NGA Center for Best Practices

The NGA Center for Best Practices teams and divisions develop innovative solutions to today’s most pressing public policy challenges. The center is the only research and development firm that directly serves the nation’s Governors.

Latest

Discussing Youth Mental Health at the 2023 Jed Policy Summit

Discussing Youth Mental Health at the 2023 Jed Policy Summit

NGA’s Jess Kirchner and Jillian Meinhardt highlighted the importance of youth mental health at The Jed Foundation’s 2023 Jed Policy Summit. Thank you to The Jed Foundation for inviting Jess ...
Disagree Better Panelists Highlight Ways to Teach Students of All Ages about Healthy Conflict and Free Expression

Disagree Better Panelists Highlight Ways to Teach Students of All Ages about Healthy Conflict and Free Expression

NGA Chair Utah Governor Spencer Cox and Vice Chair Colorado Governor Jared Polis welcomed Montana Governor Greg Gianforte and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt along with national experts and students to ...
Giving Thanks, Giving Back

Giving Thanks, Giving Back

The research is clear that participating in service activities generates a host of benefits – for communities and for volunteers themselves. Service can help meet community needs and strengthen community ...
Building Systems for Success: Key Considerations for Youth Apprenticeship System Design

Building Systems for Success: Key Considerations for Youth Apprenticeship System Design

In most states, youth apprenticeship systems are relatively new and are still evolving in response to the needs of students, employers, and partners. (Download) The National Governors Association Center for ...

Disagree Better

Americans need to disagree better. And by that we don’t mean that we need to be nicer to each other, although that’s helpful. We need to learn to disagree in a way that allows us to find solutions and solve problems instead of endlessly bickering.

The “exhausted majority” of Americans want this, and the science is clear about interventions that reduce polarization. As doers and builders, Governors are in a unique position to model what healthy conflict looks like.

Governor Spencer Cox’s Disagree Better NGA Chair’s initiative looks at the problems of polarization, elevates the solutions that groups around the country are already implementing, and features Governors showing what disagreeing better looks like. Through public debates, service projects, public service announcements and a variety of other tactics, Americans will see a more positive and optimistic way of working through our problems.

Program Areas


Center for Best Practices Library

Governors’ Responses to Challenges in Housing Availability and Affordability

Governors’ Responses to Challenges in Housing Availability and Affordability

Every state is impacted by the national housing shortage. Housing prices have soared. Inflation has driven interest rates higher, increasing ...
Accessibility Innovations in Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation

Accessibility Innovations in Travel, Tourism and Outdoor Recreation

States, territories and tribal governments are innovating to make travel, tourism and outdoor recreation more accessible and equitable. With increasing ...
Federal Funding and Financing for Hydrogen Energy Production and Use

Federal Funding and Financing for Hydrogen Energy Production and Use

This brief discusses the $7 billion funding announcement for the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program administered by the U.S. Department ...
State Strategies to Support Nontraditional Hours Child Care

State Strategies to Support Nontraditional Hours Child Care

Background Most home- and center-based child care providers offer coverage for parents who work 9-5pm on Monday-Friday. Parents working in ...
Governors Leading on Supply Chain Resiliency

Governors Leading on Supply Chain Resiliency

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of the United States industrial base, supply chains, and job training for the manufacturing ...

2023 Health and Human Services Policy Advisors Institute

The National Governors Association (NGA) was pleased to welcome Governors’ staff from 32 states and four territories to the annual ...
State Approaches to Enhancing Supply Chain Resiliency

State Approaches to Enhancing Supply Chain Resiliency

This paper focuses on supply chain issues in advanced manufacturing and related sectors including infrastructure and transportation, renewable and alternative ...
American Samoa Supports Behavioral Health and Healthcare Workforce Needs

American Samoa Supports Behavioral Health and Healthcare Workforce Needs

American Samoa is working to address behavioral health and workforce needs in several ways. In 2021, Governor Lemanu P.S. Mauga ...
Supporting State-Level Deflection and Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiatives

Supporting State-Level Deflection and Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiatives

In August 2023, state participants from Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania attended the wrap-up meeting for the National Governors ...
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in State Government

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in State Government

On September 6, 2023, the NGA Center for Best Practices hosted a virtual event, “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence in State ...
Disability Employment Awareness Month 2023

Disability Employment Awareness Month 2023

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which this year celebrates 50 years of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. There ...
Opioid Litigation Settlement Funds Summit

Opioid Litigation Settlement Funds Summit

The Opioid Litigation Settlement Funds Summit highlighted the essential role Governors play in ensuring that opioid settlement funds are used ...

PAST NGA CHAIRS INITIATIVES