Ron Ivey is a writer, researcher, and policy advisor with a focus on social trust, belonging, and human flourishing. Ivey currently serves as a Fellow at the Centre for Public Impact, a global think tank seeking to re-imagine government and restore relationships of trust between governments and those they govern. As a Fellow, Ivey co-authored Built for All, a framework for building inclusive economies that drive human flourishing. In his advisory work, Ivey has advised the Global Parliament of Mayors, the Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge, the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development at the Holy See, the World Bank, the White House, and the Aspen Institute. Previous to his advisory work, Ivey served as a policy advisor in the United States Senate. Ivey also serves on multiple advisory boards, including the OECD’s Trust in Business Initiative, a global effort focused on strengthening trust in business, and the Paris based think tank Up for Humanness, launched by theologian Antoine Guggenheim and ethicist Diane D’Audiffret to research ways to build fraternity and social cohesion in a globalized world. Ron has written on the subjects of trust, belonging and human flourishing in American Affairs, The New Statesman, and Newsweek.

Social Connectedness and Belonging Project

In the Social Connectedness and Belonging Project, we aim to carry out empirical, historical, philosophical, and theological research and scholarship on how strong social connections affect human flourishing. We aim to better understand and promote the character traits (benevolence, gratitude, forgiveness, etc.) that lead to stronger social connections for human flourishing.

Within the project, The Trust and Belonging Initiative will aim to understand why friendship and community participation are declining in multiple societies. We also aim to explore new ways to measure social relationships, provide a new etiology of the so-called “loneliness epidemic,” and understand the social determinants (cultural, economic and technological, etc.) of declining social connectedness. 

Relevant to policy making, close social relationships may in many contexts affect life evaluations even more than economic or health conditions, yet prominent policy frameworks and indices for social progress omit social connectedness from their political goals or merely instrumentalize social connections for purely material ends. Some policies may even weaken social connections. We aim to explore why these disconnects and omissions are happening and how to bridge these gaps in understanding in the policymaking process. Through symposia, a documentary film, podcasts and public commentary in popular media outlets, we aim to broadly share the original research and insights to spur policy reforms, social innovation and public impact.