Michael D. Rich
Michael D. Rich on Fighting Truth Decay in America
Michael D. Rich
Keynote Speaker
President Emeritus, RAND Corporation
Michael D. Rich provides insight into the critical role of facts in U.S. public life and the challenges facing democracy.
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Michael D. Rich'S SPEAKING FEE Under $25,000
Michael D. Rich is president emeritus at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. For nearly 50 years, he helped RAND become a leading source of expertise, analysis, and evidence-based ideas in an increasingly complex and polarized policymaking environment.
During his tenure as president and CEO from 2011 to 2022, Rich focused on extending the impact of RAND’s work. He challenged the organization to broaden its legacy of innovation and help decision makers stay ahead of the curve on the issues that matter most. Rich is the coauthor of Truth Decay, the first study in an ongoing series of research that examines how the diminishing role of facts and analysis in public life has caused an erosion of civil discourse and political paralysis, among other problems.
In 2020, Rich launched the ongoing fundraising campaign Tomorrow Demands Today, the most ambitious such effort in RAND’s history. Philanthropic support enables RAND researchers and students at the Pardee RAND Graduate School to bring bold thinking, analytical rigor, and cross-cutting perspectives to the most critical issues of our time.
Rich began his RAND career as a summer intern in 1975, joining the organization full-time the following year as a researcher focused on U.S. national security issues. He served in a variety of senior leadership positions at RAND and was instrumental in the creation of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center that provides research and analysis to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the Intelligence Community. He also helped lead RAND’s diversification and expansion into international markets — including Europe and Australia. Throughout his career, Rich has been an enthusiastic supporter of Pardee RAND, the world’s largest public policy Ph.D. program, where he has taught and advised graduate students and has chaired numerous committees.
Rich serves on the governing boards and advisory committees of many policy and service organizations, including the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, WISE & Healthy Aging, the Everychild Foundation, and the UCLA Health System. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the California Bar, and he served on the U.S. Defense Science Board from 2012 to 2021 and the Council for Aid to Education from 1996 to 2022. Rich received his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley. In June 2022, the Pardee RAND Graduate School conferred upon Rich the honorary degree of Doctor of Public Policy.
Featured Videos
Michael D. Rich
Michael D. Rich on Fighting Truth Decay in America
Michael D. Rich’s Speech Topics
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What Is “Truth Decay” and How We Can Counter It
American democracy faces a grave threat called “Truth Decay,” the diminishing reliance on facts and analysis in U.S. public discourse and policymaking. None of the complex challenges the United States faces – systemic inequality, health care, immigration — can be solved if society as a whole cannot agree on a common set of facts. As we have seen with the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic, political paralysis that delays or interrupts key policy decisions can contribute to loss of life and economic hardship. The issue of climate change is another area where a failure to make policy based on facts and evidence could have already resulted in irreversible damage to the environment.
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A Conversation with Rand Corporation President Emeritus Michael D. Rich
A champion of the power of facts and objective analysis, Michael D. Rich has helped the nonpartisan, nonprofit RAND Corporation become a leading global source of expertise, analysis, and evidence-based ideas in an increasingly complex and polarized policymaking environment. Rich became president and CEO in 2011 and immediately focused the research organization on expanding the impact of its work and broadening its legacy of innovation, to help decisionmakers stay ahead of the curve on issues of today and tomorrow. Rich co-authored the acclaimed 2018 book titled “Truth Decay: An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in Public Life,” which has since grown into a RAND research initiative to restore the role of facts and analysis in our society.
Works by Michael D. Rich
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