated and economically vital area of the Colorado Western Slope called the Roaring Fork Valley or Roaring Fork Watershed, which includes the resort...

. Paepcke and Bayer envisioned a place where artists, leaders, thinkers, musicians could gather. Shortly thereafter, while passing through Aspen on a hunting expedition, Oil Industry maverick Robert O. Anderson

Robert O. Anderson

Robert Orville Anderson was an American business leader, legendary wildcatter and philanthropist who founded Atlantic Richfield Oil Co. through the 1966 merger of the Atlantic and Richfield oil companies and was Arco's chairman for two decades...

 (soon to be Founder & CEO of Atlantic Richfield) met with Bayer and shared in Paepcke's and Bayer's vision. In 1949, Paepcke organized a 20-day international celebration for the 200th birthday of German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

. The celebration attracted over 2,000 attendees, including Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...

, Jose Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset

José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist working during the first half of the 20th century while Spain oscillated between monarchy, republicanism and dictatorship. He was, along with Nietzsche, a proponent of the idea of perspectivism.-Biography:José Ortega y Gasset was...

, Thornton Wilder

Thornton Wilder

Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...

, and Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...

.

In 1950, Paepcke founded the Aspen Institute; and later the Aspen Music Festival and eventually (with Bayer and Anderson) the International Design Conference at Aspen (IDCA). Paepcke sought a forum “where the human spirit can flourish,” especially amid the whirlwind and chaos of modernization. He hoped that the Institute could help business leaders recapture what he called "eternal verities": the values that guided them intellectually, ethically, and spiritually as they led their companies. Inspired by philosopher Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Adler

Mortimer Jerome Adler was an American philosopher, educator, and popular author. As a philosopher he worked within the Aristotelian and Thomistic traditions. He lived for the longest stretches in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and San Mateo, California...

’s Great Books seminar at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, Paepcke worked with Anderson to create the Aspen Institute Executive Seminar. In 1951, the Institute sponsored a national photography

Photography

Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 conference attended by Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park....

, Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...

, Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn

Ben Shahn was a Lithuanian-born American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as The Shape of Content.-Biography:...

, Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott

Berenice Abbott , born Bernice Abbott, was an American photographer best known for her black-and-white photography of New York City architecture and urban design of the 1930s.-Youth:...

, and other notables. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Institute added organizations, programs, and conferences, including the Aspen Center for Physics, the Aspen Strategy Group

Aspen Strategy Group

The Aspen Strategy Group , founded in 1984, is a program of the Aspen Institute. It is a bipartisan forum composed of current and former politicians, civil servants, academics, journalists and business leaders who discuss issues of key importance in the realms of foreign policy, strategy and...

, Communications and Society Program and other programs that concentrated on education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, communications, justice

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...

, Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n thought, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

, the environment, and international affairs

International affairs

International affairs may refer to:* Diplomacy* International relations* International Affairs Association* International Affairs , a peer-reviewed academic journal first published in 1924...

.

In 1979, through a donation by Corning Glass industrialist and philanthropist Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. the Institute acquired a 1,000-acre (4 km²) campus on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, known today as the Wye River Conference Centers.

In 2005, it held the first Aspen Ideas Festival, featuring leading minds from around the world sharing and speaking on global issues. The Institute, along with Atlantic Monthly, hosts the festival annually.

Today, the Aspen Institute seminar programs include sessions such as Global Values and Leadership and Pursuing the Good Life.

In 2011, the Institute hired Ronald Schiller, who was at the time a fundraising executive with National Public Radio. Schiller became the center of a widely publicized controversy when a secretly recorded tape was released. In the recording Schiller meets with a pair of self-described Muslims who claim to wish to donate money to NPR because they approve of the political slant of its coverage. Schiller is recorded calling members of the Tea Party

Tea Party movement

The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...

 "seriously racist, racist people", characterizing the group as "fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move," and saying that NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding." Following the exposure, Schiller resigned from what was to be his post as the new director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program and Harman-Eisner Artist-in-Residence Program, stating that "he does not feel that it's in the best interests of the Aspen Institute for him to come work [there]."

Policy programs

The Aspen Institute has more than 20 policy programs that work to advance public and private sector knowledge on policy issues confronting society, convene leaders and experts from relevant fields to reach solutions. The programs explore topics such as prospects for peace in the Middle East; communications, media, and information policy; economic opportunity in rural America; social innovation through business; the nonprofit sector; creating smart solutions to help Americans save, invest and own; and community initiatives for children and families.

• The Aspen Strategy Group
  Aspen Strategy Group
  The Aspen Strategy Group , founded in 1984, is a program of the Aspen Institute. It is a bipartisan forum composed of current and former politicians, civil servants, academics, journalists and business leaders who discuss issues of key importance in the realms of foreign policy, strategy and...
  
