Last summer, I had the great privilege to attend a “listening session” hosted by the Brookings Institution and Business for Diplomatic Action at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy on the subject of, well, public diplomacy.

The session, along with several like it that took place in other cities, brought together some very smart people from government, academia, entertainment, and communications to talk about what’s gone wrong with the way our country is perceived abroad, and what can be done to change it. It was a little intimidating looking around the table that day, to be sure, but I did my best to speak up for the non-profits we work with, which have such a vital role to play in shaping our society, and how we’re perceived around the world.

Specifically, there was a lot of discussion about the creation of private-public partnership– what that might look like, who should be involved, and where the pitfalls of something like that might lie. It was an absolutely fascinating conversation, and the end result (at least for now) is a report called Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century. Rebuilding our image overseas is going to be a key challenge over the next four years, and it’s good to know that such smart people are thinking about how we can all contribute to that.