Nancy Pelosi’s next act: A democracy institute at UC Berkeley

Rep. Nancy Pelosi will launch the Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy at UC Berkeley in January 2027, aiming to strengthen democratic institutions and train future public leaders. The nonpartisan institute, housed in the political science department, will offer courses, research initiatives, and a visiting fellows program amid federal scrutiny of the university.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...After four decades as one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, Rep. Nancy Pelosi is embarking on a new high-profile role at the University of California at Berkeley, where she will help launch a democracy institute that university leaders insist will be strictly nonpartisan, even as the campus faces escalating pressure from the Trump administration. https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/25/a-timeline-of-trump-actions-on-ed/ The Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy https://npi.berkeley.edu/ will launch in January 2027, when Pelosi, the former House speaker who represents San Francisco, leaves office. The institute aims to strengthen democratic institutions, train future public leaders and put UC Berkeley among a roster of major universities with political institutes tied to prominent public figures, including Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Southern California and Stanford University. Pelosi, the first Californian and first woman to serve as House speaker, is slated to co-instruct a course about Congress with Berkeley political scientist Eric Schickler, who co-directs the Institute for Governmental Studies. “The work of democracy is never finished and securing its future is our greatest calling,” Pelosi said in a statement Monday. “UC Berkeley has a long, proud history of challenging the status quo and producing leaders who run toward the greatest challenges of our time. I am honored to partner with this exceptional community of scholars and students so we can equip the next generation with the tools they need to strengthen our democratic institutions and forge a future that serves the public good.” The institute will be housed in the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, Cal announced Monday. Schickler said the idea for the institute came amid “concerns about both American democracy and democratic institutions,” and created a unique opportunity to bring together Cal’s faculty research and student programming to support students interested in public leadership. Through faculty research initiatives, undergraduate courses and a visiting fellows program, the institute will explore “what impedes progress and how best to solve political problems, from polarization to the future of artificial intelligence,” UC Berkeley said Monday. Cal said the institute’s work will focus on democratic institutions, major social, economic and environmental challenges, human rights and civil rights and efforts to broaden political leadership in California and across the country. Scott Straus, chair of the Travers Department of Political Science, said while the curriculum is still being discussed, the institute’s core focus will be a “public leadership track,” anchored by a course designed around “America’s greatest challenges.” Additional courses would be designed to help students prepare for public leadership as well as visiting fellows, including “prominent Republicans,” he noted. The nonpartisan pledge may draw scrutiny given Pelosi’s role as one of President Trump’s most visible Democratic adversaries and Berkeley’s long association with liberal politics and protest movements, from the 1960s Free Speech Movement https://www.berkeley.edu/free-speech/ and Vietnam War https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jul/06/the-battle-for-peoples-park-berkeley-1969-review-vietnam era to more recent campus clashes. The announcement also comes as UC Berkeley and the broader 10-campus university system face mounting scrutiny as part of the federal government’s crackdown on institutions of higher learning. https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/07/25/a-timeline-of-trump-actions-on-ed/ The Trump administration has launched several investigations into Cal, including probes into the campus’ admission practices https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/03/27/u-s-justice-department-to-investigate-admissions-at-uc-berkeley-stanford/ , race-based scholarships https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education , foreign funding disclosures https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-returns-section-117-foreign-funding-enforcement-office-of-general-counsel-announces-investigation-uc-berkeley and antisemitism allegations https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-probes-cases-of-antisemitism-five-universities stemming from the school’s handling of student protests over the war in Gaza. Most recently, the Trump administration opened an investigation into Cal over violence that erupted at protests outside an event organized by conservative group Turning Point USA https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/11/26/trump-admin-investigate-uc-berkeley/ in November 2025. In April 2025, UC Berkeley’s chancellor, Richard Lyons, was one of more than 500 university and college leaders across the country to sign a letter https://www.aacu.org/newsroom/a-call-for-constructive-engagement opposing the “unprecedented government overreach and political interference … endangering American education.” Asked whether he was concerned that the new institute could draw additional scrutiny from the Trump administration, Lyons said Cal was focused on empowering students to see a life in public service and thinking about “representative democracy in a deeper, healthier way.” “Those are the fundamental things and we are going to do this just as tightly and rigorously and well designed as we can,” he said. “That’s the path we’re on and we’re confident that that path is going to be supported by the people that want to make America stronger.” Lyons stressed the Nancy Pelosi Institute will be strictly nonpartisan. “The publicness of Berkeley is really a fundamental part of what we’re doing here. It is built for the people and all the people,” he said Monday. “We’re going to be solution oriented, evidence-based — all the discipline and rigor that Berkeley’s research and education are known for.” Straus said Cal first approached Pelosi in February 2025 about a potential partnership, not as “a leader of the Democratic Party,” but as a “major figure in American politics and American history.” “We see Speaker Pelosi as a figure of American history, someone who’s had a huge impact on American politics,” he said. “We also see her as someone who cares very deeply about education, someone who cares deeply about the next generation of leaders, someone who’s very invested in the health of this country.” UC Berkeley said the university has already raised more than $35 million in donations of a $50 million fundraising goal for the institute. Those donations include funds from Pelosi and her husband Paul, along with Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ron Conway and his family, former Cal State University trustee George Marcus and his wife Judy and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy. Other contributors include Dagmar Dolby, Fred Eychaner, JoAnn and Charles Kaplan, Judy and Peter Kovler, Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine and Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelović.