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," Pelosi said in a statement. "UC Berkeley has a long, proud history of challenging the status quo and producing leaders who run toward the greatest challenges of our time. I am honored to partner with this exceptional community of scholars and students so we can equip the next generation with the tools they need to strengthen our democratic institutions and forge a future that serves the public good."
UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons said the institute would combine the university's faculty and students to advance its mission.
"We intend to do more than simply study democracy; we are building this institute to strengthen it," Lyons said.
The institute will be established at UC Berkeley, a university known for progressive activism, and will open after Pelosi concludes her congressional career.
Pelosi, 86, served two terms as House speaker and remains the only woman to hold the position. She served from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023.