The American presidency: Promise and peril

William Howell is inaugural Dean of the School of Government and Policy at Johns Hopkins University, where he also holds an appointment in the Department of Political Science. Howell has written widely on separation-of-powers issues and American political institutions, especially the presidency. He currently is working on research projects on separation of powers issues, the institutional foundations of effective government, and emergent threats to democracy. He is the author or co-author of numerous books and textbooks on the American presidency and American politics. Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Howell was a faculty member in the Harris School of Public Policy and Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, the government department at Harvard University, and the political science department at the University of Wisconsin.

Elaine C. Kamarck is a senior fellow in Governance Studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. She is an expert on American electoral politics and government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD nations, and developing countries. Kamarck, who has written numerous books, is also a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She has been a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the DNC’s Rules Committee since 1997. She has participated actively in four presidential campaigns and in 10 nominating conventions and has served as a superdelegate to five Democratic conventions. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton administration’s National Performance Review.

Sidney M. Milkis is the Miller Center’s White Burkett Miller Professor of Governance and Foreign Affairs and a UVA professor of politics. His research focuses on the American presidency, political parties and elections, social movements, and American political development. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students, he regularly gives public lectures on American politics and participates in programs for international scholars and high school teachers that probe the deep historical roots of contemporary developments in the United States. His many books include the recently published What Happened to the Vital Center?: Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the Fracturing of America. He holds a BA from Muhlenberg College and a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

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. Before coming to the Miller Center, Antholis served as managing director at the Brookings Institution from 2004 to 2014, working directly with Brookings’s president and vice presidents. He also served at the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council. Antholis is the author of two books and dozens of articles on U.S. politics, U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, the G8, climate change, and trade. He holds a BA from UVA and a PhD from Yale University.