Ryan Streeter is executive director of the Civitas Institute. Previously, Streeter was the State Farm James Q. Wilson Scholar and director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he facilitated research in education, technology, housing, urban policy, poverty studies, workforce development, and public opinion. Before joining AEI, he was executive director of the Center for Politics and Governance at UT Austin.

Earlier in his career, Streeter was a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and a research fellow at the Hudson Institute. He also served as special assistant for domestic policy to President George W. Bush at the White House, deputy chief of staff for policy for Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and policy adviser to Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. Streeter is the author, coauthor, and editor of many books, including Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity (AEI Press, 2024) which he co-edited with Scott Winship and Yuval Levin, and The Future of Cities, (AEI Press, 2022) which he co-edited with Joel Kotkin.

In addition, his writings have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Politico, USA Today, The Hill, City Journal, National Affairs, and National Review, among others. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Emory University.

‍

Books

Dynamism and Its Enemies, editor (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2025).

Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity, co-editor with Scott Winship and Yuval Levin (Washington DC: AEI, 2024).

The Future of Cities, co-editor with Joel Kotkin (Washington DC: AEI, 2023).‍

Localism in America, co-editor with Joel Kotkin (Washington DC: AEI, 2018).‍

The Soul of Civil Society: Voluntary Associations and the Public Value of Moral Habits, co-author with Don Eberly (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2002).
‍

Articles and Essays

“How Radical Are Republican Voters?,” Law & Liberty, October 2, 2025.

“American Aspiration and Its Enemies,” Civitas Outlook, July 24, 2025.

“American Aspiration – a Blueprint,” Civitas Outlook, June 20, 2025.

“It’s not easy, but we can all learn to think like Adam Smith,” CapX, June 18, 2025.

“American Aspiration: Our Anti-Dynamism Problem,” Civitas Outlook, April 9, 2025.

“Announcing Civitas Outlook,” Civitas Outlook, December 12, 2024.

“Americans Don’t Need to Be Saved,” National Review, April 8, 2024.

“How We Got Here,” The Catalyst, Issue 29, Winter 2024.

“An Aspirational Path for American Conservatism,” co-author Stephen Goldsmith, Harvard Kennedy School, 2023.

“Yes, America’s Cities Can Be Saved,” National Review, April 6, 2023.

“The False Choices Facing the Republican Party,” with Stephen Goldsmith Politico, February 12, 2023

“Opportunity Cities and the Midterms,” Real Clear Policy, January 6, 2023

“Metro Cons,” The Dispatch, January 3, 2023

“Republicans Shouldn’t Forget About Optimism,” National Review, December 12, 2022

“Goodbye, San Francisco. Hello, Nashville. Americans Are Fleeing Dysfunctional Cities,” USA Today, September 6, 2022

“Why Progressives Are Making a Mess of the Culture War,” The Dispatch, July 26, 2022

“Surviving Social Media,” Law & Liberty, May 19, 2022

“Get to Know Thy Neighbor,” City Journal, May 19, 2022

“The Four Bobs — and the Economic Importance of Self-starters,” National Review, January 9, 2022

“Dynamism as a Public Philosophy,” National Affairs, January 3, 2022

“Public Places and Commercial Spaces: How Neighborhood Amenities Foster Trust and Connection in American Community,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Daniel Cox, and Beatrice Lee, American Enterprise Institute, 2021.

“The Role of Community in Place-Based Giving,” American Enterprise Institute, 2021.

“Welcome to the Ideological Heartland,” The Dispatch, December 29, 2021

“If Demography Is Destiny, so Are Suburbs and Small Towns,” RealClearPolicy, October 26, 2021

“Human Scale Cities,” RealClearPolicy, October 8, 2021

“For Policy Reform, Look to the States,” The Dispatch, September 8, 2021

“How Affluent Conservatives Fuel the Culture War,” The Dispatch, August 31, 2021

“Will Progressives Learn from the Cities?” RealClearPolicy, June 22, 2021

“The Great American Freak-out and How to Address It,” Law & Liberty, April 30, 2021

“Middle-class Urbanism Is the New Heartland Chic,” RealClearPolicy, March 25, 2021

“Conservatives Drift Leftward in the ‘plan to Rescue America’,” The Dispatch, March 17, 2021

“Opportunity Knocks,” City Journal, March 5, 2021

“The Emergent Urban Anti-progressivism,” National Review, February 5, 2021

“Grievance Politics Is a Dead-end Road,” The Dispatch, January 15, 2021

“Revitalize America’s Cities,” Governing Priorities, (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute Press, 2020).

