DIGNITY
is the human experience
that may hold the key
to solving today's most pressing policy problems.
The Dignity First Project is developing the frameworks and tools
for institutions to recognize, account for, and design for
human dignity in policy and practice.
We're equipping future leaders with the power to harness
dignity's potential for the public good.
WHY DIGNITY
A sense of dignity is more than just our inherent worth.
It is built from how we feel about ourselves and how our experiences in the world reinforce or unsettle us.
It is made up of perceptions like respect, pride, meaning, agency, and fairness.
And today it is being exploited by polarizing politicians who manipulate dignity for their own gain, extremists who capture dignity to enable the harm of others, and even some tech companies that distort dignity for attention and profit.
Meanwhile, leaders in public institutions overlook dignity's potential to motivate action and secure loyalty. They miss how dignity impacts issues — from polarization and violence to declining trust and fragmentation — and how it is critical to the design of potential solutions.
Dignity offers a rare point of agreement across cultures, religion, and politics. Thinkers from the Vatican to leading economists are promoting dignity as a foundation for the future.
People tend to avoid
experiences that produce indignities and often remain loyal to leaders, movements, and institutions that they believe recognize their value.
Research
across disciplines is showing dignity’s biological and social significance, its role in global conflict and resolution, and some of the ways it can be measured.
THE APPROACH
What if we could harness dignity for the public good?
The Dignity First Project will map, measure, and deploy dignity for policy and programmatic impact.
In three phases, we will:
Map
Desk research, convenings, and expert interviews to define, explain, and show dignity’s potential and application. We plan to release a conceptual framework and foundational primer that summarizes the research and introduces “dignity in practice” to organizational leaders and laypeople.
Measure
Translate research insights into a measurement tool that can test whether dignity signals and deficits are observable in the aggregate. Identify potential partners, partner types, and suitable domains for piloting.
Deploy
Work with partners to develop policy prototypes and adaptations that embed dignity into institutional design.
Follow us on Substack as we build this in public.
Subscribe for updates delivered to your inbox.
THE TEAM
Leanne Erdberg Steadman
Founder & Lead
Genna Mazor
Communications Chief
Research, Data, and Project Support
Advisory Network
coming soon
Leanne Erdberg Steadman is the founder of The Dignity First Project and a Senior Fellow with The Alliance for Peacebuilding. She is an international security practitioner who has spent nearly two decades working on global conflict, governance, and peace in senior roles at the White House National Security Council, State Department, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Open Society Foundations, and elsewhere. She has extensive experience developing strategy, organizing research, and creating initiatives that are innovative, rigorous, and norm-shifting.
Genna Mazor has almost twenty years of experience in communications, marketing, brand development, and project management. She has honed messaging and built audiences for cable networks, startups, and consumer products companies. She is an expert in translating complex concepts into clear, compelling narratives.
Research & Data Support will provide rigorous analysis anchoring the conceptual and measurement work.
Project Administration will coordinate operations across all efforts.
The project will draw in a wide range of thinkers to stretch the work, challenge assumptions, and generate inventive solutions.
Get Involved
We work with institutions, funders, and practitioners.