National Review Institute Announces the 2009 Inaugural Class of Washington Fellows

National Review Institute is proud to announce its inaugural class of Washington Fellows.  This exciting new program is aimed at nurturing the next generation of informed, principled conservative leaders in Washington.
The Institute’s Washington Fellows will have the opportunity to meet with distinguished scholars, writers, and media figures to study conservative principles and the history of the conservative movement. They will participate in in-depth readings and discussions, exploring the enduring truths of conservatism and the issues that have divided thoughtful conservatives.
The Institute is pleased to welcome such an impressive class, which includes employees of the United States government (civilian and military), leading public-policy research institutions, and the media. These distinguished, ambitious, and hard-working individuals will have a unique opportunity to engage with the conservative intellectual tradition.

"I had dinner last night with the NRI Washington Fellows last night. Charming bunch, some of them were very impressive (and not only because they paid for my drink!). Congratulations to Kate O'Beirne and April Ponnuru for such a successful launch of the program. I strongly encourage those interested and eligible to apply next year. I just wish I could have done something like that ten years ago." - Jonah Goldberg

Events

Steve Hayward meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows
November 18, 2009
AEI scholar Steven F. Hayward meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows to discuss his newly published history, The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution: 1980-1989.

Brit Hume meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows
November 2009
Journalist Brit Hume will meet with NRI’s Washington Fellows to discuss the media and politics.

Jonah Goldberg meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows
October 14, 2009                                                         
Journalist Jonah Goldberg meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows to discuss his bestseller, Liberal Fascism.

George Nash meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows
September 9, 2009
George Nash met with NRI’s Washington Fellows to discuss his celebrated history, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America.

Rick Brookhiser meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows
August 4, 2009
Bestselling historian and journalist Rick Brookhiser met with NRI’s Washington Fellows to discuss his recently published memoir-cum-history, Right Time, Right Place.  He also discussed his best-selling book on Washington, Founding Father.

Charles Kesler meets with NRI’s Washington Fellows
June 30, 2009
Professor of government and editor of the Claremont Review of Books Charles Kesler met with NRI’s Washington Fellows to discuss the philosophical origins of progressivism and conservatism and their historical trajectories.

2009 Inaugural Class of Washington Fellows

John Andrews is a defense analyst specializing in strategic systems, deterrence strategy and policy, and arms control. Born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, he received the Bachelor of Science in Engineering in 2005 from Princeton, where he was Publisher of the Tory and a Junior Fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. In 2006, after receiving a master’s degree from Georgia Tech, he moved to Nebraska to work for U.S. Strategic Command. He sang in the Opera Omaha Chorus and in Saint Cecilia Cathedral, where he met his wife, Mary. He now works for the Air Staff and lives in Bethesda with Mary, an intern at National Naval Medical Center, and their daughter, Cecilia.

Neil Brown is an advisor to the United States Senate’s most senior Republican, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana.  He serves as a Senior Professional Staff Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with responsibility for the Nunn-Lugar non-proliferation program and energy security.  Neil earned masters degrees in political theory and forced migration while studying as a Rhodes Scholar at University of Oxford (UK). He also holds a BA from Harvard University.  He has done substantial field work while living in South Asia, Namibia and Egypt. He is a board member of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars and Merton College Charitable Corporation.  Neil is from Iowa, where his family farm is located.

Brock Dahl, who is originally from Wichita, Kansas, has served for the U.S. Department of the Treasury in Baghdad and on the Afghanistan Interagency Operations Group in Washington, D.C. In those capacities, he helped formulate and implement U.S. policy relating to the fiscal and macroeconomic environments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and supported ground-level reconstruction and counterinsurgency efforts. Brock holds a masters (M.Phil.) from the University of Oxford, where he wrote his thesis on the collapse of the Lebanese state. He reads Arabic and speaks Turkish, and has lived and travelled extensively throughout the Middle East. His work in the region included field research involving former Lebanese militia members, intensive language training at the Ahl al-Bayt University in Jordan and the Tömer Centre in Turkey, and working with the Order of the Incarnate Word. He recently published an article in The Colloquium, the U.S. Army and Marine Corp’s counterinsurgency journal, addressing methods for attacking organized criminality in conflict countries. Brock currently studies law at The George Washington University Law School. 

Ryan J. Dwyer is a congressional policy advisor with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Washington, D.C. In this role, he advises the bishops on pending legislation, liaises with congressional staff, and drafts public statements articulating the public policy positions of the Conference. Before joining the USCCB in 2007, Mr. Dwyer served as an assistant state’s attorney in northern Indiana where he prosecuted a variety of criminal cases on behalf of the state. He received his J.D. from the Notre Dame Law School in 2005 where he was a Thomas J. White Scholar with the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy. He is a Blackstone Fellow with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) and has recently co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of the ADF. He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in government. Mr. Dwyer resides in Silver Spring, MD with his wife Caitlin and his son Jack.

