The Miller Center Foundation was established in 1987 to support the work of the Center and function as an ambassador to the public on behalf of its initiatives and programs. The Foundation is governed by its board of directors.

Alice W. Handy

Alice W. Handy, Chair, is founder and former president and CEO of Investure, an outsourced investment office for colleges and foundations. She spent 29 years with UVA, beginning as its first investment officer, later becoming treasurer, and finally president of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO). She was treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1988 to 1990. Handy is on the boards of the American Friends of the National Gallery, London and New Mountain Capital. She also serves on the investment committees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation, and United Way of Greater Charlottesville.

Gordon C. Burris

Gordon C. Burris, at-large director, returned to the University of Virginia in 1991 to serve as special assistant to President John T. Casteen III. Burris was named head soccer coach for the University in 1966. He went on to work as head coach in tennis and golf; assistant dean of admissions; and assistant director of the Alumni Association, where he was part of the team that developed the Legacy Admissions Program and the Jefferson Scholarship Program, and became its first director. In the late 1980s, he returned to athletics, where he served as assistant athletic director and director of development for major gifts. He played a role in raising the funds for the McCue Center and Klöckner Stadium. From 1989 to 1991, Burris was director of the Maryland Education Foundation at the University of Maryland. He received his BA degree from Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1965. In 1967, he received his MA degree in physical education from the University of Virginia.

Barbara J. Fried

Barbara J. Fried, ex officio, University-appointed director by the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, is chair emerita and former general counsel and executive vice president of Fried Companies Inc., a real estate development and property management firm based in Ruckersville and Crozet. She is a director of the UVA Foundation, member and immediate past chair of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership State Advisory Board, and a former director of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Fried is a former member of the Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners and a former trustee of the George Mason University Foundation. Fried is active in many community organizations in and around Crozet. She earned a BA degree and a law degree from the University of Chicago and an MA degree in history from UVA.

John C. Jeffries Jr.

John C. Jeffries Jr., ex officio, is Senior Vice President for Advancement at the University of Virginia and the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law. His primary research and teaching interests are civil rights, federal courts, criminal law, and constitutional law. Jeffries has co-authored casebooks in civil rights, federal courts, and criminal law and has published a variety of articles in those fields. He also wrote a biography of Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Jeffries served as dean of the UVA Law School from 2001-2008 and accepted an appointment in University administration in 2018.

Daniel P. Jordan

Daniel P. Jordan, at-large director, is president emeritus of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Inc. and a partner at Bryan & Jordan Consulting LLC. From 1985 to 2008, he headed the Thomas Jefferson Foundation and was a “scholar in residence” at the University of Virginia. Jordan is the author of three books, including Political Leadership in Jefferson’s Virginia, as well as more than 80 articles, essays, and reviews. He received his BA degree in English and history and his MA degree in history from the University of Mississippi, and his PhD in history from the University of Virginia, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He is the former chairman of the advisory committee for the National Park System, former vice chair of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and a former member of the Miller Center Governing Council.

B. Wistar Morris III

B. Wistar Morris III is a partner at Signature Family Wealth Advisors/Brown Advisory, where he advises families on asset allocation, portfolio construction, family and business succession, estate planning, and philanthropic strategies. He co-founded Signature’s Charlottesville office in 2007 and has led its growth to over $3.5 billion in client assets under management. Previously, Morris served as executive director and general counsel of the Miller Center Foundation and served as program director of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform, co-chaired by Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Morris is past president, chair of the investment committee, and National Medallion Award winner of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Virginia; a director of Charlottesville Tomorrow; and a director of the H. Gordon and Mary Smyth Foundation. He is a graduate, magma cum laude, of Middlebury College and received his JD degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1989.