Presidency Project / Experts

Experts

Learn about our distinguished scholars and practitioners

Joshua Bolten Headshot

Joshua Bolten, Presidency Project cochair

Bolten is the CEO of Business Roundtable. His twenty years of government service include eight years as White House chief of staff under George W. Bush, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and deputy chief of staff for policy.

Thomas Donilon

Thomas Donilon, Presidency Project cochair

Donilon, chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, served as the national security advisor to President Obama, chief of staff to Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and assistant secretary of state during the Clinton administration.

Bill Antholis Headshot

William J. Antholis

Antholis is director and CEO of the Miller Center. He served as President Clinton’s director of international economic affairs on the staff of the National Security Council.

Don Baer headshot

Don Baer

Baer, a Miller Center Governing Council member, served as assistant to President Clinton and White House director of communications and strategic planning. He is currently a senior partner at Brunswick.

Melody Barnes

Melody Barnes

Barnes, executive director of the UVA Karsh Institute of Democracy and a professor of practice at the Miller Center, served as assistant to the president and director of the White House Domestic Policy Council during the Obama administration.

Kate Bedingfield

Kate Bedingfield

Bedingfield served as White House director of communications under President Biden and as director of communications in the Office of the Vice President under President Obama. She is currently a partner at Brunswick Group.

Alexander Bick

Alexander Bick

Bick, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is an associate professor of practice in public policy at the University of Virginia. He previously served in the Biden administration as director for strategic planning at the National Security Council.

Meena Bose Headshot

Meena Bose

Bose is executive dean for public policy and public service programs at the Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy, and International Affairs and director of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University. 

Barbara Comstock Headshot

Barbara Comstock

Comstock, a Miller Center Governing Council member, represented Virginia's 10th Congressional District for two terms—the first woman elected to that seat, where she was a leader on anti-sexual harassment legislation.

Soren Dayton headshot

Soren Dayton

Dayton is the director of the American Governance Policy team at the Foundation for American Innovation (FAI), where he leads work on strengthening American governing institutions.

Ashley Deeks

Ashley Deeks

Deeks, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is the vice dean of the University of Virginia School of Law.  She served in the Biden administration as White House associate counsel.

Eric Edelman Headshot

Eric Edelman

Edelman, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, retired as a career minister from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2009, after having served in senior positions at the Departments of State and Defense and the White House. 

Everett Eissenstat

Everett Eissenstat

Eissenstat, a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center, served as deputy assistant to the president for international economic affairs during the first Trump presidency. He is currently a partner at Squire Patton Boggs.

Bill Gallston

William Galston

Galston served as deputy assistant for domestic policy in the Clinton administration. He is currently a senior fellow and the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.

Matt Glassman headshot

Matthew Glassman

Glassman, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, writes about Congress and American politics. He previously worked on the Hill at the Congressional Research Service.

Elizabeth Goitein headshot

Elizabeth (Liza) Goitein

Goitein is senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program. She is a nationally recognized expert on presidential emergency powers, government surveillance, and government secrecy.

Dwight Holton headshot

Dwight Holton

Holton, a Miller Center Governing Council member, is the former United States attorney for Oregon. He served as a manager for the Clinton presidential campaign, then as a special assistant to White House Chief of Staff Mack McClarty.

Kay James headshot

Kay Coles James

James, a Miller Center Governing Council member, is the former secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Her government service included roles in the administrations of Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

Elaine Kamarck headshot

Elaine Kamarck

Kamarck is the director of the Center for Effective Public Management and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She cofounded the New Democrat movement that helped elect President Bill Clinton.

Chris Liddell Headshot

Chris Liddell

Liddell, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, was assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for policy coordination during the first Trump administration. He is the author of Year Zero: The Five-Year Presidency.

Chris Lu

Chris Lu

Lu, a James R. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center, served as a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Biden administration and the U.S. deputy secretary of labor during the Obama administration.

Casey Mattox headshot

Casey Mattox

Mattox is vice president for legal strategy at Stand Together. A veteran constitutional attorney, he is a frequent commentator and speaker on constitutional rights and the separation of powers.

Fred McClure Headshot

Fred McClure

McClure, a Miller Center Governing Council member, is the chief community engagement officer at Texas A&M University. He was previously executive director of Texas A&M’s Leadership Initiative and CEO of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation.

Guian McKee Headshot

Guian McKee

McKee is the White Burkett Miller Professor of Public Affairs at the Miller Center, where he codirects the Presidential Recordings Program and the Health Care Policy Project. He has written extensively about urban policy and health care.

Dan Meyer headshot

Dan Meyer

Meyer, a Miller Center Governing Council member, served as chief of staff to former House Speakers Kevin McCarthy and Newt Gingrich, as well as assistant to the president for legislative affairs in the George W. Bush administration.

Sidney Milkis Headshot

Sidney Milkis

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, and social movements.

Sarada Peri headshot

Sarada Peri

Peri, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, is a speechwriter, message strategist, and the founder of Peri Communications. She was special assistant to the president and senior speechwriter for President Barack Obama.

Barbara Perry Headshot

Barbara Perry

Perry is the Miller Center’s J. Wilson Newman Professor of Governance and codirects the Presidential Oral History Program. She has authored many books on presidents, First Ladies, the Kennedy family, the Supreme Court, and civil rights.

Rachel Potter Headshot

Rachel Potter

Potter, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. She studies the hidden politics of procedure and process in American political institutions, with a focus on bureaucracy and regulation.

Saikrishna Prakash Headshot

Saikrishna Prakash

Prakash, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is the James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law and Horace W. Goldsmith Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School.

Leah Wright Rigueur Headshot

Leah Wright Rigueur

Rigueur, the SNF Agora Institute Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, is the author of The Loneliness of the Black Republican.

Russell Riley headshot

Russell Riley

Riley is the Miller Center’s White Burkett Miller Center Professor of Ethics and Institutions and codirects the Presidential Oral History Program. He is one of the nation’s foremost authorities on elite oral history interviewing.

Andrew Rudalevige Headshot

Andrew Rudalevige

Rudalevige, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is the Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College. He specializes in American political institutions.

Mara Rudman Headshot

Mara Rudman 

Rudman is a practitioner senior fellow at the Miller Center, where she formerly directed the Ripples of Hope Project. Her government positions included serving as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs in the Obama and Clinton administrations.

Marc Selverstone

Marc Selverstone

Selverstone is the Gerald L. Baliles Professor of Presidential Studies at the Miller Center, the Center’s director of presidential studies, and the codirector of the Center’s Presidential Recordings Program.

Allan Stam Headshot

Allan Stam

Stam, a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, is a University Professor, professor of public policy and politics, and former dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia.

Katie Tenpas headshot

Kathryn Dunn Tenpas

Tenpas, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, is director of the Initiative on Improving Interbranch Relations and Government and a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution. She is also an advisory board member for the White House Transition Project.

Louisa Terrell Headshot

Louisa Terrell

Terrell, a Miller Center practitioner senior fellow, served as assistant to the president and director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs under President Biden. She was a senior advisor to the Harris–Walz campaign.

Phil Wallach headshot

Philip Wallach

Wallach is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he studies America’s separation of powers. He was previously a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a fellow with the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

Sarah  headshotWilson

Sarah Wilson

Wilson, a Miller Center nonresident practitioner senior fellow, served as a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, a senior and associate counsel to President Clinton, and a deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Philip Zelikow headshot

Philip Zelikow

Zelikow is the White Burkett Miller Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Virginia, where he has also served as director of the Miller Center. He is also the Botha–Chan Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.