Public invited to meet founder of Rural Policy Research Institute

Founder of the Rural Policy Research Institute, Chuck Fluharty, will be coming to Salem on Thursday, Oct. 24, at 6 p.m. at the Salem High School Presentation Room as part of the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street project, a collaboration between Indiana Humanities, Washington County Historical Society, and Washington County Community Foundation.

He is the founder, president, and CEO of the Rural Policy Research Institute (RUPRI), the only national policy institute in the U.S. solely dedicated to assessing the rural impacts of public policies. A clinical professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Iowa, and a research professor in the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, he was also a German Marshall Fund Transatlantic fellow from 2007 to 2011, and the founding director of the Missouri Public Policy Institute, as well as a principal in the design and development of the eventual Truman School of Public Affairs. The author of numerous policy studies and journal articles, he has presented dozens of congressional testimonies and briefings. He is also a frequent speaker before national and international audiences, having delivered major public policy speeches in over a dozen nations, and has provided senior policy consultation to most federal departments, state and local government, planning and development organizations, and many foundations.

Chuck was born and raised on a fifth-generation family farm in the Appalachian foothills in eastern Ohio, and is a graduate of Yale Divinity School. His professional career has centered upon service to rural people, primarily in the public policy arena. He and his wife Marsha are the parents of two sons and a daughter.