Robert Putnam is the founder of "The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America," a program that has brought together leading practitioners and thinkers to develop broad-scale ideas to fortify our nation’s civic connectedness. Dr. Putnam is also the Peter & Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Health at Harvard University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in American politics, international relations, comparative politics and public policy.

As an accomplished writer, Dr. Putnam has authored and co-authored ten books and more than thirty scholarly works, including Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy; which has been published in twelve languages. In June 2000, Dr. Putnam’s study of civic engagement in the United States will be published as Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

Currently, Dr. Putnam is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission and is a fellow of the American Academy if Arts and Sciences. Dr. Putnam was recently nominated as President of the American Political Science Association for 2001-2002. Before beginning his career at Harvard University in 1979, Dr. Putnam served on the staff of the National Security Council and is a former dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government.