Davenport Institute Director Pete Peterson Running for California Secretary of State
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Pete Peterson (MPP '07), executive director of the Davenport Institute at the School
of Public Policy, has announced his bid for California Secretary of State.
As executive director of the Davenport Institute, Peterson is a nationally-recognized
trainer, speaker, and advisor on topics relating to increasing civic participation
in government decision-making processes and explaining how technology is changing
the citizen/government relationship. For the better part of a decade, Peterson has
traveled throughout California with public officials to improve public processes on
issues ranging from budgets to water policy.
He cocreated the seminar “Public Engagement: The Vital Leadership Skill in Difficult
Times,” which has been attended by over 500 public officials around the country. He
has advised dozens of public-engagement processes around California and also advised
several California cities on the use of online public-engagement and data-visualization
platforms.
Peterson currently serves on the advisory committees to the Institute for Local Government’s
Public Engagement Program (League of California Cities), the California Civic Innovation
Project, and the University Network for Collaborative Governance.