Thom Little currently serves as the Next Generation Program Director at NICD. He also serves as the Director of Leadership Curriculum and Research at the State Legislative Leaders Foundation (SLLF).
Tom has been studying, working and teaching state legislative leaders for more than thirty years since he served as a 20 year old legislative intern in the 1985 North Carolina General Assembly. After earning his Ph.D. in Political Science with a focus on legislative politics from The Ohio State University, Tom taught for ten years at American University and the University of Texas at Arlington before starting to work with the State Legislative Leaders Foundation. For more than twenty years, Thom has served as SLLF’s Director of Curriculum Development and Research where he has coordinated programs on everything from biotechnology to crisis management. He has also written case studies on state legislative leadership in states from Alabama to Ohio.
Jack Thomas serves as Director of Congressional Engagement and Public Policy at the National Institute for Civil Discourse, and assists the State Legislative Program as Associate Director. He gained experience with the Virginia House of Delegates as a Legislative Intern for former Delegate Michael Mullin, and has been fortunate to work with facilitators and legislators across the country through NICD's work to foster collaboration and civility in among legislators.
Jack attended William & Mary, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Economics and Public Policy, and received his Master’s of Public Policy. His research and professional experiences center around congressional reform and legislative procedure. He spent the summer of 2022 working in the House of Representatives with the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, where he conducted research to support the committee’s mission to create a more transparent, efficient, and effective Congress. Jack’s previous non-policy roles include bartending at fine dining restaurants and directing waterfronts at a summer camp on Lake Michigan.
Outside of NICD, Jack enjoys playing ultimate frisbee, taking his puppy out on walks, supporting Michigan football, and playing board games with friends.
Brent Hill served in the Idaho Senate for nineteen years, serving as the President Pro Tempore of the Senate for ten years. He has been an active participant in the Council of State Governments West, the National Conference of State Legislatures, State Legislative Leaders Foundation, Senate Presidents’ Forum, and other legislative organizations.
He is a retired Certified Public Accountant and Certified Financial Planner with over thirty-five years of business and financial experience. He has served on boards and advisory councils for various corporations, banks, charitable organizations, and universities.
After his legislative service, Brent was asked by the National Institute for Civil Discourse to work directly with state legislatures around the country to promote civil and respectful discourse in the political arena, resulting in significant successes.
Brent and his wife, Julie, then moved to New York City for two years, to work with their church’s International Affairs Office. Their responsibility was to promote religious freedom and family values by fostering relationships with foreign diplomats at the United Nations and consulates, building bridges of friendship and understanding with leaders of other nations and international religious organizations.
Brent and Julie raised four sons and now enjoy being grandparents to their 21 grandchildren.
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 75,000 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.
