Letter from the Director & Chairman
In this moment, Massachusetts and the nation are facing a pandemic. Like you, Pioneer Institute has pivoted its full attention to the coronavirus contagion.
Each of Pioneer’s four focus areas is relevant to the challenges at hand. The Institute is extremely wellpositioned to contribute to the solutions our communities so urgently need:
• Our life sciences team is working on policies that allow innovative diagnostics and therapies to enter the marketplace quickly; and our healthcare team is focused on making room for new providers, whether through telehealth, convenience care clinics, or other decentralized market players—both are PioneerHealth initiatives.
• In this pandemic, it is critical to ensure that the public can access public information, and that the state can effectively manage programs like Medicaid and unemployment—both are key Pioneer objectives.
• PioneerEducation’s award-winning work has made the Institute the key advocate for digital learning in the weeks since our brick-and-mortar public schools were closed.
Like you, we are focused on addressing the extreme challenge before us. As the state and nation begin to dig their way out of a recession unlike any other in our history, the PioneerOpportunity team brings expertise and analytic tools that will craft targeted, market-based solutions to get people back to work. The world will come out of this pandemic changed. But our confidence in our state’s and country’s future is based on centuries of evidence: American ingenuity and markets are a potent social force for rebirth. Even as we do our utmost to aid in the work ahead to address the pandemic, we will focus on what is next. And Pioneer, too, will be a changed place. Over the past six months, our Board of Directors has crafted a strategic plan that will speed our progress and build new capacities to ensure that Pioneer’s reach and positive impact continue to grow. We are also looking forward. Our best course is to look forward even as we stare down these difficult days.
We will recover and establish a new normal, and those organizations that are nimble and learn from this challenge will emerge stronger. The Pioneer community will do just that. The long list of policy results in this year’s Looking Forward annual report should inspire confidence. We will soon turn away from the pandemic and fear. Return to a new “normal” will re-ignite the embers of good, old American ambition to build and improve our world. Pioneer will be ready, with new tools that speed our progress in education, health, transportation, and economic well-being. We are deeply grateful for your moral and financial support. Please join us as we do what is necessary today and build our future tomorrow.
– Jim Stergios and Stephen D. Fantone
Pioneer Education: BREAKING DOWN BARRIERS
Pioneer Institute has been working for over 30 years to expand access to excellent public, private, and religious schools for all children. That has meant promoting high-quality instruction focused on rigorous academic content; highlighting a portfolio of learning environments, including charter, private, parochial, vocational-technical, and online schools, as well as after-school math and science programs; and removing barriers to school choice options. More recently, Pioneer has also worked to raise awareness of Massachusetts’ bureaucratic obstacles to providing equitable special needs and health services for students at religious schools, consistent with federal law. To advance these initiatives, Pioneer has published research, convened key stakeholders, appeared in local and national press, filed amici briefs, produced a documentary film and video series, and much more. We are pleased to share some victories on these fronts.
Better Government Competition Awards Gala:
“Moving People, Moving Goods, Moving Forward”
Pioneer made transportation the topic of its Better Government Competition this year, awarding prizes and recognition to the ten best ideas to address traffic congestion, reduce environmental impact, and ensure public safety. Ideas from local groups and activists were highlighted, such as electrifying the Providence commuter rail line, better managing the I-93 HOV lane, improving pedestrian safety, expanding the new North-Station Seaport Ferry, and many others. Pioneer disseminated these ideas through social media promotion and outreach to policymakers and media appearances, including an op-ed placement in The Boston Globe. Pioneer recognized the winners at our prestigious awards dinner with keynote speaker, Bruce Landsberg, Vice Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, and welcoming remarks from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.
Pioneer Health: CLEARING NEW PATHS
Across the nation, patients are struggling to cover their medical costs, hindering their ability to obtain the best health outcomes and quality of life. Over the past year, Pioneer has been engaging the public, policymakers, healthcare providers, insurers, and advocacy groups in important conversations about how to create a more consumer-oriented healthcare system through greater price transparency and affordability, while also expanding access to new, potentially life-saving drug therapies. Through testimony and meetings, public forums, research, presentations, a public opinion survey, social media campaigns, op-eds, and other media appearances in Boston and nationally, Pioneer’s Senior Fellows in Healthcare and Life Sciences have successfully injected healthcare knowledge into the public conversation, debunked common misconceptions, and advanced solutions that improve patient engagement and offer market-based approaches to cost containment. Below, we share some of our impact.
Hewitt Healthcare Lecture:
“The Future of Healthcare in America”
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II was the featured speaker at Pioneer Institute’s 2019 Hewitt Healthcare Lecture. Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Josh Archambault interviewed the Secretary in a fireside chat format, covering healthcare price transparency, the administration’s efforts to end the HIV epidemic, the opioid crisis, the Affordable Care Act, and more. Pioneer Institute annually hosts the Hewitt Healthcare Lecture, which gathers leaders in medicine, research, policy, and business at Harvard Medical School to hear from national experts on the timeliest topics in healthcare policy. The event received coverage in The Boston Globe and on WGBH, and Pioneer placed op-eds in The Hill and The Washington Examiner drawing on the Secretary’s remarks.
Pioneer Transportation: REMOVING ROADBLOCKS TO MOBILITY
Inadequate roadways and broken transit systems weaken our economy and quality of life, stimulating critical public debates about the MBTA, congestion pricing, bus rapid transit, bike lanes, ridesharing, and other innovations. Promoting policies that upgrade our transportation systems is central to Pioneer’s mission. That’s why we continually lead the conversation in solutions that ensure more reliable, affordable, and convenient transit and road travel for commuters across the Commonwealth. Pioneer’s senior transportation researchers participate in public forums; deliver testimony at public hearings; regularly appear in local and national media outlets; and cultivate longstanding relationships with policymakers, leading experts, and coalition partners across Massachusetts. Through our 2019 Better Government Competition, we highlighted innovative programs that harness human capital and technology to advance the transportation systems of tomorrow, while making targeted investments in infrastructure to maximize efficiency and increase public transit use. We amplify those efforts through social media campaigns, including informational videos, and our efforts are benefiting the public. Below, we share some highlights of our impact.
Pioneer Opportunity: ACCELERATING ECONOMIC GROWTH
PioneerOpportunity seeks to keep Massachusetts competitive by promoting a healthy business climate, transparent regulation, small business creation in urban areas, and sound environmental and development policies. Current initiatives promote worker freedom and market reforms to increase the supply of affordable housing, reduce the cost of doing business, and revitalize urban areas. We are pleased to share some victories on these fronts.
Pioneer Publications: Books, Research Papers, Policy Briefs, Testimony, Event Transcripts
Total Downloads of Pioneer research in 2019
REACHING FAR & WIDE
PIONEER CAN ONLY FULFILL ITS MISSION TO IMPROVE THE quality of life for all if it can deploy effective communications. The Institute has long enjoyed a reputation within traditional media as a rational and influential voice in both state and national policy debates, based on our credible, fact-based research and highly trustworthy team of policy experts. In recent years, Pioneer has focused more resources than ever on amplifying our research and programs through digital media, adapting to the latest technology and marketing trends to further engage existing audiences and discover new, increasingly diverse ones. This shift has meant more focus on search engine optimization, social media platforms, infographics, videos, analytics, podcasting, and other tools to help penetrate larger shares of the viewing and listening public. Below, we present some of our 2019 results:
Media Hits: Articles, Interviews & Editorials in Newspapers, Trade Journals, TV & Radio in Massachusetts & Across the Nation
Total Media Reach
Be A Pioneer. Get Involved.
Share this book on social media.