Washington Policy Center will be back in the desert for our 18th Annual Evening in the Desert in Palm Springs! This is one of our most popular and exclusive events.
We are excited to feature Dr. Vicki Murray, our inaugural Paul W. Locke Research Fellow in Education. Dr. Murray is one of the most sought-after authors, researchers and speakers nationally on all matters of educational reform. She’ll be previewing how WPC plans to bring more choice and opportunity to families while ensuring our state and economy will have the workforce we need to thrive today and tomorrow.
After an evening in La Quinta, CA, with Pillar Society President and WPC Board Chair Greg Porter, join us at the Vintage Club in Indian Wells, where VP for Research Todd Myers will detail the 2025 groundswell we’re leading to build momentum and implement real change in our state.
Our thanks to Greg Porter and our Vintage Club Reception and Program hosts: John & Mimi Ferlin, Chuck & Karen Lytle, Kirby & Diane McDonald, and John & Sally Nordstrom.
Registration below!
Welcome Reception
Date: Friday, April 4, 2025
Time: 4:00pm
Location: La Quinta, CA
Evening in the Desert
Date: Saturday, April 5, 2025
Time: 4:00pm
Location: The Vintage Club: 75001 Vintage Dr. W, Indian Wells, CA 92110
To learn more, please contact our team at pthibaut@washingtonpolicy.org
Dr. Vicki Murray is the Paul W. Locke Research Fellow for Education at Washington Policy Center. She is the author of Failure: The Federal ‘Misedukation’ of America’s Children, an in-depth history of the U.S. Department of Education and federal education policy. Vicki is a co-author of eight additional books, as well as nearly 80 policy studies. She has advised the U.S. Department of Education, policymakers in 45 states, and provided expert testimony before state legislative education committees. Her research has also been used in educational choice program litigation, including the successful defense of country’s first tax-credit scholarship program in the U.S. Supreme Court. Vicki’s research and commentary on education policy have been widely published and cited in leading public policy outlets such as Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance, Stanford University’s Hoover Digest, Education Week, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, as well as national news media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Investor’s Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, and US News & World Report. She has also appeared on the Fox News Channel, Global News, local ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS affiliates, in addition to news radio programs across the country. Prior to her career in education policy, Vicki taught college-level courses in American politics, English composition and rhetoric, and early British literature. She received her Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Dallas, where she was an Earhart Foundation Fellow. Vicki lives in Seattle and hails from Scottsdale, Arizona. She is dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for all families, regardless of their income or address. These include public district and charter school choices, as well as private, home, virtual, and parent-tailored options made possible through education savings accounts.
With more than two decades in environmental policy, Todd Myers’s experience includes work on a range of environmental issues, including climate policy, forest health, old-growth forests, and salmon recovery. A former member of the executive team at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, he is a member of the Puget Sound Salmon Recovery Council.
He is the author of “Time to Think Small: How nimble environmental technologies can solve the planet’s biggest problems,” which outlines how small technologies are empowering people to protect threatened wildlife species, reduce CO2 emissions, and reduce ocean plastic. His previous book “Eco-Fads: How the Rise of Trendy Environmentalism Is Harming the Environment” documented how our environmental policies are driven by a desire to look good rather than to help the environment.
His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Seattle Times, and USA Today, and he has appeared on numerous news networks including CNBC, Fox News, the BBC, and CNN. He served as vice president of the Northwest Association of Biomedical Research and received their Distinguished Service Award in 2018 for his support of bioscience. He has also served as president of the Prescription Drug Assistance Foundation, a nonprofit providing medicines to low-income patients.
In 2021, Myers served as president of his local beekeeping club in his quest to build an army of stinging insects at his command. He has a bachelor’s degree in politics from Whitman College and a master’s degree in Russian/International Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington. He and his wife Maria live in the Cascade Mountains in Washington state with 200,000 honeybees, and he claims to make an amazing pasta carbonara and an incredible dirty vodka martini with blue-cheese-stuffed olives.