Michael Auslin
Michael Auslin, author of“The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World’s Most Dynamic Region” (Yale University Press, 2017), is a resident scholar and the director of Japan Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he specializes in Asian regional security and political issues. Before joining AEI, Dr. Auslin was an associate professor of history at Yale University. A regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Review, his books include “Pacific Cosmopolitans: A Cultural History of U.S.-Japan Relations” (Harvard University Press, 2011) and the forthcoming “The End of the Asian Century: War, Stagnation, and the Risks to the World’s Most Dynamic Region” (Yale University Press, 2016). He has advised both the US government and private business on Asian and global security issues. His awards include being named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, a Fulbright Scholar, and a Marshall Memorial Fellow by the German Marshall Fund. Dr. Auslin received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and a B.Sc. from Georgetown University.
Richard Brookhiser
Richard Brookhiser is the author of Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln (Basic Books, 2014), and of seven books on revolutionary America, including Founding Father, Rediscovering George Washington; Rules of Civility—The 110 Precepts that Guided Our First President in War and Peace; Alexander Hamilton, American; America’s First Dynasty: The Adamses, 1735–1918; and Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution, among others. He is the author and host of two films for PBS by Michael Pack: Rediscovering George Washington (2002) and Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton (2011). He was the historian curator of “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America,” a 2004 exhibition at the New-York Historical Society. In 2008 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal. Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, and a columnist for American History.
Mona Charen
Mona Charen, a syndicated columnist and author, is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Ms. Charen began her career at National Review, as an editorial assistant. She also served as Nancy Reagan’s speechwriter, and later as associate director of the White House Office of Public Liaison. Later in her White House career, she worked in the Public Affairs office, helping to craft President Reagan’s communications strategy. In 1986, Ms. Charen joined the presidential campaign of then-congressman Jack Kemp. She launched her syndicated column in 1987. Today it is featured in more than 150 newspapers and websites. She spent six years as a regular commentator on CNN’s Capital Gang and Capital Gang Sunday and has served as a judge of the Pulitzer Prizes. She is the author of two bestsellers: Useful Idiots (2003) and Do-Gooders (2005). Ms. Charen is the co-host, with Jay Nordlinger, of the weekly podcast Need to Know and is a frequent guest on television and radio public-affairs programs.
Ed Conard
Ed Conard joined the American Enterprise Institute as a visiting scholar in 2012. Previously he was a partner at Bain Capital, where he headed the firm’s New York office and led Bain’s acquisitions of large industrial companies. Before joining the company in 1993, he worked for Wasserstein Perella & Co., an investment bank; Bain & Company, a management-consulting firm; and Ford Motor Company. He is the author of two top-ten New York Times best-selling books: The Upside of Inequality: How Good Intentions Undermine the Middle Class (2016) and Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told about the Economy Is Wrong (2012). He sits on the board of directors of Waters Corporation, among other companies.
Kellyanne Conway
Kellyanne Elizabeth Conway is currently serving as Counselor to President Donald Trump, and the Founder and former President of the polling company, inc./WomanTrend a privately-held, woman-owned corporation currently in its 21st year of operation. Kellyanne recently served as the Campaign Manager to the Trump-Pence Presidential campaign, becoming the first woman to successfully manage a presidential campaign. She is one of the most quoted and noted pollsters on the national scene, having provided commentary on over 1,500 television shows on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, HBO, Comedy Central, MTV and the Fox News Channel, and numerous radio shows and print stories. Throughout her multiple decades in market research, Kellyanne has provided primary research and advice for clients in all 50 states and has directed hundreds of demographic and attitudinal survey projects for statewide and congressional political races, trade associations, and Fortune 100 companies. Kellyanne is a professionally trained moderator who has directed more than 300 focus groups. Clients have included Lifetime Television, The Heritage Foundation, Major League Baseball, The Federalist Society, Ladies’ Home Journal, Liz Claiborne, Game Show Network, Martha Stewart, American Express, and ABC News. Kellyanne has worked for leaders such as the late Congressman Jack Kemp; President Reagan’s pollster, Richard Wirthlin; Congressmen Marsha Blackburn, Lee Zeldin, Steve King; Vice President Dan Quayle; Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; Sens. Fred Thompson and Ted Cruz, and Gov. Mike Pence. In what was a poor year for Republican polling, she and her team were among the few on the GOP side to predict the outcomes of major races in 2012. In 2014, all of their general election candidates won. The RNC tasked Kellyanne with helping to defeat the so-called “War on Women.” A “fully-recovered” attorney, Kellyanne is admitted to practice law in four jurisdictions (Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia). She has practiced law, clerked for a judge in Washington, DC and for four years, was an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law Center. Kellyanne is a magna cum laude graduate of Trinity College, Washington, D.C., where she earned a B.A. in Political Science, studied at Oxford University, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She holds a law degree, with honors, from George Washington University Law Center. Kellyanne has been profiled in over a dozen magazines, newspapers, and television programs. Her polling data and op-eds have been published by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Washington Times, USA Today, National Review, Human Events, Investors’ Business Daily, and Politico and she is a regular on the speaking circuit. She has received the Washington Post’s “Crystal Ball” award for accurately predicted elections and co-authored WHAT WOMEN REALLY WANT: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Racial, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live (Free Press). Kellyanne is married to George T. Conway III and they have four young children.
