Miller Center welcomes new senior fellows and faculty
New experts will contribute to our major policy undertakings
WELCOME NEW FELLOWS AND FACULTY
Each new academic year brings a new class of students to the University of Virginia. At the Miller Center, our annual new members include scholars, practitioners, and engaged civic leaders. I’m delighted to introduce you to them now, virtually, and look forward to seeing many of you in person soon so you can meet them in real life.
The annual selection and recruitment of fellows is led by David Leblang, who serves as our Randolph Compton Professor, and whom we share with the department of politics and the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He works in collaboration with two committees of faculty and staff, ably shepherded and assisted by Alfred Reaves IV.
As you will see, the new class draws from UVA's College of Arts and Sciences, Darden Graduate School of Business, School of Law, and Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. It also includes several recent White House alumnae, one of whom also happens to be a UVA alumna. I am particularly excited about the new class’s ability to contribute to not only our study of the presidency but also our recent major policy undertakings: the Project on Democracy and Capitalism, the Health Care Policy Initiative, and the recent work on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
SENIOR FELLOWS
The Miller Center has been blessed with terrific senior fellows for many years—scholars and practitioners who contribute to our research, who engage with UVA students and faculty, and who help us design and deliver public discussions on the most pressing challenges facing the presidency, the federal government, and our nation.
Faculty Senior Fellows
Ashley Deeks is associate professor of law at the University of Virginia focusing on laws of war, executive power, and national security. She has recently returned to the Miller Center after serving as White House associate counsel and deputy legal advisor to the National Security Council.
Anne Meng is associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. She conducts research on authoritarian politics, institutions, and elite power-sharing with a regional focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.
Thomas Nachbar is F. D. G. Ribble Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is an expert in constitutional law, communications regulation, and the law of armed conflict.
Philip Potter is associate professor in UVA’s department of politics specializing in foreign policy and international relations. He directs the National Security Policy Center at the Batten School.
Rachel Augustine Potter, associate professor of politics at UVA, writes about the politics of procedure and process in American political institutions, bureaucracy, and regulation. She has served at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
Vivian Riefberg is professor of practice at UVA’s Darden School of Business. She is a director emeritus and senior advisor with McKinsey & Company and serves on the boards of PBS and Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Paul B. Stephan is John C. Jeffries, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law and David H. Ibbeken '71 Research Professor of Law at UVA. He is an expert on international business, international dispute resolution, and comparative law.
Practitioner Senior Fellow
Beth Cameron is a professor at Brown University and was formerly the vice president for global biological policy and programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative. She has just completed a term at the National Security Council as special assistant to the president and senior director for global health security & biodefense. Her work addresses homeland and national security threats related to biosafety and biosecurity. She received her BA at UVA and her PhD at Johns Hopkins.
ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS
The Miller Center holds a series of endowed professorships that provide resources for faculty members to conduct extensive research or supervise projects that support our academic mission. These professorships typically are held for a multi-year term. A committee of chair holders reviews the purpose for which those professorships have been endowed and recruits suitable faculty.
Bob Bruner is the Compton Visiting Professor at the Miller Center and heads our Project on Democracy and Capitalism. He is university professor at the University of Virginia, distinguished professor of business administration, and dean emeritus of the Darden School of Business.
Aynne Kokas is C. K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and also associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. Her latest book, Trafficking Data: How China is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty, argues that exploitative Silicon Valley practices help China build infrastructures for global control.
FACULTY
Syaru Shirley Lin is research professor at the Miller Center. Her research focuses on East Asia, and she directs the Center for Asia Pacific Resilience and Innovation. She is also a nonresident senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Program of the Brookings Institution and an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.