“Socially Distant: How Our Divided Social Networks Explain Our Politics,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Jacqueline Clemence, and Daniel Cox, American Enterprise Institute, 2020.

“Trumpism is More About Culture than Economics,” The Dispatch, November 23, 2020

“Cities on a Human Scale: The Impact of Community Design on Quality of Life and Upward Mobility,” chapter in Facing the Future: American Communities in the Next Decade, The Knight Foundation, 2019.

“AEI Survey on Community and Society: Social Capital, Civic Health, and Quality of Life in the United States,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Karlyn Bowman, and Eleanor O’Neil, American Enterprise Institute, 2019.

“The Importance of Place: Neighborhood Amenities as a Source of Social Connection and Trust,” co-author with Daniel Cox, American Enterprise Institute, 2019.

“A Loneliness Epidemic? How Marriage, Religion, and Mobility Explain the Generation Gap in Loneliness,” co-author with Daniel Cox and David Wilde, American Enterprise Institute, 2019

“Work, Skills, and Community: Restoring Opportunity for the Working Class,” contributor, American Enterprise Institute, 2018.

Richard M. Reinsch II is editor in chief of the Civitas Institute’s Civitas Outlook. He was the founding editor of the online magazine Law & Liberty. Immediately before joining Civitas, he was the editor in chief and director of publications of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) where he introduced the Institute’s white paper program, helped launch two new podcasts, Qualified Opinions and Econception, and led AIER’s online journal, The Daily Economy. Previously he served as director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and AWC Family Foundation Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He was also a senior fellow at Liberty Fund, where he founded Law & Liberty and its podcast. Reinsch’s books include The Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty (University Press of Kansas, 2019), which he coauthored with Peter Lawler, and Whittaker Chambers: The Spirit of Counterrevolutionary (ISI Books, 2010). He has also been widely published in the popular press and in policy journals, including Perspectives on Political Science, Logos, Religion & Liberty, Modern Age, National Review, Washington Examiner, and City Journal. He holds a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

‍

Michael Toth is the Civitas Institute research director and a seasoned tech general counsel with over fifteen years of corporate counsel and litigation experience. He has served as a lawyer in the Marine Corps and a senior counsel at the Texas Office of Attorney General. In 2018, Toth was appointed to the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals. He is a frequent contributor on legal, regulatory, and public policy issues in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Civitas, Newsweek, and other publications. He has published numerous articles on legal topics as well as a book on the early United States Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. Toth graduated from Stanford University with an honors degree in history and received his law degree and an M.A. in history from the University of Virginia.

Jamie Streusand is the Assistant Dean for Business Affairs and Chief Business Officer at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership and Civitas Institute. In this role, she oversees accounting, budgeting, financial operations, human resources, and facilities management, ensuring these areas support the university’s mission and strategic objectives.

Before joining the School of Civic Leadership in 2024, Jamie served as Finance Director for UT Austin’s School of Law, where she managed complex budgeting processes, ensured compliance with institutional policies, and provided critical financial analysis for strategic initiatives. Over her 20-year career at UT, Jamie has held key positions in Athletics and Internal Audit, gaining a deep understanding of the university’s financial systems and operational processes.

A proud graduate of the McCombs School of Business, Jamie is committed to building cross-functional partnerships, simplifying processes, and providing clear, accessible financial guidance to those across the university.

Bryce Waller is the chief development officer for the School of Civic Leadership and the Civitas Institute. Bryce brings to his role more than fifteen years of executive leadership experience across a range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations, both domestically and abroad. He is a skilled fundraiser and relationship-builder who enjoys helping individuals and families realize their visions through contributions to institutions that align with their values. He is passionate about higher education and its role in shaping a healthy society. Bryce is originally from Austin and earned a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California.

