A national search is underway for the inaugural James Frank Family Executive Director of Dartmouth Dialogues, and the Rockefeller Center has a seat at the table. Jason Barabas '93, professor of government and director of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy, is serving on the search committee tasked with finding a leader who can take the initiative to the next level.
"Ideally, the next executive director will promote opportunities for cross-cutting intellectual exchanges at Dartmouth," Barabas told The Dartmouth.
It's a fitting role for Rocky. Since Dartmouth Dialogues launched in January 2024 under President Sian Leah Beilock, the initiative has grown into what many are calling a national model for civil discourse in higher education, and Rocky has been one of the driving forces behind it.
One piece of Dartmouth Dialogues' work involves partnering with departments across campus to bring prominent speakers to Hanover who model constructive disagreement. Rocky is consistently at the center of that effort, thanks in part to resources from the Office of the President and other campus leaders of the Dartmouth Dialogues endeavor. Guests brought to campus through these partnerships have included former Vice President Mike Pence, New York Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury, civil rights leader Sherrilyn Ifill, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand ’88, commentator Bill Kristol, fmr. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Governor Andy Beshear, and fmr. U.S. Representative Liz Cheney.
As Barabas put it: "Dartmouth Dialogues takes many forms on campus, and the Rockefeller Center actively seeks to partner with students, faculty, and other institutional collaborators. But what many have recognized for years is that Rocky truly leads when it comes to offering opportunities for impactful conversations from a wide range of perspectives."
That cooperation isn't new. Among the many things Rocky does on campus, it has spent many years bringing public officials, scholars, and thinkers with a wide range of views to campus, in keeping with its mission to educate and inspire the next generation of public policy leaders through dynamic exchanges of ideas. In this way, the Dartmouth Dialogues effort helps amplify Rocky's many different ways of encouraging the exchange of diverse views through its speaker series, named lectures, and election year programming.
The numbers show just how much reach that work has. Across the last two academic years (2024-25 and 2025-26), Rockefeller Center programming that was co-branded under the Dartmouth Dialogues banner drew over 9,000 in-person attendees. What this means is that on average, roughly 1,500 people attend Rocky programming in person every term. Additionally, thousands of people tune in to view Rocky’s programming online as it is happening in live events or afterward through archival footage on YouTube. During the two years that Rocky was supporting Dartmouth Dialogue events, livestream viewership racked up nearly 8,000 online views and the events have been restreamed more than twice as many times.
That scale mirrors what Dartmouth Dialogues has found campus-wide. A 2025 survey found that 93 percent of Dartmouth undergraduates believe engaging with challenging perspectives is essential to their education, and 66 percent of first-year students said the College's commitment to dialogue across difference factored into their decision to enroll at Dartmouth.
Rocky's collaboration with Dartmouth Dialogues extends beyond speaker programming. The Rockefeller Leadership Fellows program aims to inspire the next generation of public policy leaders, and it recognizes that the ability to lead policy work depends on engagement and dialogue. In 2026, Fellows received hands-on training from former Dartmouth Dialogues Executive Director Kristi Clemens, drawing a direct line to Dartmouth Dialogues' own One Small Step campus initiative, which brings people with different political beliefs together for conversation rather than debate.
A blend of curricular and co-curricular work showed up clearly in “The 2024 Election,” a new course built around a speaker series that was made possible through the Dartmouth Dialogues collaboration. The class used the past presidential election to explore questions about the future of U.S. democracy and its global role. Each week paired analysis from leading scholars with visits from distinguished academics, policy practitioners, and public advocates, bringing the diverse, high-profile voices featured in Dartmouth Dialogues' public programming directly into the classroom.
As the search moves forward to find the Dartmouth Dialogues executive director, Rocky's role offers a preview of what the next chapter could look like: sustained, wide-ranging exposure to speakers and ideas that don't always agree with each other, delivered at a scale that reaches thousands of students, faculty, and staff every year.
"Rocky’s focus is to prepare the next generation of public policy leaders through comprehensive curricular and co-curricular programming, including dynamic conversations around policy issues,” said David Duckenfield ’88, Chair of the Board of Visitors at Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center for Public Policy. “That mission dovetails perfectly with Dartmouth Dialogues, fostering robust debate and discussion that develop practical skills and ignite a passion for public service."