Events › Event Videos

2011 Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy: Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy, Keynote Speaker

On November 16th, 2011, Pioneer welcomed Sal Khan, Founder of Khan Academy, as the honoree at the Institute's 14th annual Lovett C. Peters Lecture in Public Policy. The lecture's mission is to “encourage individuals of vision, to inform and enrich intellectual debate surrounding the great public issues of our day, and to honor individuals whose ideas or accomplishments have left a mark on our world.” Sal Khan's work carries out that mission - Khan Academy is a free, online education platform that has produced over 2,500 popular instructional videos, viewed 80 million times by students all over the world.

2011 Better Government Competition Awards Dinner: Texas Governor Rick Perry, Keynote Speaker

On September 13th, 2011, Pioneer welcomed presidential candidate and Texas Governor, Rick Perry, as Keynote Speaker at the 20th annual Better Government Awards Dinner. Governor Perry's speech followed introductory remarks by Ambassador Christopher Egan, Carruth Capital, LLC, and addresses by State Representative Will Brownsberger, winner of this year's Better Government Competition, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, and 2010 Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker. Over 350 guests were in attendance, including leaders among the private sector, non-profit, and media communities.

Annual Friedman Legacy Celebration Featuring Harvard Professor Paul Peterson

On July 29, 2011, Pioneer held our annual event in honor of Nobel Prize-winning economist and school choice proponent Milton Friedman. Our distinguished guest speaker was Dr. Paul Peterson, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government and Director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and Editor-In-Chief of Education Next. Professor Peterson presented national poll results on public support for school choice.

Liberal arts & closing achievement gaps

On March 29, 2011, Pioneer welcomed Virginia Secretary of Education Gerard Robinson, Keynote speaker, following introductory remarks by Tom Birmingham, Senior Counsel, Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP, former President of the Massachusetts Senate, and co-author of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993. Charles Barone, Director of Federal Policy, Democrats for Education Reform moderated a roundtable discussion on the role of a liberal arts education in closing achievement gaps. Panelists included E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Chairman and Founder, Core Knowledge Foundation, Monty Neill, Interim Executive Director, Fair Test, and Tony Wagner, Co-Director of the Change Leadership Group, Harvard Graduate School of Education.

2011 hewitt health care lecture

Almost one year since the passage of the federal health overhaul, Pioneer Institute’s 5th annual Hewitt Health Care Lecture at Harvard Medical School featured two of the nation’s preeminent health policy experts: Dr. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former advisor to McCain for President, and Dr. Jonathan Gruber, advisor to President Obama. The debate, on the budgetary impact of the federal law, was moderated by Charles Baker, Jr., former Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate and ex-CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. The debate touched on the Cadillac tax on insurance, economic growth, the politics to get a bill passed, and increase in government spending, federal waivers, cost containment, and payment reform among others.

2010 colby hewitt health care lecture

Earlier this spring, Dr. Jeffrey S. Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School, gave Pioneer Institute’s annual Hewitt Health Care Lecture. Occurring just days after the passage of the massive federal health care law, Dr. Flier gave a provocative talk that outlined his concerns about health care reform over two decades and especially in the new law. Building on his Wall Street Journal opinion pieces that ran previous to the passage of the law, Dr. Flier provided a much-needed wake-up call from the perspective of a top researcher, practitioner and dean of one of arguably the world’s greatest medical school.

11/12/09: LCP Lecture in Public Policy

Mayor Cory Booker began his political career in 1998 after serving as Staff attorney for the Urban Justice Center in Newark. During his four years of service as Newark’s Central Ward Councilman, Mayor Booker earned a reputation as a leader with innovative ideas and bold actions.

Mayor Booker Spoke on expanding educational opportunity in our cities through school choice.

9/16/09: 18th Better Government Competition Keynote Address

The 18th Annual Better Government Competition, which sought ideas to improve healthcare and its services, featured Mark McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. as the Keynote Speaker at this year's awards dinner.
From 2004-2006, Dr. McClellan was the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. From 2002-2004, he served as the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and from 2001-2002, he served as a senior policy director for healthcare and economic issues for the White House. He was also an associate professor of economics and associate professor of medicine (with tenure) at Stanford University and has twice received the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics. (Read more here).