‍

Sydney Leary is assistant director for research and programs at the Civitas Institute, where she manages operations for the Institute’s growing research programs. She joins Civitas from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she oversaw policy work on education, technology, housing, agriculture, science, and poverty issues as the program manager for domestic policy studies. Sydney started her career in Washington, D.C. crafting and facilitating academic programs for undergraduate and graduate level students at AEI and the Hudson Institute. She is an alumna of the Danish Institute of Study Abroad European Politics Cohort and has completed fellowships with the Fund for American Studies, Hudson Institute Political Studies, and the Fulbright Program’s English teaching assistant program in the Czech Republic. Sydney is a graduate of Villanova University, where she received a B.A. in politics, philosophy, and humanities.

Lindsay Eberhardt is the executive editor for the Civitas Institute. Formerly, she was senior editor at Common Sense Society; managing editor for Dissident.com, The American Mind, and the Claremont Review of Books Digital; and an assistant editor at the Claremont Review of Books. She has taught politics and political philosophy at the U.S. Naval Academy, George Mason University, and CSUSB and her writings have been published in The Journal of Woman, Politics, and Policy and Political Research Quarterly. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Alaska, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political philosophy and American government from Claremont Graduate University.

Allison Smythe is the senior project manager for the Civitas Institute and the School of Civic Leadership. In this capacity, she oversees academic and community events; branding, marketing, and alumni engagement. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute, Allison was senior program coordinator at the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri where she developed strategic marketing campaigns for undergraduate and graduate student recruitment; designed an alumni engagement program; and promoted and coordinated local and international academic and community events and conferences. She graduated from Texas Tech with a B.F.A. in design communication and studied creative writing as an M.F.A. student at the University of Houston. Her essays and poetry have been published in the Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, Relief Magazine, Verse Daily, and others.

Melissa Pardue is the events coordinator for the Civitas Institute. She has a background in policymaking in Washington, D.C., having served as deputy assistant secretary for human service policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as associate director in the White House Domestic Policy Council. Melissa also served as a Capitol Hill staffer for several years and as a policy analyst for social welfare policy at The Heritage Foundation. In that capacity, she published numerous op-eds and appeared regularly on radio and TV interviews. Originally from Dallas, she has worked as an independent policy consultant for over a decade in Austin. Melissa completed her M.S. in policy from Columbia University and holds a B.A. in social work from the University of Oklahoma.

Zachary Springer is a senior administrative associate with the Civitas Institute. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute, he worked as a Latin instructor for high school students while finishing his undergraduate studies. Zach is originally from Lubbock, Texas and earned two B.A.s from UT-Austin, one in philosophy and the other one in classical languages.

Ryan Streeter is executive director of the Civitas Institute. Previously, Streeter was the State Farm James Q. Wilson Scholar and director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he facilitated research in education, technology, housing, urban policy, poverty studies, workforce development, and public opinion. Before joining AEI, he was executive director of the Center for Politics and Governance at UT Austin.

Earlier in his career, Streeter was a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and a research fellow at the Hudson Institute. He also served as special assistant for domestic policy to President George W. Bush at the White House, deputy chief of staff for policy for Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and policy adviser to Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. Streeter is the author, coauthor, and editor of many books, including Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity (AEI Press, 2024) which he co-edited with Scott Winship and Yuval Levin, and The Future of Cities, (AEI Press, 2022) which he co-edited with Joel Kotkin.

In addition, his writings have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Politico, USA Today, The Hill, City Journal, National Affairs, and National Review, among others. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Emory University.

‍

Books

Dynamism and Its Enemies, editor (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2025).

Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity, co-editor with Scott Winship and Yuval Levin (Washington DC: AEI, 2024).

The Future of Cities, co-editor with Joel Kotkin (Washington DC: AEI, 2023).‍

Localism in America, co-editor with Joel Kotkin (Washington DC: AEI, 2018).‍

The Soul of Civil Society: Voluntary Associations and the Public Value of Moral Habits, co-author with Don Eberly (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2002).
‍

Articles and Essays

“How Radical Are Republican Voters?,” Law & Liberty, October 2, 2025.