Tom Cotton
Tom Cotton is a United States Senator from Arkansas. His committees include the Banking Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Armed Services Committee, where he chairs the Air Land Power Subcommittee. Tom grew up on his family’s cattle farm in Yell County. He graduated from Dardanelle High School, Harvard, and Harvard Law School. After a clerkship with the U.S. Court of Appeals and private law practice, Tom left the law because of the September 11th attacks. Tom served nearly five years on active duty in the United States Army as an infantry officer. Tom served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Between his two combat tours, Tom served with The Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery. Tom’s military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, and Ranger Tab. Between the Army and the Senate, Tom worked for McKinsey & Co. and served one term in the House of Representatives. Tom and his wife Anna have two sons: Gabriel and Daniel.
Lindsay Young Craig
Lindsay Young Craig is the president of National Review Institute. Before joining NRI in August of 2013, Lindsay spent 16 years at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. As vice president of communications and marketing, she oversaw the development of the public-relations department, social-media and web development, and strategic marketing. Lindsay spearheaded numerous other Manhattan Institute projects — leading special initiatives, organizing major conferences, and overseeing MI’s internship program. In 2007 she launched MI’s Young Leaders Circle, a monthly forum for young professionals in the New York metropolitan area who are concerned about free-market ideas and public policy. Lindsay has worked with policy organizations and policymakers around the country creating partnerships, organizing events, serving on advisory boards, and speaking at conferences. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and young daughter.
Kristie De Peña
Kristie De Peña is the legal counsel for the Niskanen Center, a non-profit advocacy-based think tank in Washington, D.C., committed to promoting freedom, economic prosperity, and national security through less-restrictive immigration policies. The Center’s goal is the passage and implementation of immigration policies that make America a safer, more prosperous, and more welcoming nation for all. Ms. De Peña earned her J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law and an LL.M. in national security and foreign policy from George Washington University School of Law. Before joining the Niskanen Center, she consulted with the U.S. Department of State on immigration, health-care, and security issues. Her work has recently been cited in RealClearPolicy, The Hill, Huffington Post, and Reason. A Texas native, Kristie was raised on the East Coast and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and dog.
Veronique de Rugy
Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and a nationally syndicated columnist. Her primary research interests include the U.S. economy, the federal budget, homeland security, taxation, tax competition, and financial privacy. She has testified numerous times before Congress. She is the author of a weekly opinion column for Creators Syndicate, writes regular columns for Reason magazine, and blogs about economics at National Review Online’s The Corner. Her charts, articles, and commentary have been featured in a wide range of media outlets, including Bloomberg Television, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, among others. In 2015 she was named in Politico Magazine’s Guide to the Top 50 thinkers, doers, and visionaries transforming American Politics.
