Keeping Our Nation's Promise: 9/11 and the Stories That Still Shape Us

At a time when memory risks becoming abstraction, the profiles in Keeping Our Nation’s Promise restore the human scale of history and remind us that remembering is not a passive pursuit. It’s an action in which we must each take part.

There is a moment in nearly every conversation about September 11, 2001, when the story moves away from where someone was and toward the things that have stayed across the years that followed. Details change, but the pattern holds: lives interrupted then reshaped, sometimes quietly, sometimes in ways that ripple forward for decades.

Keeping Our Nation’s Promise comes from those moments. While the voices gathered here reflect a wide range of experiences—from military leaders and first responders to artists, public figures, and those whose lives were directly shaped by the day—they share a common thread: Each person in this collection decided to carry something forward.

What emerges in these pages is a collection of lived trajectories, each one offering a unique vantage point on what it means to endure, adapt, and remain connected to a day that continues to shape the present and the future.

The collaboration behind Keeping Our Nation’s Promise brings together complementary perspectives. Dr. Chris Meek approaches this work through a long-standing commitment to national service and remembrance. Dave Jarecki brings a narrative lens shaped by years of listening, structuring, and crafting complex human stories with care. Together, they create space for these accounts to be heard, lived, and shared.

Keeping Our Nation’s Promise offers something that goes beyond a record of the day: an invitation to listen closely, remember, and reconsider what it means to move forward together.

Dr. Chris Meek has spent more than thirty years in the financial services industry, with a career that has taken him across some of the world’s most respected institutions, including Goldman Sachs, State Street Global Advisors, and S&P Global.

Meek is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of SoldierStrong. The charitable organization assists America’s military veterans in taking their next steps forward through the donation of revolutionary medical technology. He is also the founder and organizing committee chairman of the 9/11 Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to honoring the memory of those lost on September 11, 2001, and educating Americans about the profound and lasting impacts of the attacks.

He has been recognized for his work in philanthropy with the President’s Call to Service Award (2011), March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Outstanding Corporate Citizen Award (2012), Syracuse University’s Orange Circle Award (2014), and the ACT-IAC “Game Changer” Award (2020); he was named a “Face of Philanthropy” by the Chronicle of Philanthropy (2021); and he was awarded both the Voice of Courage and the Angel Award for his work in anti-human trafficking by Voices Against Trafficking (2025).

He holds a BA in economics and political science and an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, an MBA in financial management from Pace University, and a doctorate in organizational change and leadership from the University of Southern California.

Meek serves as an adjunct professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on nonprofit management and board governance. He shares his experiences and discusses resiliency, empowerment, and leadership through adversity on his weekly podcast Next Steps Forward with Dr. Chris Meek via VoiceAmerica Media. More information can be found at www.nextstepsforward.com.

Meek released his first book, Next Steps Forward: Beyond Remembering, The Power of Action, in 2022 and his second book, Everyday Triumph: Extraordinary Stories of Hope, Resilience, and Impact, in 2025.

Meek is the executive producer of The Heroism and Resiliency of 9/11, a documentary film directed by Michael Gier and narrated by Gary Sinise. Released in 2026, the film earned Documentary of the Year honors at the CENFLO Film Festival, the Silver Award for Feature Documentary at the London Movie Awards, and Film of the Year at the Beaufort Film Festival.

Since 1999, Dave Jarecki has provided writing and editorial support to global brands, businesses, nonprofit organizations, founders, executives, and authors. His work spans industries and focus areas including tech, leadership, business development, branding, higher education, health, sports, death and dying, and the arts. Across these fields, he creates brand strategy, long-form narratives, speeches, presentations, scripts, and books.

As a ghostwriter and developmental editor, Jarecki has contributed to more than two dozen published titles across genres, helping leaders, authors, and subject-matter experts shape complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives.

In addition to his work with businesses and authors, Jarecki has taught hundreds of writers in workshops, boardrooms, and classrooms, primarily in the Pacific Northwest.

Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Jarecki earned his BA in English from Penn State University and his MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University. His creative work, including poetry and narrative nonfiction, has appeared in a number of print and online journals and magazines. He currently lives in Vermont and collaborates daily with clients and partners around the world.