“American Aspiration and Its Enemies,” Civitas Outlook, July 24, 2025.

“American Aspiration – a Blueprint,” Civitas Outlook, June 20, 2025.

“It’s not easy, but we can all learn to think like Adam Smith,” CapX, June 18, 2025.

“American Aspiration: Our Anti-Dynamism Problem,” Civitas Outlook, April 9, 2025.

“Announcing Civitas Outlook,” Civitas Outlook, December 12, 2024.

“Americans Don’t Need to Be Saved,” National Review, April 8, 2024.

“How We Got Here,” The Catalyst, Issue 29, Winter 2024.

“An Aspirational Path for American Conservatism,” co-author Stephen Goldsmith, Harvard Kennedy School, 2023.

“Yes, America’s Cities Can Be Saved,” National Review, April 6, 2023.

“The False Choices Facing the Republican Party,” with Stephen Goldsmith Politico, February 12, 2023

“Opportunity Cities and the Midterms,” Real Clear Policy, January 6, 2023

“Metro Cons,” The Dispatch, January 3, 2023

“Republicans Shouldn’t Forget About Optimism,” National Review, December 12, 2022

“Goodbye, San Francisco. Hello, Nashville. Americans Are Fleeing Dysfunctional Cities,” USA Today, September 6, 2022

“Why Progressives Are Making a Mess of the Culture War,” The Dispatch, July 26, 2022

“Surviving Social Media,” Law & Liberty, May 19, 2022

“Get to Know Thy Neighbor,” City Journal, May 19, 2022

“The Four Bobs — and the Economic Importance of Self-starters,” National Review, January 9, 2022

“Dynamism as a Public Philosophy,” National Affairs, January 3, 2022

“Public Places and Commercial Spaces: How Neighborhood Amenities Foster Trust and Connection in American Community,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Daniel Cox, and Beatrice Lee, American Enterprise Institute, 2021.

“The Role of Community in Place-Based Giving,” American Enterprise Institute, 2021.

“Welcome to the Ideological Heartland,” The Dispatch, December 29, 2021

“If Demography Is Destiny, so Are Suburbs and Small Towns,” RealClearPolicy, October 26, 2021

“Human Scale Cities,” RealClearPolicy, October 8, 2021

“For Policy Reform, Look to the States,” The Dispatch, September 8, 2021

“How Affluent Conservatives Fuel the Culture War,” The Dispatch, August 31, 2021

“Will Progressives Learn from the Cities?” RealClearPolicy, June 22, 2021

“The Great American Freak-out and How to Address It,” Law & Liberty, April 30, 2021

“Middle-class Urbanism Is the New Heartland Chic,” RealClearPolicy, March 25, 2021

“Conservatives Drift Leftward in the ‘plan to Rescue America’,” The Dispatch, March 17, 2021

“Opportunity Knocks,” City Journal, March 5, 2021

“The Emergent Urban Anti-progressivism,” National Review, February 5, 2021

“Grievance Politics Is a Dead-end Road,” The Dispatch, January 15, 2021

“Revitalize America’s Cities,” Governing Priorities, (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute Press, 2020).

“Socially Distant: How Our Divided Social Networks Explain Our Politics,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Jacqueline Clemence, and Daniel Cox, American Enterprise Institute, 2020.

“Trumpism is More About Culture than Economics,” The Dispatch, November 23, 2020

“Cities on a Human Scale: The Impact of Community Design on Quality of Life and Upward Mobility,” chapter in Facing the Future: American Communities in the Next Decade, The Knight Foundation, 2019.

“AEI Survey on Community and Society: Social Capital, Civic Health, and Quality of Life in the United States,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Karlyn Bowman, and Eleanor O’Neil, American Enterprise Institute, 2019.

“The Importance of Place: Neighborhood Amenities as a Source of Social Connection and Trust,” co-author with Daniel Cox, American Enterprise Institute, 2019.

“A Loneliness Epidemic? How Marriage, Religion, and Mobility Explain the Generation Gap in Loneliness,” co-author with Daniel Cox and David Wilde, American Enterprise Institute, 2019

“Work, Skills, and Community: Restoring Opportunity for the Working Class,” contributor, American Enterprise Institute, 2018.

