For Nancy Pelosi, good-bye Congress. Hello, Pelosi Democracy Institute

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is retiring from Congress but not retiring from politics.

The Nancy Pelosi Institute for Representative Democracy is being launched in January at the University of California, Berkeley, the university announced June 29. The institute will sponsor research, support summer internships, host an annual forum "for global thought leaders" and offer undergraduate classes.

Here's one of them: a course on Congress co-taught by political science professor Eric Schickler and Pelosi.

Still 'making the fight'

"I have, shall we say, no power right now," with President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of the House, Pelosi told USA TODAY in an interview in December. "I'll have less when I'm not in Congress, but that doesn't mean I'm without influence. There are many people outside the Congress, including I .... who can be making the fight."

The first woman (and the first Californian) to serve as speaker of the House, Pelosi played a crucial role in enacting the Affordable Care Act, responding to the financial meltdown of 2008 and opposing the Iraq War. Many historians and politicians view her as the most powerful woman in the history of the United States.

She was an important legislative ally of Democratic President Barack Obama, who named the garden pavilion at his new Obama Presidential Center in Chicago in her honor. She was the nemesis of Republican President Donald Trump during his first term. Under her leadership, the House impeached him twice. The Senate acquitted him both times.

When Pelosi announced she wouldn't run for a 21st term this year, Trump called her "an evil woman" who "did the country a great service by retiring."

She also gained the enmity of Democratic President Joe Biden when she pushed him to reconsider his decision to seek a second term in 2024. They later reconciled.

"The work of democracy is never finished, and securing its future is our greatest calling," Pelosi, now 86, said in a written statement. She said she was "thinking about the words embroidered in Abraham Lincoln's overcoat 'One Country, One Destiny.'"

$32 million raised so far

The Nancy Pelosi Institute already has received more than $32 million in pledges, with a goal of raising a total of $50 million, the university said. The donors include Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, as well as prominent philanthropists, some with roots in Silicon Valley and some of them major Democratic donors.

Among them: former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy, Dagmar Dolby, Fred Eychaner, Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine, George and Judy Marcus, Jon Stryker and Slobodan Randjelovic and the family of Ron Conway.

"We intend to do more than simply study democracy," Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons said. "We are building this institute to strengthen it."

The institute is described as nonpartisan, but the description of its work has a liberal cast. That's no surprise given Pelosi's Democratic resume and Berkeley's famously progressive campus. The fundamental "pillars" include promoting human rights and civil rights, and the research it supports will include climate change and wealth inequality.

The announcement didn't use the word "diversity," but it did express the goal of "ensuring political leadership that represents the full spectrum of perspectives and backgrounds in California and the country." Berkeley is among the elite universities that have faced scrutiny of admissions policies and some programs by the Trump administration, which has threatened federal funding for use of race-based practices.

The Pelosi institute will also focus on reforming the criminal justice system and ensuring that artificial intelligence "can enable instead of undermine democracy."

Susan Page, the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY, is the author of the best-selling biography "Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power" (Twelve, 2021).