America at 250: Revisiting Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams

Lindsay M. Chervinsky, a Miller Center nonresident faculty senior fellow, is the executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Previously, she was a senior nonresidential fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and an historian at the White House Historical Association. She is the author of  Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic (2024) and The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (2020). She is also the coeditor of  Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture (2023), published by the Miller Center Studies on the Presidency series with University of Virginia Press. Chervinsky has been published in major media outlets and is regularly interviewed on American history.  She received her BA in history and political science from George Washington University and holds an MA and PhD from the University of California, Davis.

Andrew M. Davenport is the Vice President for Research and Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He has published academic articles on Thomas Jefferson’s death and legacies, Ralph Ellison in mid-20th century New York City, and the influence of Black literature on post-World War II French culture. He has also published in Lapham’s Quarterly, Literary Matters, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Smithsonian Magazine. Davenport serves on the board of directors of the American Agora Foundation (Lapham’s Quarterly) and is a member of the inaugural cohort of the White House Historical Association Next-Gen Leadership Ambassadors. He earned a BA in English from Kenyon College, an MA in American Studies from Fairfield University, and an MA and PhD in U.S. History from Georgetown University.

Colleen Shogan served as the 11th archivist of the United States, the first woman in American history to lead the National Archives and Records Administration. Before this role, she was senior vice president at the White House Historical Association, worked in the United States Senate, and served as a senior executive at the Library of Congress and its Congressional Research Service. She is the 2024 recipient of the American Political Science Association's Hubert Humphrey Award for outstanding public service. Shogan is a senior advisor at More Perfect, where she leads “In Pursuit,” a nationwide civics project for 2026. She is a senior fellow in civics education at Stand Together and an adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University. She also serves on the board of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Shogan holds a BA in political science from Boston College and a PhD in American politics from Yale University.

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.