Richard M. Reinsch II is editor in chief of the Civitas Institute’s Civitas Outlook. He was the founding editor of the online magazine Law & Liberty. Immediately before joining Civitas, he was the editor in chief and director of publications of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) where he introduced the Institute’s white paper program, helped launch two new podcasts, Qualified Opinions and Econception, and led AIER’s online journal, The Daily Economy. Previously he served as director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and AWC Family Foundation Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He was also a senior fellow at Liberty Fund, where he founded Law & Liberty and its podcast. Reinsch’s books include The Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty (University Press of Kansas, 2019), which he coauthored with Peter Lawler, and Whittaker Chambers: The Spirit of Counterrevolutionary (ISI Books, 2010). He has also been widely published in the popular press and in policy journals, including Perspectives on Political Science, Logos, Religion & Liberty, Modern Age, National Review, Washington Examiner, and City Journal. He holds a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

‍

Michael Toth is the Civitas Institute research director and a seasoned tech general counsel with over fifteen years of corporate counsel and litigation experience. He has served as a lawyer in the Marine Corps and a senior counsel at the Texas Office of Attorney General. In 2018, Toth was appointed to the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals. He is a frequent contributor on legal, regulatory, and public policy issues in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Civitas, Newsweek, and other publications. He has published numerous articles on legal topics as well as a book on the early United States Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. Toth graduated from Stanford University with an honors degree in history and received his law degree and an M.A. in history from the University of Virginia.

Jamie Streusand is the Assistant Dean for Business Affairs and Chief Business Officer at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership and Civitas Institute. In this role, she oversees accounting, budgeting, financial operations, human resources, and facilities management, ensuring these areas support the university’s mission and strategic objectives.

Before joining the School of Civic Leadership in 2024, Jamie served as Finance Director for UT Austin’s School of Law, where she managed complex budgeting processes, ensured compliance with institutional policies, and provided critical financial analysis for strategic initiatives. Over her 20-year career at UT, Jamie has held key positions in Athletics and Internal Audit, gaining a deep understanding of the university’s financial systems and operational processes.

A proud graduate of the McCombs School of Business, Jamie is committed to building cross-functional partnerships, simplifying processes, and providing clear, accessible financial guidance to those across the university.

Bryce Waller is the chief development officer for the School of Civic Leadership and the Civitas Institute. Bryce brings to his role more than fifteen years of executive leadership experience across a range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations, both domestically and abroad. He is a skilled fundraiser and relationship-builder who enjoys helping individuals and families realize their visions through contributions to institutions that align with their values. He is passionate about higher education and its role in shaping a healthy society. Bryce is originally from Austin and earned a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California.

‍

Sydney Leary is assistant director for research and programs at the Civitas Institute, where she manages operations for the Institute’s growing research programs. She joins Civitas from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she oversaw policy work on education, technology, housing, agriculture, science, and poverty issues as the program manager for domestic policy studies. Sydney started her career in Washington, D.C. crafting and facilitating academic programs for undergraduate and graduate level students at AEI and the Hudson Institute. She is an alumna of the Danish Institute of Study Abroad European Politics Cohort and has completed fellowships with the Fund for American Studies, Hudson Institute Political Studies, and the Fulbright Program’s English teaching assistant program in the Czech Republic. Sydney is a graduate of Villanova University, where she received a B.A. in politics, philosophy, and humanities.

Lindsay Eberhardt is the executive editor for the Civitas Institute. Formerly, she was senior editor at Common Sense Society; managing editor for Dissident.com, The American Mind, and the Claremont Review of Books Digital; and an assistant editor at the Claremont Review of Books. She has taught politics and political philosophy at the U.S. Naval Academy, George Mason University, and CSUSB and her writings have been published in The Journal of Woman, Politics, and Policy and Political Research Quarterly. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Alaska, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political philosophy and American government from Claremont Graduate University.

