# New America (organization)

New America, formerly the New America Foundation, is an American liberal think tank founded in 1999. It focuses on a range of public policy issues, including national security, technology, health, gender, energy, education, and the economy. The organization is based in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, California. Anne-Marie Slaughter is the think tank's chief executive officer.

## History

New America was founded in 1999 by Ted Halstead, Sherle Schwenninger, Michael Lind, and Walter Russell Mead as the New America Foundation. The organization is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and also has offices in Oakland, California and Chicago, Illinois.
Ted Halstead served as New America's founding president and CEO from 1999 to 2007. Steve Coll served as New America's second president, before being succeeded by Anne-Marie Slaughter in 2013.
On June 27, 2017, Barry C. Lynn, the director of the anti-monopoly Open Markets program at New America, issued a statement, criticizing Google, one of the organization's main sponsors. On August 30, 2017, it became known that Lynn was fired, and the Open Markets program was closed. According to The New York Times, New America did it to please Google. In response to the decision to fire Lynn and his team, 25 former and current employees of the think tank signed a letter expressing concern about the extent to which sponsors are influencing New America's work.
Google reportedly made New America take this action because the researchers, including prominent young competition law scholar Lina Khan, had lauded the EU's antitrust ruling against Google. New America's president Anne-Marie Slaughter denied the allegations of improper influence by Google.
The foundation's Economic Growth Program, directed by New America co-founders Sherle Schwenninger and Michael Lind, aims to take a policy look at America and the world's economic problems. In 2011, the program commissioned a paper "The Way Forward: Moving From the Post-Bubble, Post-Bust Economy to Renewed Growth and Competitiveness".
Maya MacGuineas, who has worked at the Brookings Institution as well as on Wall Street, led the committee and now leads Fix the Debt. After advising politicians from both parties, she serves as a trusted mediator on budget talks between Democrats and Republicans. In addition, in 2010, the committee's policy director, Marc Goldwein, joined President Obama's bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

## Political stance

In 2002, Newsweek's Howard Fineman called New America a "hive of state-of-the-art policy entrepreneurship". New America has been characterized as "liberal" by the Pacific Standard online magazine, "left-leaning" by The Washington Post, and "left-of-center" by the Capital Research Center organization.

## Open Technology Institute

The Open Technology Institute (OTI) is the technology program of the New America Foundation. OTI formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open-source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks.

### Commotion Wireless

Commotion Wireless is an open source "device-as-infrastructure" communication platform that integrates users' existing cell phones, Wi-Fi-enabled computers, and other wireless-capable devices to create community- and metro-scale, peer-to-peer communications networks. The project has been described as the "Internet in a Suitcase" by The New York Times.

### Red Hook Wi-Fi

Founded in 2011 through a collaboration with OTI and Commotion Wireless, Red Hook Wi-Fi is a mesh network which services residents of Red Hook, Brooklyn, in New York City. The Wi-Fi network reached prominence in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy shut down many internet and communication systems throughout the city, but Red Hook remained connected through its mesh network.

## Assets and funding

As of 2024, the New America had net assets of $56,424,720. Top donors to the organization have included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation.

## Board of directors

As of 2020:
* Helene D. Gayle; Chicago Community Trust, President and Chief Executive Officer
* William W. Gerrity, Treasurer; Gerrity Group, Chief Executive Officer
* Anne-Marie Slaughter, Chief Executive Officer
* Robert J. Abernethy; American Standard Development Company, Chairman
* David G. Bradley, Secretary; Atlantic Media, Chairman
* David Brooks; The New York Times, op-ed columnist
* Maxine Clark; Build-A-Bear Workshop, Founder
* Michael M. Crow; Arizona State University, President
* R. Boykin Curry; Eagle Capital, Partner
* James Fallows; The Atlantic, National Correspondent
* Tom Freston; Firefly3 LLC, Principal
* Atul Gawande; Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health, Professor
* Katherine Gehl; Venn Innovations, Founder
* Reid Hoffman; LinkedIn, Co-Founder
* Zachary Karabell; River Twice Research, President
* Ashton Kutcher; A-Grade Investments, Co-Founder
* Walter Russell Mead; Foreign Affairs & Humanities, Bard College, James Clarke Chace Professor
* Mona Mourshed; Global Social Responsibility and McKinsey & Company, Senior Partner & Head
* Sally R. Osberg; Camfed USA, Chair
* Ashley Swearengin; Central Valley Community Foundation, President and Chief Executive Officer
* Fareed Zakaria; Fareed Zakaria GPS and CNN, Host; The Washington Post, columnist