About Us

Beyond the Gridlock is an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to sharing proven strategies and resources that reduce polarization and equip you to navigate these highly divided times.

What We Believe:

The level of political polarization into "us and them" groups is having a detrimental effect on our political system and society. It is impacting every area of our lives.
One person alone cannot change our polarized world, but together we can.
Having dialogue with people with whom we disagree is the starting foundation that will help us through these disruptive and divisive times.
Dialogue is the beginning, not the end.
Collaboration is essential for overcoming challenges and creating positive, lasting change.
When individuals from diverse backgrounds and perspectives work together, we can harness collective wisdom and creativity to address complex issues.
We believe you can find where and how you can make an impact.

Who We Are:

Hi, we're Pam Hay and Laura Piemonte. We established Beyond the Gridlock because of our concerns about extreme polarization and divisiveness in our country, the ongoing conflicts over almost every issue that arises, and our desire to equip ourselves and others to do something to ease the growing divides in our families, workplaces and political system.

Independently, we've been working on depolarazing efforts since 2018, and in our careers and personal lives, have been immersed in educating others and ourselves in effective communication and conflict management. That said, we consider ourselves practitioners as this is an ongoing practice for us.

In 2021 we joined forces to bring programs from a nationally recognized organization into community colleges. After listening to participants' questions and concerns, we dedicated the past several years to researching organizations and resources and participating in various programs to learn what can be done to effectively reduce our increasing national divides.

We discovered that there are countless people and organizations working to address the issue and uncovered research on what is effective and what is not.

We would like to share this information with you and hope that you will join us in our mission to promote cooperation across different political perspectives. Our goal is to create a more collaborative and less divisive society where we work together for the greater good.