December 13, 2021
Meet Debi Ghate: SPN’s new executive fellow
State Policy Network welcomed Debi Ghate, formerly of Philanthropy Roundtable, as an executive fellow in November 2021. In this new role, Debi will assist the organization with community engagement and help forge strategic partnerships.
We sat down with Debi to learn more about her background and what drew her to SPN. Take a look at the interview highlights below, including Debi’s career advice, the policies she’s most passionate about, and the books that deeply influenced her life.
My parents would probably say I was born advocating for liberty from an early age. In grade 3, I got a detention for wearing a political button to school: “Mon non et Quebecois,” which had to do with a referendum about whether our province should separate from the rest of Canada. Yep, real story…
More seriously, my interest in liberty was a motivation to go to law school. My involvement in the freedom movement started when I joined the Ayn Rand Institute in California right after 9/11. I had just moved to the United States and that event shocked me into wanting to better understand how ideas shape the world, and how individual rights and freedom are precious yet vulnerable.
I was already working in the movement when I read Frederick Douglass’s autobiographies (there are three of them.) This was about 20 years ago before some of his more famous quotes started being referred to more. Mr. Douglass not only understood what freedom was—and why the need for freedom was consistent with the nature of human beings—but he also felt the roar of thunder in his very core at the lack of it. His words regularly inspire me and I’m currently making my way through another collection of his letters and speeches.
We’ve got the “head” on straight for lots of issues, but how often are we feeling in our “hearts” that what we’re working on can mean the difference between life or death for ourselves or someone we’re trying to help? Those people are often feeling the pain of the results of government intervention. If we could bring head and heart together in a way that unites the communities we’re a part of, we’d solve our problems together better.
My salt-of-the-earth friend, Charles Mitchell, introduced me to SPN when I was working at The Snider Foundation. He said I needed to come to SPN’s Annual Meeting and made it easy on my first visit to navigate the program and meet people. At that time, he, Tracie Sharp and I had a private meeting. Since then, Tracie has been a tremendous friend and advisor. She helped me engage in many different parts of SPN’s work and I’ve enjoyed every opportunity and interaction with the team. They are awesome, fun, and caring people. We work with the most amazing Network of passionate, committed, and courageous people doing the hard work on the ground. And I’m learning just how much dedication SPN gives to them, working really hard to support from behind the scenes and help lead all at the same time. I was hooked! Thanks, Charles and Tracie!
I’m SPN’s first executive fellow (and hopefully first of many!). I joined the team in mid-November and have been working closely with SPN’s leadership team on a number of projects, including boosting the Network’s community engagement and strategic partnership efforts. I’ve had a chance to come alongside specific partners as they work on tough issues. I’m looking forward to helping them where I can and watching them catapult ahead.
Just before we announced my role, I was with the SPN team at LaunchPad in Orlando as part of the “Brain Trust” working with some entrepreneurial and super creative project owners. Talk about a lot of smart people in a room together! Every evening, I was having these green tea martinis, something I do not do regularly—I’m a white wine girl. But those martinis were amazing and I’m convinced it was because of the SPN team’s camaraderie and ability to deal with serious issues while remembering that life is good and fun, or should be.
For a while now, I’ve been thinking that I’m obsessed with both individual rights and our need for community. The first is essential and non-negotiable, but the second is certainly necessary. I think that’s what I love the most about being part of this Network. We are each independent, and in the best way possible, interdependent.
You mean aside from finding one of those green tea martinis? I remind myself that it’s okay and to be expected sometimes for that to happen. It means I’m at the front end of thought process that I need to let myself breathe through and experience. And I go to some go-to techniques that work for me: making lists, talking to a partner who can reflect back what I’m sorting through, and writing all over a whiteboard to help bring out what I’m thinking. Like all over a whiteboard—well, up to the 5 -foot mark because I’m teeny.
Your path may not be linearly upward, and that one goes through cycles of under confidence and over confidence in what we think we know. That’s normal. Keep learning from people. Keep teaching yourself. Your path will emerge and may surprise you.
People. And I’m an introvert. There are many books I’ve read, many lectures I’ve listened to, and many articles I’ve tried to understand. Ultimately, it’s when I see ideas in action, or talk about how to put them into action, that I’m inspired. My work has allowed me to be part of many communities. Making myself walk into a room where I am the odd one out (e.g., with formerly incarcerated people and their families), taking a deep breath, listening and engaging in conversation has been priceless. Ayn Rand has a quote: “The smallest minority in the world is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” This thinking has reminded me to engage one-on-one, human-to- human, in order to advance liberty to all.
When the Empire Center team from New York won the Bob Williams Prize for Best Research. I serve on Empire’s Board of Directors and had a proud moment watching my close friend and business partner, Tim Hoefer, and our terrific team receive that recognition for their work exposing the state government’s cover-up of COVID deaths in nursing homes.
A runner up was definitely when Amanda Tindall, my Steadfast Chief of Staff, went in pursuit of holding the baby alligator. The look on her face was priceless. Can I share one more? When Allison Kasic and I dressed as Mrs. Maisel and Suzy Meyerson for Halloween in Colorado Springs. That was amazing.
I keep joking that SPN is “Solutions People Need.” But it’s true! Whether it’s a policy, community or internal challenge, SPN is here to provide resources and support. It’s much easier said than done to support a whole range of independent, self-driven organizations while creating the advantages of a network. The entire SPN team takes that mission to heart and spends a lot of time carefully thinking through how they can help. It’s inspiring.
Definitely LaunchPad. An opportunity to get your new project raked over the coals and your thinking tested by the “Brain Trust”? You’ve definitely got to be ready to have your ideas challenged, and be open to the process, but what a priceless opportunity to learn from people who care enough to volunteer their time to helping you succeed? I wish I had had that opportunity!
As I’ve mentioned, I’m all about individual rights and community—there is no compromise needed to serve both. One group that I’m very passionate about helping to protect is foster kids in the child protective system. Kids who are abused or abandoned are extremely vulnerable because the law does not offer them the protection of rights and due process that we have for almost every other group, including criminal defendants. Kids are going missing and dying. For that reason, I’m working with Generation Justice, led by Darcy Olsen, and will talk to just about anyone who wants to help!
At home with my ridiculously large orchid collection and my sometimes-sad looking garden (I’m trying!) You’ll also find me walking in the woods or traveling to see new parts of the world.
You mean apart from the green tea martinis?
