The Big Picture

“Nonpartisanship has been part of Pew’s DNA from the very beginning,” said Pew’s president and CEO, Susan K. Urahn (right), in a conversation with Valerie Jarrett, CEO of the Obama Foundation and former senior adviser to President Barack Obama.

In February, Jarrett joined Urahn in Washington, D.C., as part of Pew’s 75th anniversary speaker series for staff, focusing on the organization’s core values, which include nonpartisanship. Jarrett emphasized the necessity of “learning to disagree without being disagreeable, … being secure enough in your own skin that you can sit down with somebody with whom you disagree” and find common ground. ”You have to be curious enough, humble enough,” she said, “to give people the grace that you can learn something from them.”