Doug Ducey
Governor Doug Ducey is the 23rd governor of the state of Arizona. He was elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn into office on January 5, 2015 — inheriting a $1 billion budget deficit. With a mission to make Arizona the best state in the country to live, work, do business, and get an education in, Governor Ducey and state leaders got to work. Today, Arizona’s budget is balanced. Business is thriving. And public schools continue to improve. The governor remains committed to what he has identified as his top priorities: growing the economy, creating and supporting 21st-century jobs, promoting educational excellence, protecting our communities, and restoring fiscal responsibility — all without raising taxes on hard-working Arizonans.
Carly Fiorina
Carly Fiorina is a tested leader. She has battled breast cancer and buried a child. She started out as a secretary for a small real estate business and became a leader in technology, business and charity. In 1999, Carly was recruited to HP to save a struggling company that had become a bloated, inept bureaucracy that had failed to meet expectations for 9 quarters. As CEO of HP, she was the first woman to lead a Fortune 50 business and the first outsider to lead HP. During the worst technology recession in 25 years, she focused on innovation and leading again. While lots of other tech companies went out of business altogether, Carly saved 80,000 jobs and would grow the company to 160,000 jobs. After returning to their home in Virginia with her husband Frank, Carly became a leader in the conservative movement standing alongside all Americans who refuse to settle for the way things are and a status quo that no longer works for them. She believes we must end crony capitalism by fighting the policies that allow it to flourish. She believes we must fix our festering problems by holding our bloated, inept government bureaucracy accountable. And she believes Republicans must stand for conservative principles that lift people up and recognize all Americans have the right to fulfill their God-given potential.
Mike Franc
Michael Franc is the Hoover Institution’s director of DC programs, where he oversees research and outreach initiatives to promote ideas and scholarship in our nation’s capital. He holds a dual appointment as a research fellow. Mike Franc is a longtime veteran of Washington, DC policymaking. Prior to joining Hoover, Franc served as policy director and counsel for House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. He also served as the Vice President of government relations for the Heritage Foundation from 1997-2013. During this time he managed all the think tank’s outreach with Capitol Hill and the Executive Branch. He also completed a tour of duty as communications director for former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX) and worked for the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He has been quoted widely in the print and broadcast media, and was a regular contributor to The National Review Online and other publications. Franc has a BA from Yale University and a JD from Georgetown University.
David French
David French is a staff writer for National Review, a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an attorney, and a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is the author or co-author of several books including, most recently, the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, the past president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and a former lecturer at Cornell Law School. He has served as a senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom. David is a former major in the United States Army Reserve (IRR). In 2007 he deployed to Iraq, serving in Diyala province as squadron judge advocate for the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. He lives and works in Columbia, Tennessee, with his wife, Nancy (who is also a New York Times best-selling author), and three children.
Jim Geraghty
Jim Geraghty is National Review’s senior political correspondent and was named CPAC’s “Journalist of the Year” in 2015. That year, he also won the Young Conservatives Coalition’s William F. Buckley award. He writes the “Morning Jolt” e-mail newsletter, which has more than 290,000 subscribers, and contributes to NRO’s Corner blog. He’s the author of Heavy Lifting with Cam Edwards, the novel The Weed Agency (a Washington Post bestseller) and Voting to Kill. A CNN International commentator, Jim co-hosts a pair of podcasts, one daily on politics with Greg Corombus entitled The Three Martini Lunch, which is averaging 300,000 downloads a month.
Daniel Hannan
Daniel Hannan is a writer and journalist. After 17 years as a member of the European Parliament, campaigning for British withdrawal from the EU, he succeeded in abolishing his job in the Brexit referendum of 2016. He is the author of nine books, including the New York Times best-seller Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World and the Sunday Times best-seller Vote Leave. His latest book is What Next: How to Get the Best from Brexit.
Mollie Hemingway
Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is a senior editor at The Federalist. She is a longtime journalist whose work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post, CNN, National Review, GetReligion, Ricochet, Christianity Today, Federal Times, Radio & Records, and many other publications. A frequent guest on Fox News, CNN, and NPR, Mollie was a 2004 recipient of a Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellowship and a 2014 Claremont Institute Lincoln Fellowship.