   convenes prominent foreign policy and national security experts to consider the important challenges facing the United States.
• The Business and Society Program is dedicated to developing leaders for a sustainable society. It creates opportunities for executives and educators to explore new pathways to sustainability and values-based leadership. The program hosts the Corporate Values Strategy Group and the Center for Business Education. Its websites, CasePlace.org and BeyondGreyPinstripes.org, are used by business schools around the world.
• The Program on World Economy promotes dialogue among leaders in business, finance, government, academia and the media from industrial and developing nations in order to generate new approaches to economic challenges.
• The Commission on No Child Left Behind is a bipartisan, independent commission to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the No Child Left Behind Act and make recommendations to Congress, the Administration, State and local stakeholders, parents, and the general public to ensure the law is an effective tool.
• The Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program promotes dialogue and decision-making in the fields of communications and information policy. It convenes leaders to assess the impact of modern communications and information systems and develops new models for communications policy.
• The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs
  Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs
  The Aspen Network of Network Entrepreneurs is a non-governmental organization that aims to serve as a global network of organizations that invest money and expertise to propel entrepreneurship in developing countries. ANDE is a membership organization housed within the Aspen Institute, an...
  
   is a global network of organizations that examine entrepreneurship in emerging markets. The network's members provide financing and business support services to small and growing businesses.
• The Community Strategies Group brings together community leaders, practitioners, and policymakers engaged in regional and community economic development, civic capacity, family livelihoods, and the development of local philanthropic resources.
• The Congressional Program offers nonpartisan educational programs designed to foster leadership on public policy issues among members of the US Congress.
• The Council of World Women Leaders and Ministerial Initiative is a partnership with the Institute that promotes good governance
  Good governance
  Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights. Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which...
  
  and gender equality and aims to increase the number, effectiveness and visibility of women in top leadership roles.
• The Economic Opportunities Program advances strategies that connect the poor and underemployed to the mainstream economy. EOP facilitates learning using research to stimulate dialogue and action among funders, policymakers and nonprofit and community leaders about approaches to poverty alleviation, including self-employment and microenterprise, industry-based employment strategies, and access to capital and credit for low-wealth consumers and communities.
• The Education and Society Program identifies emerging policy issues and encourages new initiatives in education.
• Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative is a partnership of the Aspen Institute, Columbia University, and the Council of International Human Rights Policy whose aim is to put human rights values and principles, such as equity and participation, at the heart of global governance and policy to ensure that the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable are addressed Working in Africa, Realizing Rights: EGI has programs in the areas of health, trade and development, and migration.
• The Global Interdependence Initiative commissions research and provides technical assistance to help global issues advocates, experts and communicators engage the American public in dialogue on the subject.
• The Health, Biomedical Science, and Society Initiative examines issues related to health policy, medicine, nutrition and biotechnology through discussions, speaker series and public convenings.
• The Homeland Security Initiative examines the issues relating to US homeland security, assessing progress made by the US Department of Homeland Security and developing recommendations for making America safer.
• The Initiative on Financial Security brings together business executives, elected officials, policy experts, and leaders from the nonprofit community to develop proposals on how low and moderate income Americans can save, invest, and own assets over their lifetime.
• The Justice and Society Program convenes leaders to affect national and international policy regarding human rights, international law, transitional justice, and post-conflict multilateral peacekeeping operations.
• The Middle East Strategy Group includes American, Palestinian and Israeli business and political leaders committed to advancing prospects for peace in the Middle East.
• The Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program supports research, dialogue, and leadership initiatives on issues affecting the nonprofit sector and philanthropy.
• The Program on Energy and the Environment brings together leaders in business and government as well as educational, research, and environmental organizations to seek creative solutions to domestic and international policy issues involving energy and environmental sustainability.
• The Roundtable on Community Change is a forum in which leaders working to revitalize distressed urban and rural communities can address problems and share strategies for positive change.
• The Socrates Society seminars are designed as a forum for emerging leaders to explore leadership challenges. Participants arrive from industries including finance, government, academia, law, sciences, and nonprofit.

Aspen Global Leadership Network

The Aspen Institute leadership initiatives include programs for young, government, and civic leaders spanning a number of countries. Through these programs, the Institute is identifying young men and women between the ages of 30 and 45 who have already achieved a level of success and encouraging them to reach yet further.

• The Henry Crown Fellowship Program seeks to develop the next generation of community-spirited leaders, providing them with the tools necessary to meet the challenges of leadership. The program is a mix of intellectual and personal development seminars designed to broaden the perspectives of the participants and hone their skills in leadership.
• The Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) brings together as Fellows young leaders from Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. The program encourages the Fellows to take more responsibility for the society in which they live and work.
• The Central America Leadership Initiative (CALI) seeks to develop a new generation of community-spirited leaders in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. CALI captures the energy, the talent, and the resolve of these leaders.
• The India Leadership Initiative (ILI) is a collaborative venture between the Aspen Institute, the Aspen Institute India, and the Global Markets Institute of Goldman Sachs. Like the Henry Crown Program, ILI focuses on young (ages 30–45) entrepreneurial, government, and civil society leaders from across India.
• The Liberty Fellowship Program, inspired by Aspen Institute seminars and modeled after the Henry Crown Fellowship Program, is for motivated leaders in South Carolina.
• The Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) is an international nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that aims to provide a platform for Nigerian leaders who are qualified to influence the development of Nigeria.
• The Catto Fellowship Program is designed to create an opportunity for leaders from different sectors and cultures to step back from the fray, reflect on and crystallize their beliefs relative to the environment, to learn from others approaching environmental challenges from different angles and jointly develop solutions.

External links

• Aspen Institute official site
• Aspen Meadows, Home of the Aspen Institute
• The Aspen Institute Educates the Sharks of Business, Voltaire Network, September 2, 2004