Quixada Moore-Vissing
Civic Researcher and Community Engagement Designer
In a time when many of us just want to silence the noise of uncivil, polarized national politics, local democracy offers a hopeful alternative. People who live as neighbors in the same town or region have an opportunity to demand that local politics and civic life in their community stay civil, respectful, collaborative, and remain a space where many different kinds of people can voice their perspectives and listen to others. Universities, public leaders, and everyday people all have roles to play in strengthening democracy in their backyards. As we build strong, sustainable local democracies, we can demonstrate to Maine and to the nation that we can replace political dysfunction with robust, healthy civic life.
Dr. Quixada Moore-Vissing, named after Don Quixote, leverages her idealism to support communities in building strong, participatory democratic systems, particularly at the local level. She runs her own business in Rockland, Maine as a civic researcher and community engagement designer, and specializes in creating processes to problem-solve across difference, including race and politics. She currently works as a fellow at Public Agenda, the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire, and the Center for Childhood and Youth Studies at Salem State University. She also works with Everyday Democracy on a MacArthur Foundation initiative to address racism in the Criminal Justice System. Moore-Vissing co-wrote the 2012 New Hampshire Civic Health Index, and has published work in Penguin Books and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Peace. She was the first director of the K-12 Collaborative at the University of Richmond’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, a partnership between the university and an elementary school in the city of Richmond that was aimed at disrupting the forces of poverty in K-12 education. Moore-Vissing earned her PhD in Education from the University of New Hampshire, her MA in Communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and her BA in Literature and the Avant-Garde from Boston University.