Reggie Gibbs currently serves as the Director of National and International Programs for Business Executives for National Security (BENS). Before joining BENS in 2007, Reggie was an infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps for six years. During this period, he completed four overseas deployments to Southeast Asia and the Middle East with the First Battalion, Fourth Marine Regiment eventually serving in Iraq as the head of the Babil province Iraqi police force in 2003. Following his time in the Marines, Reggie served at the Pentagon in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (Eurasian Affairs) where he managed U.S. defense partnership programs throughout countries of the former Soviet Union. Reggie holds a MA in international security studies from the University of Kentucky (2006), and a BA in international politics from The Citadel (1998). In 2005 he was a visiting scholar on Middle Eastern security issues at Sandia National Laboratories in Amman, Jordan. He is currently pursuing a second MA at Georgetown University in Russian foreign policy and politics. Reggie’s military decorations include the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat “V”, Combat Action Ribbon, Humanitarian Service Medal, and Presidential Unit Citation. He also holds term membership at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Matthew J. Glover is a Research Associate for Judge Robert H. Bork at the Hudson Institute. He worked on A Time to Speakthe recently published collection of Judge Bork’s writings, and is now working on a book about Watergate that will detail Judge Bork’s experience in the Nixon and Ford Administrations. He has also worked for Judge Bork on Freedom’s Paper Trail, a book which will attempt to provide a documentary history of constitutional liberties. Matt graduated with honors from Claremont McKenna College receiving a B.A. in government and legal studies. While at Claremont he was a Harrison Fellow at the Salvatori Center, and the Salvatori Fellow in Civil Liberties and New Technology for which he conducted research on the potential Fourth Amendment protection of email.  He also served as a research assistant to Professor Joseph Bessette and Professor Ralph Rossum. During his undergraduate education Matt spent a term studying Irish law and the European Union the University College Cork. Matt’s main research focus is constitutional law and legal history.

Wesley Goodman was born and raised in Cardington, Ohio, a small town in Central Ohio, where his family owns and operates a family farm. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio, where he graduated magna cum laude in 2006 with concentrations in politics, government, and history. During his time at Ohio Wesleyan, he was involved with the College Republicans, mock trial, student government, and was the president of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. During his junior year, he spent a semester in Washington interning for Senator Brownback (R-KS). He has spent the last three years living and working on Capitol Hill. From July to December of 2006, he served as a staff assistant in the office of Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH). Since January, 2007, he has worked with Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), currently serving as a legislative assistant focusing on health care, education, labor, and traditional values and pro-life issues. 

Nicole Gustafson is policy advisor and legislative council for House Republican Rep. Eric Cantor’s Whip policy shop, where she has been employed since January 2009. Nicole handles a variety of issues for the Republican Whip including judiciary policy, education policy, government reform policy, and values issues. During her five and a half years in D.C., Nicole has served as policy director and counsel to Sen. Cornyn of Texas in the Republican Conference Vice Chair's office, as Judiciary Committee counsel for Sen. Grassley and Rep. Steve King, both of Iowa, and as counsel for the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. Immediately following graduation from the University of Iowa College of Law, Nicole practiced campaign finance law for the National Right to Life Committee’s general counsel and also clerked with the organization during law school. An Iowa native, Nicole currently resides in Arlington.

Sean Hayes is an Oversight Counsel for the Republican Staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.  During the 2008 election he was an Associate Counsel at the Republican National Committee, where he was responsible for the review and approval of all contracts and outside communications.  He was also the chief RNC contact for the planning and execution of Victory Rallies in coordination with the McCain-Palin campaign. Prior to joining the RNC, Sean was a litigation associate at Wiley Rein LLP, where he focused on matters before the Federal Communications Commission and the Copyright Review Board. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Sean is a graduate of Fairfield University and Stanford Law School. 

Hudson Hollister is counsel to the Republican staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  His work focuses on transparency and management within the executive branch.  Hudson previously served as an attorney fellow at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he worked for the Office of Interactive Disclosure and the Office of International Affairs. In July 2008, he was appointed to the 21st Century Disclosure Initiative, a task force that sought to simplify the nation’s securities disclosure regime. The Disclosure Initiative recommended in January 2009 that the Commission replace its complex paper-based disclosure forms with an electronic system that would use data tagging for greater transparency and accessibility. Before he joined the staff of the Commission, Hudson was an associate in the Chicago office of Latham & Watkins, an international law firm. At Latham & Watkins, he specialized in commercial and securities litigation. His pro bono clients included a blogger sued for defamation. Hudson holds a law degree from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Francis. He served on the editorial board of the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business.  He has authored and co-authored academic articles on U.S. and international securities regulation and has lectured on corporate governance. 

