David Scobey is Director of Bringing Theory to Practice, a Washingon, D.C.-based project that works to renew the core purposes of college education--engaged learning, preparation for meaningful work, civic engagement, and the personal flourishing of all students--through innovative projects, collaborative research, and public advocacy. From 1989 to 2005, he taught history, American Studies, and architecture at the University of Michigan, where he founded Arts of Citizenship, a program that fostered public work and community projects in the arts, humanities, and design. He has also served as director of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships at Bates College and Executive Dean of the School for Public Engagement at The New School in New York City. For twenty years, he has worked to advance the democratic purposes of higher education. He is active in national efforts on behalf of these goals, serving on advisory boards for Project Pericles and Imagining America: Artists and Scholars In Public Life.