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Chris Gates is the first Executive Director of PACE, Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement. PACE is a new organization founded to bring more attention and focus to the issues of civic engagement and to encourage more members of the philanthropic community to make civic engagement a part of their funding priorities. In this role Gates speaks extensively around the country and around the world on the broad topics of civic engagement, including civic education, leadership training, community problem solving, political reform and democratic renewal.
He previously served for eleven years as President of the National Civic League, a national, non-profit organization with offices in Denver and Washington, D.C. The National Civic League is a 112-year-old advocacy organization that was founded by Teddy Roosevelt and focuses on revitalizing America’s democracy at the local level. Before serving as President, Gates served for eight years as Vice President of NCL.
Prior to his work with the National Civic League, Gates ran a consulting practice that worked with both communities and corporations to help them deal with issues of change. These strategic planning efforts helped his clients better align their practice and structure with their goals and aspirations. Prior to that he served as the Communications Director of the Piton Foundation and as a speechwriter and policy aide to then Colorado Governor Richard Lamm.
Gates is currently a member of the board of the California Center for Civic Renewal and is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. He has previously served on the boards of the Council for the Advancement of Citizenship and INDEPENDENT SECTOR. He has also served as co-chair of the board of the Civic Practices Network and co-chair of the Saguaro Seminar, a research project based at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government working to find ways to build social capital in America.
Gates is also active in his community, where he is the founder and Chair of the Colorado Institute for Leadership Training, a former board member of Leadership Denver, and a member of Denver’s City Club. He is a regular instructor at the University of Denver’s Leadership Program, the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Public Affairs, Leadership Denver, and Roaring Fork Leadership.
Chris is a Colorado native who graduated from Fairview High School in Boulder. He received an honors degree in economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University, where he studied the interaction between the public and private sectors. He also studied political economics at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England.
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