Heather Higgins
Heather Richardson Higgins is President and CEO of Independent Women’s Voice. Heather’s background is in finance, public policy, and media, all happily combined with an inclination to make trouble. She works with a variety of non-profits, including the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), of which she is chairman, and it’s related qualified c4, Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), where she serves as President and CEO. Heather was recognized as one of Campaigns & Elections 50 Most Influential People in 204 for her issue advocacy and a leader who will shape future election cycles. In addition to receiving numerous awards for her innovative approaches to campaign messaging, in 2016 Heather also received the American Spectator’s first “Lifetime Service to the Movement” Award. She writes, most frequently for the Wall Street Journal, where she used to be an editorial writer, and does television and radio to discuss public policy and politics.
Andrew Klavan
Andrew Klavan is the author of such internationally best-selling crime novels as True Crime, Don’t Say a Word, and Empire of Lies. He has been nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award five times and has won twice. He has also won the WH Smith Thumping Good Read Award and been nominated twice for the Bouchercon’s Anthony Award. He also wrote the screenplays for A Shock to the System, One Missed Call, and Haunting Melissa. He is a contributing editor to City Journal and his essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere. He also writes and appears in several popular series of satirical online videos, including Klavan on the Culture and The Revolting Truth, and currently has a podcast on the Daily Wire: The Andrew Klavan Show. His latest book is his memoir of faith, The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Ellen.
Charles Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer writes a syndicated column for the Washington Post and for which he won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize. He is a Fox News commentator, appearing nightly on Fox’s evening news program, Special Report with Bret Baier. His latest book, Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics, has sold more than a million copies. While serving as chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, he co-discovered a form of bipolar disease. In 1978 he quit medical practice and came to Washington to help direct planning in psychiatric research in the Carter administration. In 1980 he served as a speechwriter for Vice President Walter Mondale. His New Republic essays won the National Magazine Award for Essays and Criticism. He is the president of The Krauthammer Foundation and the chairman of Pro Musica Hebraica. He is also a member of Chess Journalists of America.
Mark Krikorian
Mark Krikorian, a nationally recognized expert on immigration issues, has served as the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies since 1995. He frequently testifies before Congress and has published articles in numerous outlets, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Commentary. He is a contributor to National Review Online and has appeared on 60 Minutes, Nightline, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, and NPR. Mr. Krikorian is the author of the books The New Case against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal and How Obama Is Transforming America through Immigration. His most recent publication is Open Immigration: Yea & Nay, co-authored with Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute. Mr. Krikorian holds a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University. He spent two years at Yerevan State University in then-Soviet Armenia.
Larry Kudlow
Lawrence Kudlow is CNBC’s Senior Contributor. Mr. Kudlow is a nationally syndicated columnist and a contributing editor of National Review, as well as a columnist and economics editor for National Review Online. He is the author of American Abundance: The New Economic and Moral Prosperity (1998) and JFK and the Reagan Revolution (2016). He is the recipient of numerous awards. Mr. Kudlow is CEO of Kudlow & Co., LLC, an economic research firm. He was formerly chief economist and senior managing director of Bear Stearns & Company. Mr. Kudlow started his professional career at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he worked in open-market operations and bank supervision. Mr. Kudlow was educated at the University of Rochester and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Yuval Levin
Yuval Levin is the editor of National Affairs. He is also the Hertog Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a senior editor of The New Atlantis, and a contributing editor to National Review and the Weekly Standard. He has been a member of the White House domestic policy staff (under President George W. Bush), executive director of the President’s Council on Bioethics, and a congressional staffer. His essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and others, and he is the author, most recently, of The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism. He holds a BA from American University and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
Michael Lind
Michael Lind is the co-founder and a fellow of New America, a nonpartisan public-policy institute based in Washington, D.C. A former editor or staff writer at The New Yorker, Harper’s, The New Republic, and The National Interest, he is the author of numerous books, including Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States (2012) and The American Way of Strategy (2006).
Katherine Jean Lopez
Kathryn Jean Lopez is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review Online, and a nationally syndicated columnist who has been published by a wide variety of publications including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, First Things, The National Catholic Register, and Our Sunday Visitor. She is director at Catholic Voices USA and speaks frequently on faith and public life on college campuses, and on radio and television. A product of New York City Catholic education, she serves on a number of Catholic boards and is a member of the Archdiocese of New York’s Pro-Life Commission. At the opening Mass of the Year of Faith in Rome in October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI presented her with a message to women throughout the world.
