William J. Antholis

William J. Antholis has served as director and CEO of UVA’s Miller Center of Public Affairs since January 2015. In that time, the Miller Center has strengthened its position as the leading nonpartisan research institution on the American presidency and worked with scholars across the University of Virginia to deliver vital research to policymakers and the public.

Miller Center initiatives have included the First Year Project 2017, the 2019 Presidential Ideas Festival, the completion and release of the George W. Bush Oral History project, the launch of the Barack Obama Oral History project, the Hillary Rodham Clinton Oral History project, the co-production of the PBS documentary Statecraft: The Bush 41 Team, the creation of The LBJ Telephone Tapes exhibit with the LBJ Library, and the COVID Commission Planning Group. The Miller Center has supported the work of the College of Arts and Sciences Democracy Initiative and partnered with the Karsh Institute of Democracy in developing and delivering Election 2020 and Its Aftermath, the UVA Democracy Biennial, and the Democracy Dialogues. Antholis also co-chaired the Presidential Inaugural Committee for President Jim Ryan’s installation in October 2018.

Before coming to the Miller Center, Antholis served as managing director at The Brookings Institution from 2004 to 2014. In that capacity, he worked directly with Brookings' president and vice presidents to help manage the full range of policy studies, develop new initiatives, coordinate research across programs while ensuring quality and independence, and strengthen the policy impact of Brookings’ work. Antholis is the author of Inside Out India and China: Local Politics Go Global (2013) and co-author (with Strobe Talbott) of Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming (2010). He has published articles, book chapters, and opinion pieces on U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade. From 1995 to 1999, Antholis served on the White House National Security Council and National Economic Council as well as at the State Department. From 1999-2004, he was director of studies and senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an International Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a visiting scholar at Princeton University. 

Antholis is an Archon of the Greek Orthodox Church and serves on the board of trustees of the American College of Greece and Titan Cement International.

Antholis earned his PhD from Yale University in politics (1993) and his BA degree with honors from the University of Virginia in government and foreign affairs (1986).