Sidore Lecture: Trevor Chandler: Getting Along Is Boring, Let’s Fight: Embrace Conflict and Live the Most Interesting Life

The world is a fascinating place!

The 2023-24 Sidore Lecture series will explore how curiosity and creativity feed passion for life.

9/14/2023 Trevor Chandler
Getting Along Is Boring, Let’s Fight: Embrace Conflict and Live the Most Interesting Life

Political toxicity and polarization continue to strain our institutions and civic cohesiveness with studies showing less trust between Republicans and Democrats than between Israelis and Palestinans in the Middle East. Simultaneously, Americans are increasingly self-isolating to their ideological corners and reporting ever higher degrees of loneliness. Has our society’s attempt to avoid conflict with those we disagree with actually hurt our quality of life? Can diving into conflict not only improve you professional life but personal life? Trevor will discuss his groundbreaking work bridging divides on some of the most sensitive domestic and international issues of our time to demonstrate how you can make an impact not only on an issue you care about, but also be a part of repairing America’s civic fabric.

About Trevor

The theme of Trevor Chandler’s career has been taking on the tough fights and winning. Not by bludgeoning his opponents into silence but by engaging them head-on. From being a leading strategist and organizer for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement, to navigating Middle East politics as the Progressive Outreach Director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), to diving into the debate around tech and public safety as Director of Government Affairs for the Citizen app, to now running for office in a San Francisco at a crossroads Trevor has successfully shown how being deliberately and authentically curious about how people who disagree with him think can make a global impact and chart a totally unique career path.

Trevor’s work earned him a spot on The Economist Magazine’s Top 50 Global Diversity Leaders in Public Life alongside the Obamas and Malala Yousefzai. In addition to previously serving as Student Body President he has been recognized by PSU as the Van Hartman Outstanding Senior Male (‘09) and with the Recent Alumni Award of Excellence.