Rich Lowry
Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review and an NRI trustee. He is a syndicated columnist and a commentator for the Fox News Channel. He writes for Politico, and often appears on such public affairs programs as Meet the Press and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. He is a regular panelist on the KCRW program Left, Right, and Center. He is the author ofLincoln Unbound and Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years — a New York Times bestseller. Lowry began his career as a research assistant for Charles Krauthammer. In 1997 he was selected by William F. Buckley to lead National Review.
Heather Mac Donald
Heather Mac Donald is the Thomas W. Smith Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Mac Donald’s work at City Journal has covered a range of topics, including higher education, immigration, policing, homelessness and homeless advocacy, criminal-justice reform, and race relations. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, and The New Criterion. Mac Donald’s newest book, The War on Cops (2016), warns that raced-based attacks on the criminal-justice system, from the White House on down, are eroding the authority of law and putting lives at risk. In 2016 she received the Excellence in Media Award from the National Police Defense Foundation’s State Troopers Coalition.
Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy, a former top federal prosecutor, is a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, a contributing editor at National Review, and a well-known commentator on legal, national-security, and political affairs. McCarthy is a former chief assistant U.S. attorney in New York, best known for leading the prosecution against the Blind Sheik and eleven other jihadists for waging a terrorist war against the United States. After the 9/11 attacks, he supervised the U.S. attorney’s command post near Ground Zero. He later served as an advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Willful Blindness: A Memoir of Jihad (2008) and The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America (2010), as well as Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy (2013). His latest book, published in 2014, is Faithless Execution: Building the Political Case for Obama’s Impeachment.
Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller serves as Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President for Policy. Miller signed on to the Trump campaign in January of 2016, before a single primary ballot was cast, as then-candidate Trump’s top policy advisor. In this capacity, Miller worked on policy efforts across numerous fronts including defense, security, energy reform, and veterans’ care. Before joining the campaign, Miller was a top aide to then-Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama and filled senior leadership roles on the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. During his time in Congress, Miller played a key role in the formulation of a pro-worker agenda on trade and migration policy. Prior to working for Sessions, Miller worked for Congressman John Shadegg and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. Miller was ranked as number 2 in Politico’s Top 50 in American Politics in 2016. Earlier, he was also recognized as a top Hill staffer under 30 by The Hill. Miller graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy. He was born and raised in Santa Monica, California.
Jay Nordlinger
Jay Nordlinger is a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow of the National Review Institute. He writes about a variety of subjects, including politics, foreign affairs, and the arts. He is music critic for The New Criterion. Since 2002, he has hosted a series of public interviews at the Salzburg Festival. For the National Review website, he writes a column called “Impromptus.” With Mona Charen, he hosts the Need to Know podcast, and he also hosts a podcast called “Q&A.” In 2011, he filmed The Human Parade, with Jay Nordlinger, a TV series bringing hour-long interviews with various personalities. His latest book is Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators. He is also the author of Peace, They Say, a history of the Nobel Peace Prize. Some 100 pieces are gathered in Here, There & Everywhere: Collected Writings of Jay Nordlinger. A native Michigander, Nordlinger lives in New York.
John O’Sullivan
John O’Sullivan is a journalist, author, lecturer, and broadcaster. He is an editor-at-large of National Review, the president of the Danube Institute, an associate editor of the Hungarian Review, the international editor of Quadrant magazine, a Fellow of the National Review Institute, and co-founder and director of 21st Century Initiatives. He served as editor-in-chief of National Review for almost a decade. In 1987–88 he served as a special adviser to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street, and he assisted in the writing of her memoirs. He is the former executive editor of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty and a vice president of the RFERL Corporation. His book The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister, on the roles played by Pope John Paul II, President Reagan, and Prime Minister Thatcher in the collapse of Communism, has been published in seven languages.
