Heidi Beirich is the Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Beirich is also an Advisory Board Member of the Network for Hate Studies based out of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology and the former Intelligence Project Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Intelligence Project, which publishes the award-winning Intelligence Report and the Hatewatch blog. Beirich is an expert on various forms of extremism, including the white supremacist, nativist and neo-Confederate movements, as well as racism in academia.

Beirich oversaw the SPLC’s yearly count of the nation’s hate and anti-government groups, was a frequent contributor to the SPLC’s investigative reports and is an oft-sought speaker at conferences on extremism. Before joining the SPLC staff in 1999, Beirich earned a doctorate in political science from Purdue University. She is the co-editor and author of several chapters of Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction.

Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Environment and Building Resilient Futures is a series that explores how natural, social, and political climates both shape and are changed by institutions and social structures. We engage with artists, educators, activists and authors to examine where we live and how we live in our surrounding environment and what it takes to build a resilient future.

Guest: Heidi Beirich
Host: Jon-Barrett Ingels
Produced by Past Forward in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.
Date recorded: November 19, 2025

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