The evolution of affirmative action—and its uncertain future

Christa Davis Acampora is the Buckner W. Clay Professor of Philosophy and dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. She has a distinguished record of research and scholarship in modern European philosophy, moral psychology, and aesthetics and runs a lab on moral injury. She is author, co-author, or editor of seven books and has published dozens of articles and book chapters. Prior to joining UVA, Acampora served as professor of philosophy and deputy provost at Emory University, where she was the chief deputy to the provost and helped steward Emory’s academic mission. She earned her BA cum laude in philosophy from Hollins University and her PhD in philosophy from Emory University.

Kevin K. Gaines is a Miller Center faculty senior fellow and the Julian Bond Professor of Civil Rights and Social Justice at the University of Virginia, with a joint appointment in the Corcoran Department of History and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies. He received his BA from Harvard University and his PhD from Brown University in the Department of American Civilization. He is author of Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century (1996), which was awarded the John Hope Franklin book prize of the American Studies Association, and American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era (2006).

Eugene W. Hickok served as under secretary and deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Education under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2004. Before that, he was secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education from 1995–2001 under Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge and also served in the U.S. Department of Justice, office of legal counsel, during the Reagan administration. Before entering government service, he was a professor of political science and law at Dickinson College and The Dickinson School of Law, both in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. An award-winning teacher, Hickok is the author or editor of several books and articles. He received his masters of public administration and PhD from the University of Virginia.

Kimberly Jenkins Robinson, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is the Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at the University of Virginia and a professor at the School of Education and Human Development as well as the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She is an expert who speaks throughout the United States about K–12 educational equity, equal opportunity, civil rights, and federalism. Before Robinson began her career as a professor, she practiced law in the General Counsel’s office of the U.S. Department of Education and as an education litigation attorney with Hogan & Hartson law firm (now Hogan Lovells). She also served as a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the ninth circuit.

Barbara A. Perry is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor in Presidential Studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, where she co-directs the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored or edited 17 books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights and civil liberties. Perry has conducted more than 140 interviews for the George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama Presidential Oral History Projects; participated in the Bill Clinton interviews; directs the Edward Kennedy Oral History Project; and co-directs the Hillary Rodham Clinton Oral History Project. She served as a U.S. Supreme Court fellow and has worked for both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate.