Greetings! My name is Lindsay Y. Burr. I look forward to providing time and knowledge to the Institute’s Board of Directors and building connections in the DC area and to the international community. I will provide a millennial perspective as well, as the organization seeks to reach out to the next generation to engage them in the conversation to create sustainable change in our political system.

I am from Boulder, CO and currently live in Washington, D.C. My undergraduate degree was a Bachelor’s of Science in Political Science from Wellesley College. The focus of my studies was on political theory and American democracy. I worked in political campaigns and elections for 10 years including being the Political Director for a Congressional campaign in 2010.

The Polarities of Democracy model has been integral to my research and work. I have worked with polarities for the past seven years in a professional and academic capacity. Professionally, I have applied polarities to leadership development and systems. Academically, I have applied polarities to post-violent conflict government reconstruction for sustainable peace.

My experience has given me a greater context for understanding the political implications of well-leveraged polarities. Knowing both polarities and the structure of democracy ensures my perspective will be well grounded while also seeing openings for possibilities change and shift the system and support others as they do the same.

I integrated leveraging polarities into my research during my Masters at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. I saw that polarities play a role in post-violent conflict political reconstruction and saw over and over that when the polarities of Legal Justice AND Community Reconciliation were leveraged well the citizenship could repair and reduce recidivism into violence. Similarly, when Tradition AND Modernity were considered, the political structure could shift to the needs of the public and maintain meaningful lasting legislation.

Integrating Polarity Thinking into the dialogue of Democracy will reduce deaths by political uprisings, dictatorships, false democracies, burgeoning democracies and those that have been strong in the past can be strong again. Applying polarities to the structure of democracy creates a more robust system in which leaders and branches of government are less likely to abuse power. Similarly, leveraging polarities well ensures that the citizenship is better able to participate and have their needs met by the system.

The democratic structure benefits when Polarity Thinking is applied. I look forward to understanding the deeper meaning of the mission and being a part of engaging a broader community to be able to answer this more fully.