Henry Olsen
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how to address, consistent with conservative principles, the electoral challenges facing modern American conservatism. This work will culminate in a book titled The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism, to be published in June 2017. Mr. Olsen has worked in senior executive positions at many center-right think tanks. He most recently served from 2006 to 2013 as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. Mr. Olsen’s work has been featured in many prominent publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Review, and The Weekly Standard. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and as an associate at Dechert, Price & Rhoads.
Ramesh Ponnuru
Mr. Ponnuru is a senior editor at National Review, where he has covered national politics and policy for more than 20 years, and a senior fellow at National Review Institute. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg View, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a contributing editor to National Affairs. In 2015 he was included in the Politico 50, Politico’s list of “the thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter” in American politics. Ponnuru contributed to and (with Yuval Levin) edited the book Room to Grow: Conservative Reforms for a Limited Government and a Thriving Middle Class. He is the author of a book on the sanctity of human life and American politics and a monograph on Japanese industrial policy. Previously he has been a columnist for Time magazine and WashingtonPost.com. He now lives in the Washington, D.C., area with his wife and two daughters.
HHS Secretary Tom Price
Dr. Thomas E. Price was sworn in as the 23rd Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on February 10, 2017. He brings to the Department a lifetime of service and a dedication to advancing the quality of health care in America – both as a physician and policymaker. His first calling was to care for patients as an orthopaedic surgeon. Dr. Price received his Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine degrees from the University of Michigan and completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency at Emory University. After his training and residency, Dr. Price – a third generation physician following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather – began a solo medical practice in Atlanta, Georgia, which would eventually grow to be one of the largest, non-academic orthopaedic practices in the country. During his 20 years as a practicing physician, he also served as Medical Director of the Orthopedic Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital as well as an Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine. As with many physicians and health care providers, Dr. Price’s experience caring for patients also gave him a unique perspective about the impact of public policy on the practice of medicine. Eager to broaden the impact he could have on improving access to quality health care, Dr. Price ran for public office and was elected to four terms in the Georgia State Senate – during which time he was chosen by his colleagues to serve as Senate Minority Whip and later as the first Republican Senate Majority Leader in the history of Georgia.Most recently, Dr. Price served as the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. He held this office from 2005-2017 and earned a reputation amongst his colleagues for being a tireless problem solver and the go-to expert on health care matters. During his congressional career, Dr. Price served in various leadership roles including, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, and Chairman of the Republican Study Committee. Committed to advancing positive solutions under principled leadership, Dr. Price remains a fierce advocate for a patient-centered health care system that adheres to six key principles: affordability, accessibility, quality, choices, innovation, and responsiveness. As Secretary, Dr. Price remains committed to these principles, administering a wide array of services, supporting life-saving research, and protecting and serving all Americans. Additionally, he recognizes the Department must be efficient, effective and accountable, as well as willing to partner with those in our communities who are already doing remarkable work. Under his leadership, HHS strives to preserve the promises that society has made to the American people. Dr. Price and his wife, Betty, have lived in the Metro-Atlanta area for nearly 40 years. They have one adult son.
Scott Pruitt
On February 17, 2017, the United States Senate confirmed Scott Pruitt as the 14th Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. As Administrator, Mr. Pruitt’s overarching goal is to lead EPA in a way that our future generations inherit a better and healthier environment as he works with the thousands of dedicated public servants at EPA who have devoted their careers to helping realize this shared vision, while faithfully administering environmental laws. Most recently, Pruitt served as the Attorney General for Oklahoma. Pruitt became a national leader through a career of advocating to keep power in the hands of hard-working Americans. As Attorney General for Oklahoma, he led the state’s legal challenges against property rights intrusion, while protecting Oklahoma’s natural resources and environment. He is recognized as a national leader in the cause to restore the proper balance between the states and federal government, and he established Oklahoma’s first federalism unit to combat unwarranted regulation and overreach by the federal government. Before being elected attorney general, he served eight years in the Oklahoma State Senate where he was a leading voice for fiscal responsibility. In addition to his life as a civil servant, Pruitt is a successful entrepreneur. As a co-owner and managing general partner of Oklahoma City’s Triple-A minor league baseball affiliate, the Oklahoma City Redhawks, Mr. Pruitt took over the team’s marketing operations and helped the team become one of the minor league leaders in attendance and merchandise sales. Pruitt is, first and foremost, a family man. He and Marlyn, his wife of 27 years, proudly raised their daughter, McKenna, and son, Cade, in Tulsa.
