Authored by AG News Staff via American Greatness,
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will lend her name to a new institute at the University of California, Berkeley after retiring from Congress, with the university announcing it has already raised $35 million toward a $50 million fundraising goal.
The Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy is scheduled to open in January 2027, when Pelosi is expected to leave Congress.
According to the university, the institute will serve as a center for research, teaching and civic engagement focused on representative democracy and public leadership. Pelosi also is expected to co-teach a course on Congress.
UC Berkeley said the institute will focus on four primary areas: strengthening American democracy, addressing major social, economic and environmental challenges, promoting human and civil rights, and "ensuring political leadership that represents the full spectrum of perspectives and backgrounds in California and the country."
The university said the institute's location at UC Berkeley would give a diverse student body, including first-generation and low-income students, access to opportunities often associated with Ivy League institutions.
"The work of democracy is never finished, and securing its future is our greatest calling,"
