New York, N.Y. Public Agenda, the national, nonprofit, nonpartisan opinion research organization, today announced the appointment of Ruth Wooden, Executive Vice President-Senior Counselor at the international public relations firm of Porter Novelli as its new President. Ms. Wooden will succeed retiring Public Agenda President Deborah Wadsworth, who joined the organization as Executive Director in 1986 and became its President in 1999.

Public Agenda Board Chairman Daniel Yankelovich, who founded the organization with former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance in 1975, said Under Deborah Wadsworth's extraordinary leadership, Public Agenda has grown into a unique national resource providing quality research into how Americans think and what concerns them about issues ranging from education to immigration to civility and religion in American life. With Deborah's guidance, Public Agenda has become an unparalleled source of unbiased and accessible information on critical issues and an invaluable asset for an educated citizenry. We fully believe that Ruth Wooden will further strengthen this impressive track record as she assumes the Presidency of Public Agenda.

According to Public Agenda's Executive Committee Chairman Sidney Harman, Executive Chairman of Harman International Industries, Ruth Wooden is the ideal candidate to lead Public Agenda and to build on Deborah Wadsworth's 17-year legacy of excellence. Leaders in government, business, the media, education and the nonprofit and philanthropic communities consistently turn to Public Agenda for in-depth, often thought-provoking analysis. Ruths outstanding business, policy and strategic communications abilities are perfectly aligned to build on the organization's intellectual and institutional strengths and to bring Public Agenda's research and message to an even larger audience.

Fortunately, Ruth Wooden and Deborah Wadsworth have known each other a lengthy time, and Deborah has agreed to continue for an indeterminate period as Senior Advisor to Ms. Wooden and Public Agenda. That assures both a smooth and professional transition.

Ms. Wooden, who will officially join Public Agenda on August 4, 2003, has been Executive Vice President-Senior Counselor at Porter Novelli for cause-related marketing since 2001. Before joining Porter Novelli, she served as volunteer President of the National Parenting Association. From 1987 to 1999 she was President of The Advertising Council, the nations leading producer of public service announcements. During Ms. Woodens tenure there, the Ad Council collaborated with Public Agenda on the ground-breaking study Kids These Days: What Americans Really Think About the Next Generation which was named by Congressional Quarterly as one of the 50 most important documents of 1995.

Ms. Wooden currently serves on the Boards of U.S. Trust Company; The Advertising Council; Phoenix House Foundation; and Civic Ventures, San Francisco. She is a member of Advisory Committees serving Americas Promise; the Office of National Drug Control Policy; the Harvard Business School Initiative on Social Enterprise and Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health and School of Health Sciences.

She is the recipient of United Jewish Appeals Maxwell Dane Humanitarian Award; Advertising Woman of the Year; the Prudential Prize in Non-Profit Leadership and the Matrix Award from New York Women in Communication.