Allison Smythe is the senior project manager for the Civitas Institute and the School of Civic Leadership. In this capacity, she oversees academic and community events; branding, marketing, and alumni engagement. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute, Allison was senior program coordinator at the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri where she developed strategic marketing campaigns for undergraduate and graduate student recruitment; designed an alumni engagement program; and promoted and coordinated local and international academic and community events and conferences. She graduated from Texas Tech with a B.F.A. in design communication and studied creative writing as an M.F.A. student at the University of Houston. Her essays and poetry have been published in the Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, Relief Magazine, Verse Daily, and others.

Melissa Pardue is the events coordinator for the Civitas Institute. She has a background in policymaking in Washington, D.C., having served as deputy assistant secretary for human service policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as associate director in the White House Domestic Policy Council. Melissa also served as a Capitol Hill staffer for several years and as a policy analyst for social welfare policy at The Heritage Foundation. In that capacity, she published numerous op-eds and appeared regularly on radio and TV interviews. Originally from Dallas, she has worked as an independent policy consultant for over a decade in Austin. Melissa completed her M.S. in policy from Columbia University and holds a B.A. in social work from the University of Oklahoma.

Zachary Springer is a senior administrative associate with the Civitas Institute. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute, he worked as a Latin instructor for high school students while finishing his undergraduate studies. Zach is originally from Lubbock, Texas and earned two B.A.s from UT-Austin, one in philosophy and the other one in classical languages.

Ryan Streeter is executive director of the Civitas Institute. Previously, Streeter was the State Farm James Q. Wilson Scholar and director of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he facilitated research in education, technology, housing, urban policy, poverty studies, workforce development, and public opinion. Before joining AEI, he was executive director of the Center for Politics and Governance at UT Austin.

Earlier in his career, Streeter was a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute in London and a research fellow at the Hudson Institute. He also served as special assistant for domestic policy to President George W. Bush at the White House, deputy chief of staff for policy for Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and policy adviser to Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith. Streeter is the author, coauthor, and editor of many books, including Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity (AEI Press, 2024) which he co-edited with Scott Winship and Yuval Levin, and The Future of Cities, (AEI Press, 2022) which he co-edited with Joel Kotkin.

In addition, his writings have appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Politico, USA Today, The Hill, City Journal, National Affairs, and National Review, among others. He has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Emory University.

‍

Books

Dynamism and Its Enemies, editor (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2025).

Doing Right by Kids: Leveraging Social Capital and Innovation to Increase Opportunity, co-editor with Scott Winship and Yuval Levin (Washington DC: AEI, 2024).

The Future of Cities, co-editor with Joel Kotkin (Washington DC: AEI, 2023).‍

Localism in America, co-editor with Joel Kotkin (Washington DC: AEI, 2018).‍

The Soul of Civil Society: Voluntary Associations and the Public Value of Moral Habits, co-author with Don Eberly (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2002).
‍

Articles and Essays

“How Radical Are Republican Voters?,” Law & Liberty, October 2, 2025.

“American Aspiration and Its Enemies,” Civitas Outlook, July 24, 2025.

“American Aspiration – a Blueprint,” Civitas Outlook, June 20, 2025.

“It’s not easy, but we can all learn to think like Adam Smith,” CapX, June 18, 2025.

“American Aspiration: Our Anti-Dynamism Problem,” Civitas Outlook, April 9, 2025.

“Announcing Civitas Outlook,” Civitas Outlook, December 12, 2024.

“Americans Don’t Need to Be Saved,” National Review, April 8, 2024.

“How We Got Here,” The Catalyst, Issue 29, Winter 2024.

“An Aspirational Path for American Conservatism,” co-author Stephen Goldsmith, Harvard Kennedy School, 2023.

“Yes, America’s Cities Can Be Saved,” National Review, April 6, 2023.

“The False Choices Facing the Republican Party,” with Stephen Goldsmith Politico, February 12, 2023

“Opportunity Cities and the Midterms,” Real Clear Policy, January 6, 2023

“Metro Cons,” The Dispatch, January 3, 2023

“Republicans Shouldn’t Forget About Optimism,” National Review, December 12, 2022

“Goodbye, San Francisco. Hello, Nashville. Americans Are Fleeing Dysfunctional Cities,” USA Today, September 6, 2022

“Why Progressives Are Making a Mess of the Culture War,” The Dispatch, July 26, 2022

“Surviving Social Media,” Law & Liberty, May 19, 2022

“Get to Know Thy Neighbor,” City Journal, May 19, 2022

“The Four Bobs — and the Economic Importance of Self-starters,” National Review, January 9, 2022

“Dynamism as a Public Philosophy,” National Affairs, January 3, 2022

“Public Places and Commercial Spaces: How Neighborhood Amenities Foster Trust and Connection in American Community,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Daniel Cox, and Beatrice Lee, American Enterprise Institute, 2021.

