08/19/2025
1 in 4 Americans now goes a full day without a single face-to-face conversation.
I had the honor of writing this piece for the Bush Institute’s The Catalyst journal as part of their Profiles in Pluralism series.
It’s not just a reflection. It’s a response to what I believe is one of the defining challenges of our generation: relational collapse at scale.
In the essay, I reflect on the lived wisdom from my own journey and from our present work at the Family Dinner Foundation, where we’ve developed a scalable model of mutual care now being piloted across campuses, neighborhoods, and cities.
What began as a movement around the dinner table nearly two decades ago has become something more expansive and transcendent,�a framework for designing systems of belonging that redeem our understanding of human connection and offer a real response to the disconnection and division shaping this cultural moment.
I’m excited about this moment, our present work, and the opportunity to partner with many more of you, my friends and colleagues in higher education, real estate development, faith, and civic leadership, to answer this pressing call.
Special thanks to George W. Bush Presidential Center, Jonathan Tepperman, Olivia Hernández, Casey R. Rodriguez, MBA and more for the opportunity to contribute to this amazing journal.
Read the full essay:
Keita Hopton found herself in a place she hadn’t chosen in the fall of 2013, carrying her life in trash bags, grieving the death of her mother, and abandoned by her family. She had just started a new job in Houston, but, emotionally, she was done.
