Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s post-Congress job revealed

Former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi already has her subsequent act lined up after she ends her four-decade profession in Congress in January 2027.

The California congresswoman will return to her residence state to guide the newly created Nancy Pelosi Institute for Consultant Democracy on the College of California, Berkeley.

“I feel all of us in public service who’ve a chance to take action wish to use our expertise to coach leaders for the long run,” she advised CNN.

She described the transfer as an opportunity to depart behind the partisan battles of Washington, DC with out leaving public service altogether.

“I seen this as a liberation for me from the political, not politics, however partisanship,” Pelosi mentioned. “Since you’re going to an educational establishment. It’s about what our founders had in thoughts with our Structure, and it’s a lovely story to inform.”

Pelosi introduced in November 2025 that she wouldn’t search reelection in 2026, bringing an finish to her historic profession representing California’s eleventh Congressional District. She endorsed San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan as her most well-liked successor.

UC Berkeley introduced Monday that it’s going to launch the Nancy Pelosi Institute for Consultant Democracy in January 2027 inside the Charles and Louise Travers Division of Political Science.

Regardless of carrying her title, Pelosi careworn the institute is not going to be a standard middle with a devoted constructing, workplace or campus landmark bearing her title.

As a substitute, she mentioned it would perform as what she described as a “programmatic” institute, utilizing Berkeley’s current lecture rooms, lecture halls and auditoriums to host programs, analysis and public occasions.

When requested whether or not college students would in the future stroll previous a constructing labeled the “Nancy Pelosi Institute,” she laughed.

“I hope not,” Pelosi mentioned, including that Berkeley already has “lecture rooms, they’ve auditoriums, they’ve theaters.”

She mentioned the institute is supposed to be an educational idea reasonably than a bodily vacation spot on campus, bringing collectively college students, students and public officers by instructing, analysis and civic engagement.

The nonpartisan institute will give attention to strengthening democratic establishments, addressing political polarization, advancing human and civil rights, and tackling main coverage challenges starting from local weather change to synthetic intelligence.

“The work of democracy isn’t completed, and securing its future is our biggest calling,” Pelosi mentioned in UC Berkeley’s announcement.

“UC Berkeley has an extended, proud historical past of difficult the established order and producing leaders who run towards the best challenges of our time. I’m honored to companion with this distinctive neighborhood of students and college students so we will equip the subsequent era with the instruments they should strengthen our democratic establishments and forge a future that serves the general public good.”

Pelosi mentioned the proposal first got here from Berkeley directors and about eight school members almost a yr in the past. Though honored by the provide, she mentioned she didn’t instantly settle for it.

She mentioned the concept in the end satisfied her was making a bipartisan educational institute at Berkeley, which she described as “the epitome of public training.”

“I beloved it as a result of they talked about human rights within the US and on this planet, speaking about and addressing the challenges to our democracy, speaking about challenges of the local weather and financial earnings inequity,” Pelosi, 86, mentioned.

The former Speaker of the Home additionally mentioned she plans to ask outstanding Democrats and Republicans to Berkeley to talk with college students and take part in discussions. She may also co-teach a course on Congress alongside political science professor Eric Schickler, one of many nation’s main students of the legislative department.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Wealthy Lyons mentioned the institute displays the college’s mission to arrange future civic leaders.

“The aim and affect of the NPI might be outlined and strengthened by Berkeley’s means to convey collectively world-class school and extraordinary college students and by our dedication, because the nation’s preeminent public college, to advancing the better good,” Lyons mentioned. “We intend to do greater than merely research democracy; we’re constructing this institute to strengthen it.”

The institute is anticipated to help a whole lot of scholars every year by school analysis, undergraduate programs and a visiting fellows program that includes skilled public officers from throughout the political spectrum.

Based on the college, the mission has already secured greater than $35 million in philanthropic commitments towards a broader $50 million fundraising marketing campaign to determine everlasting endowments and increase future initiatives.

Pelosi advised CNN she had agreed to maneuver ahead solely after committing to lift $25 million in non-public donations earlier than the institute was publicly introduced, including that reaching that milestone got here “fairly simply.”

Reflecting on the subsequent chapter of her profession, Pelosi mentioned she hopes the institute will assist put together future generations of public servants whereas preserving the ideas she spent many years championing in Congress.

“I’m so pleased with what I go away behind, and the way they go on to what’s subsequent,” she mentioned.

Pelosi has represented San Francisco within the US Home of Representatives since 1987. She made historical past as the primary and solely girl to function Speaker of the Home, holding the place from 2007 to 2011 and once more from 2019 to 2023, turning into the primary speaker in additional than 60 years to serve nonconsecutive phrases.

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