Gregg Kaufman commenced his work with Impact Clay in August 2023. As a Citizen Engagement Coach, he works with people and organizations from all four Impact Clay sectors. After 30 years of serving four Lutheran congregations, including 17 years in Princeton Jct., NJ, Kaufman directed the Georgia College & State University Coverdell Institute and coordinated the university’s American Democracy Project (2004-2014). He taught in the Department of Government & Sociology. In 2014, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities American Democracy Project awarded Kaufman the inaugural Barbara Burch Faculty Leadership in Civic Engagement Award. A former National Issues Forums Institute Board Member (2014-2017) and graduate of the Kettering Foundation Democratic Centers for Public Life program, Kaufman participated in a variety of Kettering Foundation research exchanges over the past 15 years with a particular focus on deliberation in faith-based settings. Kaufman currently works for the National Issues Forums Institute as the “Transition Facilitator” and is helping to reshape NIFI as an independent, self-sustaining organization.
Kaufman remains active in deliberative work in the Jacksonville, FL vicinity and has worked with the University of Florida Extension and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Extension programs, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, UNF OLLI program, Cathedral District Jacksonville, Mayo Clinic Enterprise, and is engaged in multiple projects in Clay County, FL. Kaufman earned degrees from Waterloo Lutheran University B.A. Political Science (1971), the Graduate Theological Union, and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Master of Divinity (1975), and Princeton Theological Seminary, Master of Theology (1993).