9/16/09: Senior Link: 18th Better Government Competition Winner

Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts — SeniorLink (SRL) is an elder care company that has created a cost effective, community-based program for elders with disabilities. This program is administered by Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts, Inc. (CGH). The CGH program brings together all of the medical and social services needed by adults with levels of disability that qualify them for nursing home care and then places them with a caregiver in a private home. The concept wraps intensive assessments of the total health and social strengths and weaknesses of each elder, the suitability of the intended home setting and appropriate consideration of the potential caregiver. CGH couples a warm, stable, family home environment with specialized medical, mental health, nutritional, substance abuse and social interventions needed by each individual adult. Today CGH is a proven alternative to nursing home placement. (Read more here).

9/16/09: Manatee "YourChoice" Health Plan: 18th Better Government Competition Runner Up

The Center for Health and Lifestyle Management, Manatee County, FL — Manatee County’s approach to healthcare is to provide educational resources through a "people to people" approach to its employees so they can make accountable choices for their health and lifestyle. "YourChoice" began in 2000 and provides financial rewards known as Health Bucks to members who are willing to make healthy, on-going lifestyle choices, so each adult, age 19 or older, employee or spouse, is held accountable for their personal actions to determine their benefit plan. (Read more here).

9/16/09: Occupational Health Services Project: 18th Better Government Competition Runner Up

Washington State Department of Labor and Industries, Olympia, WA — The Occupational Health Services (OHS) Project is aimed at improving injured worker outcomes and reducing disability through a community-based change in health care delivery. The project uses a combination of strategies that include incentive payments to healthcare providers linked to quality improvement, clinical leadership, and organizational support and training for providers in occupational health best practices. (Read more here).

9/16/09: Reducing Surgical Complications through a Statewide Massachusetts Surgical Collaborative: 18th Better Government Competition Runner Up

QCMetrix, Inc, Waltham, MA — QCMetrix, which has already demonstrated success in Michigan and Tennessee, proposes a payer-funded, statewide surgical collaborative that will identify 35 Massachusetts hospitals interested in collaborating to improve surgical quality, establish a sustainable, cost-efficient system for tracking surgical processes and outcomes at each participating hospital, identifying and implementing "best practices", tracking quality improvement initiatives targeted at specific, high-leverage procedures, linking quality improvement efforts to rigorous health services research, and demonstrating to both consumers and purchasers that systems of care are effectively working to optimize surgical quality and outcomes. (Read more here).

9/16/09: Retail Clinics: 18th Better Government Competition Runner Up

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA — Over 52 million Americans currently lack health insurance and therefore have limited access to medical care. Retail clinics represent a market-driven approach to cost containment through innovation in primary care, and their accessibility, both geographically and financially, make them an attractive option for a large number of people. (Read more here).

4/6/09: The Know-Nothing Amendments: Barriers to School Choice

The Blaine, or “Know-Nothing” Amendments, bar entry for inner city students to high quality education in Massachusetts’ parochial schools. Pioneer Institute, in conjunction with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, and Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, will examine the implications of the Blaine Amendments as constitutional obstacles to school choice and offer strategies and processes to repeal the Amendments.

2/5/09: Little Pink House: A Reception with Susette Kelo

In conjunction with the Institute for Justice, Pioneer will host Susette Kelo, whose New London waterfront home was taken by eminent domain, sparking a court battle that ended in a controversial United States Supreme Court decision, and Jeff Benedict, the nationally reknowned investigative journalist whose latest book, Little Pink House, takes the reader behind the scenes of this landmark case.

11/13/2008: Pioneer's 20th Anniversary

Pioneer is 20. At the young age of 75, Lovett C. “Pete” Peters founded Pioneer Institute to change the intellectual climate in Massachusetts. The first two decades of Pioneer have been years of independent thinking and common sense that helped improve the Commonwealth’s schools, government and economy. Join us as we celebrate Pete and Pioneer Institute and kick off a campaign in his honor to secure a permanent home for Pioneer.

5/8/2008: History and Civic Education: The Learning of Liberty for Civic Life

In her book Democratic Education Amy Gutmann, President of the University of Pennsylvania, said that "political education — the cultivation of the virtues, knowledge, and skills necessary for political participation — has moral primacy over other purposes of public education in a democratic society."