Kennedy and other members of her family created the Profile in Courage Award in 1989. The award is given to a public official or officials whose actions demonstrate politically courageous leadership in the spirit of John F. Kennedy's book, "Profiles in Courage". In 2001, she presented the award to former president Gerald Ford for his controversial pardon of former president Richard M. Nixon almost 30 years prior. She is also president of the Kennedy Library Foundation and an adviser to the Harvard Institute of Politics. Kennedy is a member of the New York and Washington, D.C., bar associations. She is also a member of the boards of directors of the Commission on Presidential Debates and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and is an honorary chair of the American Ballet Theatre. Kennedy represented her family at the funeral services of former presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford and former First Ladies Lady Bird Johnson and Barbara Bush. She also represented her family at the dedication of the Bill Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, in November 2004. She also represented her family at the dedication of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library in 1997. Kennedy attended the fiftieth-anniversary ceremony of the March on Washington on August 28, 2013. On December 7, 2019, Kennedy christened the new USS "John F. Kennedy" (CVN-79) at Newport News Shipbuilding.