The Kenny Guinn Center for Policy Priorities received three major gifts of financial support in 2023. The generous support from Phil Satre, Mick Hitchcock, and the E.L Cord Foundation allowed the center to fill two director-level positions and fund several internships. Previously, research and upper administrative work was often conducted by temporary contracted employees, limiting the center’s ability to sustain ongoing research and maintain context from one project to the next.

“It came down to how we were going to move the center forward in a way that’s sustainable,” Hitchcock said, who served previously on the Guinn Center Board. “Jill [Tolles] came up with the idea of having people support positions. She was not just raising money for the sake of raising money but raising money to support a position.” Hitchcock, a bio-pharmaceutical executive and researcher, provided $35,000 in financial support in 2023 and committed to continued support through 2025.

Since naming Jill Tolles as Executive Director in January 2023, the team has added several new positions, including Research Director Michael Stewart, Assistant Director Kristine Caliger, and Director of Education Policy Anna Dreibelbis-Colquitt as well as several interns, Cal Boone, Kaiden Majia-Amaya, Lizzie Tokarski and Hannah Jackson. The new director positions were largely funded due to the support of Satre, Hitchcock, and the E.L. Cord Foundation.

The Guinn Center’s ambitious beginnings

Founded in 2013, the Guinn Center was born out of a need to advance evidence-based, data-driven and fact-based policymaking in Nevada. Satre is the current Chair of the Guinn Center Board of Directors, having also served as the organization’s founding Chair from 2013-2018.

“It was everyone’s perspective at that time that we really needed to develop a center that would be a resource for addressing policy priorities and advancing solutions,” Satre said.

The Guinn Center was established following the Great Recession, where Nevada saw some of the highest unemployment and foreclosure rates in the nation.

“Policy choices and budget and tax structure needed to be examined to better understand how to improve what Nevada was doing and what it could do to withstand future economic cycles,” Satre continued. “It followed on the heels of a lot of turmoil, which really brought in a lot of people to office in Carson City who had less experience than preexisting in the assembly and senate.”

Central to the discussion when building the center was whether it should exist as a nonpartisan entity.

“We lost a number of people whose idea of this was to be quite partisan, whether Republican or Democrat,” Satre said. “What that did was create a group of people who were committed to the model we still have now – a group that is evidence-based, nonpartisan, and capable of advancing solutions through research, public engagement and partnership not as an advocate, but as an informer of alternatives on how to think about the key challenges policymakers faced in the state.”

The E.L. Cord Foundation has been a long-time supporter of the Guinn Center because of its nonpartisan mission and far-reaching impact. In 2023, the E.L. Cord Foundation provided $50,000 in support for the Guinn Center’s efforts to sustain education policy research in the future.

“Perhaps unbeknownst to many, the E.L. Cord Foundation has partnered with the Guinn Center since its inception,” Joe Bradley, Trustee of the E.L. Cord Foundation since 1995, said. “Frankly, the work of the Guinn Center continues to provide independent and reliable analyses of issues facing Nevada with a goal toward identifying positive solutions to real-world problems that confront Nevada now and into the future. The E.L. Cord Foundation supports the efforts of many organizations that benefit from the work of the Guinn Center so we view it as a partnership to make us more effective in our philanthropy in the state of Nevada.”

Looking forward

After a decade of successfully meeting that mission, the Guinn Center continues to expand its impact, due in large part to the vision of Executive Director Jill Tolles. Tolles’ vision for the Guinn Center – one that looks years into the future of the organization as opposed to a project-based approach – is what inspired giving.

“Jill saw the opportunity to enhance the structure of the Guinn Center and really formalize the key areas that we wanted to address: education policy, fiscal and economic policy, governance and civic policy, health and social policy,” Satre said. “I came home from one of our early meetings as a board with Jill and told Jennifer [Satre] that I was pretty excited about the structural proposal. She shared the same point of view that I had – that we’d like to support that financially.”

Jennifer and Phil Satre provided $500,000 in support in 2023 to be used in three ways. $250,000 was used to establish the Guinn Center's first endowment to ensure its long-term viability, $200,000 was used to support the new director positions, and $50,000 is to be used toward the general mission of the Guinn Center.

In 2023, the Guinn Center team grew from three full-time employees to eight, published six research projects, and added five new board members.

Additional updates from 2023 include launching the Gallagher Dialogues at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, featuring a conversation with Governor Christine Todd Whitman and hosting a webinar for legislators on the analysis of the 2023-2025 budget. Below are several Guinn Center research highlights from 2023:

• Southern Nevada Human Sex Trafficking Gap Analysis 2023
• Out-of-School Youth in Southern Nevada: A Focus Group Analysis on Challenges Faced by Out-of-School Youth and Service Providers
• Analysis of the Legislatively Approved Budget for the State of Nevada: 2023-2025 Biennium

Members of the Guinn Center, including the new directors and interns.

A legacy fulfilled

The Guinn Center, by name and mission, honors the legacy of the late Nevada State Governor Kenny Guinn, which has inspired continued support and respect.

“Governor Guinn stood out to all of us as somebody who reached across the aisle, really focused on getting things done and coming to the right solution. He didn't care if he did it through Democrats or Republicans or Independents,” Satre said, describing the decision to name the Guinn Center after Governor Kenny Guinn. The name was formalized after the board received consent from First Lady Dema Guinn. “Kenny just wanted to get it done and get the right outcome for the state. That legacy is one that we're very proud of, and it motivates us.”

Bradley mirrored Satre’s sentiment.

“Kenny Guinn was a legendary figure in Nevada for his vision and his support of public education,” Bradley added. “The state of Nevada needs, now more than ever, visionaries like Kenny Guinn to continue to champion important issues such as improving public education, raising awareness of the less fortunate, and improving the quality of life of all Nevadans. These are important efforts supported by both the Guinn Center and the E.L. Cord Foundation and it follows the example that was set by Kenny Guinn.”

Guided by Governor Kenny Guinn’s example, bolstered by its affiliation with the University of Nevada, Reno, and sustained by the generous support from donors, the Guinn Center continues to improve the lives of Nevadans.

“I look upon the University as creating the economic engine for the future of Northern Nevada,” Hitchcock said. “Facilitating that really requires good governmental policy. The Guinn Center is an extension of how we make that happen.”