Throughout our history, United Way has brought people together to strengthen communities.

As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, the 2026 OpportUNITY Summit calls us back to a foundational idea: that opportunity should not be limited by circumstance. United in purpose, leaders from across sectors will recommit to renewing the promise of America—expanding access to economic mobility and building a future that works for all people.

Join us in 2026 for our fifth annual opportunity summit, United in Purpose: Renewing the Promise of America

WHEN

Wednesday, May 20th 2026
8:00am – 12:30pm

WHERE

The Bellevue Hotel (200 S Broad St, Philadelphia, PA 19102)

REGISTER HERE

Speakers

Cullum Clark

Fellow, Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative
Adjunct Professor of Economics, SMU
George W. Bush Presidential Center

Cullum Clark is the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative Fellow at the George W. Bush Presidential Center and an Adjunct Economics Professor at SMU. Cullum’s work focuses on advancing the Bush Institute principle of private markets humanized by compassionate government and on creating prosperous, high opportunity cities as a path to expanding economic opportunity in America. He co-authored the 2021 book The Texas Triangle: An Emerging Power in the Global Economy. Cullum’s work has appeared in City Journal, Real Clear Policy, and numerous other publications, plus the Freakonomics Radio podcast. He has published in-depth reports on the role of universities and academic medical centers in local and regional economies and on housing supply and affordability in U.S. cities. Cullum worked in investments for 25 years, founding two firms. He serves on the Board of the Texas charter school network Uplift Education and on several foundation and endowment boards. He earned a B.A. in History from Yale, a Master’s Degree in Political Science from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in Economics from SMU.

Dr. Laurie Santos

Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology

Yale University

In addition to her work on the evolutionary origins of human cognition, Laurie is an expert on the science of happiness and the ways in which our minds lie to us about what makes us happy. Her Yale course, Psychology and the Good Life, teaches students how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The class became Yale’s most popular course in over 300 years, with almost one out of four students enrolled. Her course has been featured in The New York Times, NBC Nightly News, The Today Show, GQ Magazine, Slate and O! Magazine. The online version of the class—The Science of Well-Being on Coursera.org—has attracted more than 4 million learners from around the world. A winner of numerous awards both for her science and teaching, she was recently voted as one of Popular Science Magazine’s “Brilliant 10” young minds, and was named in Time Magazine as a “Leading Campus Celebrity.” Her podcast, The Happiness Lab, is a top-3 Apple podcast which has attracted 150+ million downloads since its launch.

Andre m. Perry

Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Community Uplift

Brookings Institution

Andre M. Perry is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Community Uplift at the Brookings Institution. He is also a professor of practice of economics at Washington University of St. Louis. A nationally known and respected commentator on race, structural inequality, and education, Perry is the author of “Black Power Scorecard: Measuring the Racial Gap and What We Can Do to Close It,” (Henry Holt April 2025). In 2020 Brooking Press published “Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.”