A contemporary vision for a democracy is that it involves those who wish to be involved; the highest expression of human rationality becomes reality when ordinary people speak and reason together on issues of common concern. Public deliberation is a structured dialogue around a challenging public problem. It is a means through which citizens can make tough choices about the basic purpose and direction of their communities and their country. Oklahoma State University and the Oklahoma Partnership for Public Deliberation, along with the University of Missouri, incorporated public deliberation into their public policy and community development work. To implement public deliberation, they conducted institutes and academies to prepare extension professionals and community leaders to use this practice in their public lives. Research to determine the impact of public deliberation in these two states indicates that public deliberation is a useful approach to addressing challenging social issues.