Atlantic Media and Allstate will celebrate some of the nation’s most impressive innovators during an awards ceremony on Drake’s campus Tuesday, Jan. 26.
Set against the backdrop of the 2016 presidential elections, “The Renewal Awards: Celebrating America’s Local Innovators” will showcase six organizations that are driving positive change within their communities and bringing progress to the rest of the country. Award recipients have made marks in education, economic opportunity, community building, and neighborhood revitalization.
Tickets to the free event, which is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon in Drake’s Olmsted Center, can be reserved online.
Drake University alumnus Matt Vasilogambros, staff correspondent for the National Journal, will co-moderate the day’s programming, which includes interviews with Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress; Robert Doar, Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies at American Enterprise Institute; Des Moines Mayor T.M. Franklin Cownie; and Rob Barron, chair of the Des Moines School Board, among others to be announced.
Vasilogamros earned degrees in Political Science and News/Internet journalism from Drake in 2009. During his time as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, The Times-Delphic, the paper was named a finalist for the Associate Collection
Ronald Brownstein, editorial director of Atlantic Media, will host the Renewal Awards event, a project he’s been shepherding over the last year, and share moderating duties with Vasilogambros. Allstate CEO Tom Wilson will join Brownstein for the presentation of the awards to the six winners. Each winner will receive $10,000 in grant funding from The Allstate Foundation. The awards are an editorial extension of The Next Economy series, which explores the creative ways Americans are using innovation to solve problems at the local level.
Media interested in attending “The Renewal Awards” event should contact The Atlantic’s Sydney Simon (ssimon@theatlantic.com). The event will be webcast live on The Atlantic’s Events Channel where it will be archived for later viewing. Follow the conversation on Twitter via @NextEcon, and by using #RenewalAwards.
Media opportunities will be available onsite and remotely with the winning organizations, Atlantic Media, and Allstate.