Strengthening Cross-Partisan Collaboration in North Carolina Policymaking (2024-2025)
This project team investigated how the North Carolina Leadership Forum (NCLF) model compares to other deliberative dialogue approaches, with a focus on its emphasis on leadership development and techniques for facilitating constructive conversations on divisive public policy topics. The team explored how NCLF builds leaders’ self-efficacy and whether skills in constructive engagement and deliberative democracy translate into more effective performance in legislatures and other sectors. Students grounded their work in existing scholarship on polarization and democratic dialogue, while also engaging directly with NCLF programs through event support, participant interviews and survey analysis.
Team members conducted independent projects evaluating the program’s impact. One student examined the role of a bipartisan group of NCLF alumni in passing North Carolina’s most significant energy policy milestone since 2017. Another analyzed whether forum participation influenced legislators’ voting behavior, while a third assessed alumni engagement across NCLF’s 400 graduates, recommending stronger investments in sustaining connections. Students also produced memos on four potential forum topics, youth preparedness, workforce adaptation, climate resilience and maternal and child health, contributing actionable research for future programming.
Beyond research, students observed NCLF’s regional cohort sessions, prepared background materials for events and developed content documenting alumni experiences. They also provided recommendations for expanding NCLF’s model into student spaces at Duke University, aligning with campus-wide initiatives on pluralism, inquiry and belonging. Collectively, the team’s work deepened understanding of the NCLF approach, demonstrated its influence on state policy outcomes and offered practical resources to strengthen alumni networks and future facilitation efforts.
Timing
Summer 2024 – Spring 2025
Team Outputs
Evaluating the Impact of the NCLF Model on Political Polarization (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 16, 2025)
Report on NCLF Alumni Engagement Strategies (Jayda Bailey, ’25)
See related team, Strengthening Cross-Partisan Collaboration in North Carolina Policymaking (2023-2024).
Image: North Carolina Leadership Forum logo