Caroline Porterfield

Trust Is Built Through Repeated Practice, Not Civic Sentiment

At Dan Porterfield’s final Aspen Ideas Festival as president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, leaders of Weave, Aspen Kyiv and the Institute’s network strategy made a shared case that trust is not a civic sentiment but a capacity built through repeated practice. Frederick Riley argued that local trust must be rebuilt neighbor by neighbor; Yuliya Tychkivska described dialogue and leadership formation under wartime exhaustion in Ukraine; and Tommy Loper said Aspen’s dispersed alumni and programs need stronger connective tissue to turn relationships into usable institutional strength.