Fifty years ago, the Miller Center was founded at a time of national crisis.

After decades of expanding presidential authority—from Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal to Dwight Eisenhower’s national security buildout, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society, and the turmoil of the Nixon years—the nation was facing a painful reckoning over the limits, responsibilities, and risks of presidential power. Since the beginning, the Miller Center has studied these challenges and served as a forum where scholars, government officials, and citizens can grapple with problems to find solutions.

Leading up to our 50th anniversary in September 2025, the Center’s leaders launched an updated strategic plan to guide work through 2030. The  plan’s priorities are anchored in a new articulation of the Center’s founding mission: “The Miller Center is a nonpartisan institution at the University of Virginia that explores how the American presidency meets national priorities and engages scholars with leading citizens to help solve  major problems.”

The Miller Center is a nonpartisan institution at the University of Virginia that explores how the American presidency meets national priorities and engages scholars with leading citizens to help solve  major problems

In short, the Center has a plan for exploring and engaging over the next five years. But what about the next 50 years?

“Scoping our work that far into the future means staying true to what has made us so effective, which is listening to both scholars and practitioners,” said Miller Center Director and CEO William Antholis. “From economics to geopolitics, from technological transformations to new civic activism, our scholars must focus on emerging priorities and work with others to help find solutions.”

Professor Marc Selverstone, director of presidential studies, noted that the Center will “continue to document the American presidency through conducting oral histories and transcribing presidential recordings and will share that knowledge and our analyses widely.” He added, “Our core work  is to illuminate and improve the presidency and to advance policy solutions. We’ve set goals through 2030, but they have a much longer tail.”

Selverstone also noted that the Center is devoting resources to harness the emerging powers of artificial intelligence to expand and accelerate  the work of the Center’s scholars. These intellectual investments are already bearing fruit and will underpin future advances.

Scoping the Miller Center's work into the future means staying true to what has made us so effective, which is listening to both scholars and practitioners

Lyndsay Alexander, the Miller Center’s chief operating officer, emphasized the enduring wisdom of the Center’s founders—UVA Law School alumnus  Burkett Miller, UVA President Edgar Shannon, and Virginia Governor Linwood Holton. “They envisioned a ‘nonpolitical forum’—just outside the orbit of government life in Washington, D.C.—for scholars, senior officials, and leading citizens to share ideas and solve problems,” Alexander said. “At the Miller Center, we remain committed to reaching across political divides to solve problems together. It’s in our DNA.”

The Center's founders envisioned a ‘nonpolitical forum’—just outside the orbit of government life in Washington, D.C.—for scholars, senior officials, and leading citizens to share ideas and solve problems

The Center’s programs are built on decades of hard work and philanthropic  investment, noted Andrew Chancey, director of administration and finance. “By carefully stewarding and reinvesting these resources, we are committed to letting the next generation of scholars and practitioners continue this great work.”

ILLUMINATING THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Former White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, cochair of the Miller Center’s 2025 Conference on the American Presidency, praised the Center’s nonpartisan oral history program for bringing presidencies to life and informing future leaders. “Just as rigorous questions, metrics, and empirical data lead to better decisions than ‘happy talk’ in the Oval Office,” Bolten said, “the Miller Center can continue to play a valuable role by asking hard questions and providing reliable, unbiased information about presidential decisions.”

The Miller Center can continue to play a valuable role by asking hard questions and providing reliable, unbiased information about presidential decisions

Thomas Donilon, former national security advisor and conference cochair, echoed that view. “The Miller Center’s philosophy is that understanding past presidents’ successes and failures is key to preparing effective leaders,” Donilon said. “Honest debate—guarding against groupthink—can help prevent presidential mistakes. Fostering civil debate, and actually listening to different perspectives, are great institutional strengths that the Miller Center can bring into the next 50 years.”

Honest debate—guarding against groupthink—can help prevent presidential mistakes. Fostering civil debate, and actually listening to different perspectives, are great institutional strengths that the Miller Center can bring into the next 50 years

The Center’s second presidency conference, in September 2025, brought together dozens of leading Democrats and Republicans, former White House officials, presidency scholars, and journalists for two days of discussions about building a more responsible and effective American presidency. In the near term, as part of a new initiative, “The Presidency Project: Toward a Responsible and Effective Executive,” the Center will focus research and public events on three policy areas that emerged from the conference: presidential emergency powers, congressional dysfunction, and government performance.

“There is an emphasis on not simply going back to the way things have been,” said Kelsey Millay, the Center’s associate director of presidential studies. “Rather, how should we envision the future of the American presidency? How could we make government more effective in the modern world? The Center’s ability  to convene different viewpoints across the political spectrum will be essential as we embark on our next 50 years.”

ADVANCING POLICY SOLUTIONS

Debates concerning presidential power are front and center in American politics. Both parties decry executive overreach but rely on the presidency to break stalemates and deliver results. In coming years, Miller Center leaders foresee helping to clarify the issues through tools that the Center has used effectively in its first five decades: rigorous analysis, public events, and bipartisan commissions and working groups. Experts will consider how to ensure both accountability and effectiveness in passing budgets, responding to emergencies, and managing the federal government.

The executive branch is often overstretched, with turbulent transitions and vacant key positions. The Center might help modernize governance, for example, by producing best-practice guides on crisis management and decision-making, offering nonpartisan training for incoming White House staff, or publishing case studies of presidential successes and failures. By promoting professionalism and ethical leadership, the Center can help ensure that the presidency operates with transparency and competence. “A responsible presidency requires a public that understands both the powers and the limitations of the office,” observed Professor David Leblang, the Center’s director of policy research. The Miller Center’s scholarship, oral histories, and archives offer rich material for engaging citizens. Through case studies, public events, and expanded outreach to teachers and students, the Center can help demystify presidential decision-making and humanize those who serve. Future presidents will face challenges that we cannot yet imagine.

A responsible presidency requires a public that understands both the powers and the limitations of the office

Today’s Miller Center undergraduate and graduate interns are preparing by engaging with the Center’s programming and presidential resources. Alfred Reaves IV, faculty and program coordinator, calls them “some  of the brightest people I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”

Millay said that in the coming decades, “the Miller Center will continue to expand opportunities for students to learn, train, network, and make important contributions.”

Over the next 50 years, the Miller Center expects to help guide the nation toward a presidency that works better.

Over the next 50 years, the Miller Center expects to help guide the nation toward a presidency that works better

“When I first came to the Miller Center, I thought, ‘I found my people’—people who really want to solve the most difficult issues facing our country today, regardless of party affiliation, and working across party lines,” said Miller Center Governing Council member Kay Coles James, who served in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush and was president of the conservative Heritage Foundation. “The Miller Center is one of America’s best hopes for the future.”