“The Role of Community in Place-Based Giving,” American Enterprise Institute, 2021.

“Welcome to the Ideological Heartland,” The Dispatch, December 29, 2021

“If Demography Is Destiny, so Are Suburbs and Small Towns,” RealClearPolicy, October 26, 2021

“Human Scale Cities,” RealClearPolicy, October 8, 2021

“For Policy Reform, Look to the States,” The Dispatch, September 8, 2021

“How Affluent Conservatives Fuel the Culture War,” The Dispatch, August 31, 2021

“Will Progressives Learn from the Cities?” RealClearPolicy, June 22, 2021

“The Great American Freak-out and How to Address It,” Law & Liberty, April 30, 2021

“Middle-class Urbanism Is the New Heartland Chic,” RealClearPolicy, March 25, 2021

“Conservatives Drift Leftward in the ‘plan to Rescue America’,” The Dispatch, March 17, 2021

“Opportunity Knocks,” City Journal, March 5, 2021

“The Emergent Urban Anti-progressivism,” National Review, February 5, 2021

“Grievance Politics Is a Dead-end Road,” The Dispatch, January 15, 2021

“Revitalize America’s Cities,” Governing Priorities, (Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute Press, 2020).

“Socially Distant: How Our Divided Social Networks Explain Our Politics,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Jacqueline Clemence, and Daniel Cox, American Enterprise Institute, 2020.

“Trumpism is More About Culture than Economics,” The Dispatch, November 23, 2020

“Cities on a Human Scale: The Impact of Community Design on Quality of Life and Upward Mobility,” chapter in Facing the Future: American Communities in the Next Decade, The Knight Foundation, 2019.

“AEI Survey on Community and Society: Social Capital, Civic Health, and Quality of Life in the United States,” co-author with Sam Abrams, Karlyn Bowman, and Eleanor O’Neil, American Enterprise Institute, 2019.

“The Importance of Place: Neighborhood Amenities as a Source of Social Connection and Trust,” co-author with Daniel Cox, American Enterprise Institute, 2019.

“A Loneliness Epidemic? How Marriage, Religion, and Mobility Explain the Generation Gap in Loneliness,” co-author with Daniel Cox and David Wilde, American Enterprise Institute, 2019

“Work, Skills, and Community: Restoring Opportunity for the Working Class,” contributor, American Enterprise Institute, 2018.

Richard M. Reinsch II is editor in chief of the Civitas Institute’s Civitas Outlook. He was the founding editor of the online magazine Law & Liberty. Immediately before joining Civitas, he was the editor in chief and director of publications of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) where he introduced the Institute’s white paper program, helped launch two new podcasts, Qualified Opinions and Econception, and led AIER’s online journal, The Daily Economy. Previously he served as director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and AWC Family Foundation Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He was also a senior fellow at Liberty Fund, where he founded Law & Liberty and its podcast. Reinsch’s books include The Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty (University Press of Kansas, 2019), which he coauthored with Peter Lawler, and Whittaker Chambers: The Spirit of Counterrevolutionary (ISI Books, 2010). He has also been widely published in the popular press and in policy journals, including Perspectives on Political Science, Logos, Religion & Liberty, Modern Age, National Review, Washington Examiner, and City Journal. He holds a J.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

‍

Michael Toth is the Civitas Institute research director and a seasoned tech general counsel with over fifteen years of corporate counsel and litigation experience. He has served as a lawyer in the Marine Corps and a senior counsel at the Texas Office of Attorney General. In 2018, Toth was appointed to the Austin-based Third Court of Appeals. He is a frequent contributor on legal, regulatory, and public policy issues in the Wall Street Journal, The Hill, Real Clear Politics, Civitas, Newsweek, and other publications. He has published numerous articles on legal topics as well as a book on the early United States Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth. Toth graduated from Stanford University with an honors degree in history and received his law degree and an M.A. in history from the University of Virginia.

