Jimmy Carter reflects on collaboration with Emory University

Former President Jimmy Carter at a press conference at The Carter Center in Atlanta on August 20, 2015. On Wednesday, he spoke on a panel about the Carter Center’s long-running partnership with Emory University.

Neil Hall/Pool Photo via AP

President Jimmy Carter says he imagines inequality in this country could be an issue the Carter Center decides to work on some day, as opposed to the international work the organization typically focuses on.

Carter spoke on a panel Wednesday evening with the current — and a past — president of Emory University.

“I think now that the difference in relative standing socially and economically between the very poor people on the one hand and the middle class who are going downward and the upper class is becoming a very serious problem,” he said.

Carter recalled The Atlanta Project, a program the Center and Emory collaborated on once before, addressing issues that the poorest people in Atlanta faced.

The Carter Center and Emory have a longstanding partnership and Carter still works with students there a few times a year.