Speaker Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan is the 54th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1992, Paul moved to Washington, D.C., where he learned from a number of conservative mentors. His first job was working as an aide to Senator Bob Kasten (R-WI) on the Senate Small Business Committee. After a disappointing election for Republicans, he left the Hill to do policy analysis at the think tank Empower America for former Congressman Jack Kemp (R-NY). In 1998, after moving back to Janesville, Paul won his first election to the House at the age of 28. In 2008, Paul received national attention for writing “The Roadmap for America’s Future,” a plan to spur economic growth by fixing the tax code and pay off the national debt by reforming Medicare and Social Security. In 2011, he became chairman of the House Budget Committee, where he incorporated many of the roadmap’s ideas into his budget proposal, “The Path to Prosperity.” In 2012, Paul was the Republican nominee for vice president of the United States. In 2015, Paul became chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. In October 2015, after then-speaker John Boehner retired from Congress, Paul was elected speaker of the House. A committed conservative and public servant, Paul has spent his life advocating for real solutions that will expand opportunity for all Americans. And to the speakership, he brings that same passion for getting results.
Reihan Salam
Reihan Salam is the executive editor of National Review, a policy fellow at the National Review Institute, a contributing editor of National Affairs and a columnist for Slate. With Ross Douthat, Mr. Salam is the co-author of Grand New Party: How Conservatives Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream. Previously, Mr. Salam was an associate editor at The Atlantic, a producer for NBC News, a junior editor and editorial researcher at the New York Times, a research associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a reporter-researcher at The New Republic.
J. D. Vance
J.D. Vance is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. He grew up in the Rust Belt city of Middletown, Ohio, and the Appalachian town of Jackson, Kentucky. He enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school and served in Iraq. A graduate of Ohio State University and Yale Law School, he has contributed to National Review and is a principal at a leading Silicon Valley investment firm. Vance lives in San Francisco with his wife and two dogs.
Peter Wehner
Peter Wehner is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He writes widely on political, cultural, religious, and national-security issues. He has written for numerous publications—including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Financial Times, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, National Affairs, Christianity Today and Time magazine. In 2015 he was named a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He has also appeared as a commentator on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, the BBC and C-SPAN television and appears frequently on national talk radio programs. In 2011 Forbes magazine featured Mr. Wehner on a short list of conservatism’s leading “educators and practitioners of first principles.” He was described this way: “Author, commentator, problem solver, prolific, daily provider of concise, reasoned, artful analysis and argument; gentle giant of a thinker at the intersection of politics and policy.” He has been named by several magazines as one of the handful of most influential reform-minded conservatives.
Mr. Wehner served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations prior to becoming deputy director of speechwriting for President George W. Bush. In 2002, he was asked to head the Office of Strategic Initiatives, where he generated policy ideas, reached out to public intellectuals, published op-eds and essays, and provided counsel on a range of domestic and international issues. A senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, he has been affiliated with several leading research organizations. Mr. Wehner is author of City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era (co-authored with Michael J. Gerson) and Wealth and Justice: The Morality of Democratic Capitalism (co-authored with Arthur C. Brooks).
Kevin D. Williamson
Kevin D. Williamson is National Review’s roving correspondent and the director of National Review Institute’s William F. Buckley Jr. Fellowship Program in Political Journalism. He is the author of The End Is Near and It’s Going to Be Awesome: How Going Broke Will Leave America Richer, Happier, and More Secure, The Dependency Agenda, and The Politically Incorrect Guide to Socialism. He contributed chapters to The New Leviathan: The State vs. The Individual in the 21st Century and Future Tense: Lessons of Culture in an Age of Upheaval. Williamson began his journalism career at the Bombay-based Indian Express Newspaper Group and spent 15 years in the newspaper business in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. He is a regular commentator on Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, and NPR. His work has appeared in the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Commentary, Academic Questions, and other publications. He is a native of Lubbock, Texas.