Stanley Carlson-Thies

Director of Social Policy Studies

Stanley Carlson-Thies is Director of Social Policy Studies at the Center for Public Justice, a Washington, DC-area public-policy and leadership-development organization. Based on its ecumenical Christian perspective, the Center advocates for public policies that treat equally people and institutions of all faiths and no faith, and that protect and support the ability of nongovernmental organizations to carry out their services and missions.

Carlson-Thies’ focus is consulting, research, and advocacy in the area of government policy concerning faith-based organizations. He served with the White House Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives from its inception in February 2001 until mid-May 2002. He assisted with writing “Unlevel Playing Field: Barriers to Participation by Faith-Based and Community Organizations in Federal Social Service Programs,” a report released by the White House in August 2001, and “Rallying the Armies of Compassion,” the initial blueprint for President George W. Bush’s faith and community agenda. He also helped to organize and guide the work of the five initial cabinet centers for faith-based and community initiatives.

He consults widely with government agencies, including the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the Corporation for National and Community Services, state service commissions, and state offices of faith-based and community initiatives.

Carlson-Thies’ publications include:

• Charitable Choice for Welfare & Community Services: An Implementation Guide for State, Local, and Federal Officials (Center for Public Justice, 2000)
• A Guide to Charitable Choice: The Rules of Section 104 of the 1996 Federal Welfare Law Governing State Cooperation with Faith-based Social-Service Providers (a co-publication of the Center for Public Justice and the Center for Law and Religious Freedom of the Christian Legal Society, 1997)
• The Freedom of Faith-Based Organizations to Staff on a Religious Basis, with Carl Esbeck and Ron Sider (Center for Public Justice, 2004)
• “Implementing the Faith-Based Initiative” in The Public Interest (Spring 2004)
• Revolution of Compassion: Faith-Based Groups as Full Partners in Fighting America’s Social Problems, with Dave Donaldson (Baker Books, 2003)

He testified on the federal faith-based and community initiative to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources (Committee on Government Reform), June 21, 2005.  He was a co-drafter of the statement In Good Faith: A Dialogue on Government Funding of Faith-Based Social Services (Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, Temple University, 2001).

Carlson-Thies was named as one of twelve advocates who are “reinterpreting God and country” by the National Journal in May 2004. He received the William Bentley Ball Life and Religious Liberty Defense Award from the Center for Law and Religious Freedom and the Christian Legal Society in October, 2004. He holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Toronto. 

Email: stanley@cpjustice.org
Phone: 410-571-6300 x13