Jamie Streusand is the Assistant Dean for Business Affairs and Chief Business Officer at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Civic Leadership and Civitas Institute. In this role, she oversees accounting, budgeting, financial operations, human resources, and facilities management, ensuring these areas support the university’s mission and strategic objectives.

Before joining the School of Civic Leadership in 2024, Jamie served as Finance Director for UT Austin’s School of Law, where she managed complex budgeting processes, ensured compliance with institutional policies, and provided critical financial analysis for strategic initiatives. Over her 20-year career at UT, Jamie has held key positions in Athletics and Internal Audit, gaining a deep understanding of the university’s financial systems and operational processes.

A proud graduate of the McCombs School of Business, Jamie is committed to building cross-functional partnerships, simplifying processes, and providing clear, accessible financial guidance to those across the university.

Bryce Waller is the chief development officer for the School of Civic Leadership and the Civitas Institute. Bryce brings to his role more than fifteen years of executive leadership experience across a range of nonprofit and for-profit organizations, both domestically and abroad. He is a skilled fundraiser and relationship-builder who enjoys helping individuals and families realize their visions through contributions to institutions that align with their values. He is passionate about higher education and its role in shaping a healthy society. Bryce is originally from Austin and earned a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California.

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Sydney Leary is assistant director for research and programs at the Civitas Institute, where she manages operations for the Institute’s growing research programs. She joins Civitas from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where she oversaw policy work on education, technology, housing, agriculture, science, and poverty issues as the program manager for domestic policy studies. Sydney started her career in Washington, D.C. crafting and facilitating academic programs for undergraduate and graduate level students at AEI and the Hudson Institute. She is an alumna of the Danish Institute of Study Abroad European Politics Cohort and has completed fellowships with the Fund for American Studies, Hudson Institute Political Studies, and the Fulbright Program’s English teaching assistant program in the Czech Republic. Sydney is a graduate of Villanova University, where she received a B.A. in politics, philosophy, and humanities.

Lindsay Eberhardt is the executive editor for the Civitas Institute. Formerly, she was senior editor at Common Sense Society; managing editor for Dissident.com, The American Mind, and the Claremont Review of Books Digital; and an assistant editor at the Claremont Review of Books. She has taught politics and political philosophy at the U.S. Naval Academy, George Mason University, and CSUSB and her writings have been published in The Journal of Woman, Politics, and Policy and Political Research Quarterly. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Alaska, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political philosophy and American government from Claremont Graduate University.

Allison Smythe is the senior project manager for the Civitas Institute and the School of Civic Leadership. In this capacity, she oversees academic and community events; branding, marketing, and alumni engagement. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute, Allison was senior program coordinator at the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri where she developed strategic marketing campaigns for undergraduate and graduate student recruitment; designed an alumni engagement program; and promoted and coordinated local and international academic and community events and conferences. She graduated from Texas Tech with a B.F.A. in design communication and studied creative writing as an M.F.A. student at the University of Houston. Her essays and poetry have been published in the Southern Review, the Gettysburg Review, Relief Magazine, Verse Daily, and others.

Melissa Pardue is the events coordinator for the Civitas Institute. She has a background in policymaking in Washington, D.C., having served as deputy assistant secretary for human service policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as well as associate director in the White House Domestic Policy Council. Melissa also served as a Capitol Hill staffer for several years and as a policy analyst for social welfare policy at The Heritage Foundation. In that capacity, she published numerous op-eds and appeared regularly on radio and TV interviews. Originally from Dallas, she has worked as an independent policy consultant for over a decade in Austin. Melissa completed her M.S. in policy from Columbia University and holds a B.A. in social work from the University of Oklahoma.

Zachary Springer is a senior administrative associate with the Civitas Institute. Prior to joining the Civitas Institute, he worked as a Latin instructor for high school students while finishing his undergraduate studies. Zach is originally from Lubbock, Texas and earned two B.A.s from UT-Austin, one in philosophy and the other one in classical languages.