Harry C. Boyte is a civic organizer and theorist of the public work framework of citizenship. In the 1960s, he worked as a field secretary for Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Founder of the international youth civic empowerment initiative Public Achievement, he is former director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the UMN and Emeritus Senior Scholar at Augsburg University. Boyte has authored eleven books on democracy, citizenship, and community organizing and his writings have appeared in Time, the New York Times, Political Theory, and elsewhere. He is married to Marie Ström, long time democracy educator. Marie Ström is co-founder and Director of Education and Training at the Institute for Public Life and Work. Originally from South Africa, for twenty years she directed the democracy education program at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa), an independent, non-profit organization that played a significant role in facilitating that country’s democratic transition. Ström conducted citizen leadership training across the continent of Africa and elsewhere, working with professionals from diverse backgrounds as well as grassroots leaders. In partnership with her husband, Harry Boyte, she now organizes workshops on democracy, citizen professionalism, and non-violence.
