Shaylyn Romney Garrett

Shaylyn Romney Garrett lives and breathes community. “I’ve studied it, experimented with it, been fascinated by it, and been frightened by it. I’ve reoriented my life around the dream and promise of community more times than I can count.” As a writer, commentator and speaker, she brings deep experience and expertise to the question of how America can come back together.

Her award-winning book co-written with Robert Putnam, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, offers an evidence-based roadmap for how to reweave our tattered social fabric. Through stories and data drawn from over a century of history, Garrett speaks passionately about how everyday Americans once changed the course of our nation by building a culture of “we”—and can do it again.

She is a member of the Braver Angels Scholars Council and Citizen University’s Civic Collaboratory. Her book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, looked at the role of religion in civil society.

Garrett served in the Peace Corps and spent six years in Jordan working to catalyze youth social innovation there. She also helped found “Weave: The Social Fabric Project” at The Aspen Institute with David Brooks.

Garrett offers a fresh take on political polarization, social isolation, economic inequality, and culture change. She speaks regularly at corporations, universities, nonprofits, foundations, and think tanks, as well as to community groups—bringing an energizing and deeply researched message of hope during a dark time in America’s history.