Staff
David Smith
David Smith serves as the Executive Director of the National Conference on Citizenship, a non-profit organization chartered by Congress to improve civic participation. As the head of NCoC, he works with a network of leading organizations seeking to strengthening citizenship through American history and civics education; community, national and public service; and civic and political participation. David collaborates with partner organizations to make them aware of innovative developments in the field and to help them identify strategic opportunities.
Prior to joining NCoC, David served as Founder and Executive Director of Mobilize.org, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to educating, empowering, and energizing young people to become more civically engaged. Under his tenure, Mobilize.org expanded from a team of 10 students to over 30,000 activists with a presence in over 200 communities in 40 states and published the acclaimed "Mobilizer's Guidebook" and Democracy 2.0 Declaration.
Smith is the co-founder and vice chair of the Youth Policy Action Center, and on the board of directors of Mobilize.org, Americans for Generational Equity, Common Sense California, and Prepare the Future. He has been honored as on of the YouthVote Coalition's "30 under 30" and as an International Youth Foundation's "YouthActionNet Ambassador" for young, global social entrepreneurs. Previously, he worked with Kristin Hueter & Associates to raise political contributions for federal and statewide candidates, and helped organize events with the President, Vice President, and First Lady of the United States.
Smith is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, where he taught a course on National Youth Policy and researched the causes and potential solutions to the youth civic engagement crisis in America.
Contact David at dsmith@ncoc.net
Advisors
John Bridgeland, Senior Advisor
John Bridgeland is Senior Advisor to NCoC and President & CEO of Civic Enterprises. He also was a Teaching Fellow in the Fall of 2004 at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he offered a class on Presidential Decision Making. Most recently, Bridgeland served as Assistant to the President of the United States and the first Director of the USA Freedom Corps. He also led the Administration's effort to strengthen American history and civics education and co-chaired the White House Task Force for Disadvantaged Youth. Prior to that, Bridgeland served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, where he coordinated policy on drug abuse, crime, election reform, Americans with disabilities, tropical forest conservation, faith-based initiatives, public housing, and dozens of other domestic issues.
Bridgeland began his professional career by practicing law in the New York and Paris, France offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell. He also served as Chief of Staff and Counsel to U.S. Congressman Rob Portman.
Bridgeland graduated with honors in government from Harvard University, studied at the College of Europe and the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium as a Rotary International Fellow, and received his J.D. at the University of Virginia School of Law. He lives with his wife, Maureen, and their three children, Caily, Fallon and Regis, in McLean, Virginia.
Contact John at bridge@civicenterprises.net
Richard L. Hubbard, Esq., Outside Counsel
Richard Hubbard is head of the Tax Practice Group at the law firm of Arnold & Porter, LLP, in the firm's Washington office. He has experience in a broad variety of Federal and local tax matters, as well as governance issues in the non-profit and for-profit sectors. His particular experience includes Federal income tax issues related to tax-exempt organizations, employee benefit plans, executive compensation, partnerships, and real estate.
Hubbard is a graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School. Prior to joining Arnold & Porter in 1969, Hubbard clerked for Judge Arnold Raum on the U. S. Tax Court. He has written and spoken on tax issues ranging from lobbying by public charities to partnership allocations.
Hubbard has four children and lives with his wife in Washington.