Jo Jensen is from Billings, Montana and is currently a policy associate at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation where she assists in the development of grassroots education campaigns and conducts policy research on current threats to economic prosperity. Ms. Jensen is the former executive director of Secure Our Future, a grassroots organization dedicated to issues affecting the retirement security of young people. In her role as executive director, she worked closely with the White House and Congressional leaders to host educational events for young conservatives. Ms. Jensen's work engaging young voters during the 2008 presidential primaries was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal, as well as in CNN and Time.com. Before taking on the role of Executive Director of Secure Our Future in 2007, Ms. Jensen served as the chief of staff for Students for Saving Social Security (S4), a project of Secure Our Future. In her role as chief of staff, Ms. Jensen developed the organization’s new media division, oversaw membership growth, and developed the organization into a group over 11,000 members with 350 college chapters nationwide. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Ms. Jensen holds a bachelors degree in political science and economics.

Emily Lawrimore currently serves as communications director for the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee (Republican staff). She served as press secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce during Secretary Carlos Gutierrez’s tenure. Prior to this, she served as an assistant press secretary at the White House under Tony Snow and Dana Perino’s leadership. Early in her career, she served as communications director to Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC). Emily also served at the White House as an executive assistant to Barry Jackson, the Deputy Assistant to the President, and a special assistant to Cathie Martin, the assistant to the Vice President for communications. She began her career on Capitol Hill in August 2002 as a legislative correspondent to former Congressman Charlie Norwood (R-GA). Emily received her bachelor’s degree in speech and communication from Clemson University in May 2002. She is a native of Columbus, Georgia.

Steven Menashi is an Olin/Searle Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. Previously, he was associate editor of Policy Review, a public affairs fellow at the Hoover Institution, and an editorial writer for The New York Sun. He has published articles in The New York Times, National Review, Notre Dame Law Review, and other publications. He attended Stanford Law School, where he was elected to Order of the Coif; served as senior articles editor of the Stanford Law Review, managing editor of the Stanford Law & Policy Review, and president of the Federalist Society; and won the Kirkwood Moot Court Competition, the Carl Mason Franklin Award in International Law, and the Steven M. Block Civil Liberties Award. He served as a law clerk to Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit. He was also a David and Lucille Packard Fellow at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he edited The Dartmouth Review.

Ben Moncrief currently serves as legal counsel to U.S. Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) and as chief counsel to the Senate Aging Committee (minority staff). Before coming to work in the U.S. Senate, Ben served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge James H. Hancock and spent several years in private practice with the Birmingham, Alabama, based law firm of Bradley Arant Rose & White LLP (now Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP). At Bradley Arant, his practice focused on the litigation of business disputes before state and federal courts and international arbitral tribunals. In 2007, Ben was named one of Birmingham's top 40 professionals under the age of 40 by the Birmingham Business Journal. A native of Mississippi, Ben received his B.A. in Political Science from Birmingham-Southern College in 1999 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia in 2003. In 2000, he received an M.Litt. in international security studies from the University of St Andrews (UK), where he was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Ben and his wife Corrie are the parents of a 2-year-old daughter and are expecting their second child, a son, in October.

Matt Patterson is a policy analyst for the National Center For Public Policy Research.  His commentary has appeared in The Washington Post, National Review Online, The Baltimore Sun, Pajamas Media, and Big Hollywood, among others.  He is the author of "Union of Hearts: The Abraham Lincoln & Ann Rutledge Story."  In 2008-2009, Matt served as research assistant to Charles Krauthammer.  In the 2008 Republican Primary race, he served the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign as policy communications coordinator and a state political coordinator.  In 2007 he graduated cum laude from Columbia University, where he studied Ancient Greek and Latin.  Matt has also performed across the U.S. and abroad as an award winning sleight-of-hand artist.  He grew up in Colorado.

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute and editor-in-chief of the Cato Supreme Court Review. Before joining Cato, he was special assistant/advisor to the Multi-National Force-Iraq on rule of law issues and practiced international, political, commercial, and antitrust litigation at both Patton Boggs LLP and Cleary Gottlieb LLP. Shapiro has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the L.A. Times, Washington Times, Weekly Standard, Roll Call, National Review Online, and from 2004 to 2007 wrote the "Dispatches from Purple America" column for TCS Daily.com. He also regularly provides commentary on a host of legal and political issues for various TV and radio outlets, including Fox News, CBS, WGN, Voice of America, and American Public Media's "Marketplace." He is also an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School and lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, The Fund for American Studies, and other educational and professional groups. Before entering private practice, Shapiro clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, while living in Mississippi and traveling around the deep South. He holds an A.B. from Princeton University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics (UK), and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School (where he was a Tony Patiño Fellow).

Evan Sparks is the managing editor of Philanthropy, a publication of the Philanthropy Roundtable. Previously, he was an associate editor at the American Enterprise Institute. His articles and reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, The Weekly Standard, The American, TCS Daily, and other outlets. He also writes a blog on aviation policy at EvanSparks.com. Prior to joining AEI, Mr. Sparks coordinated Hurricane Katrina relief at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. He received his B.A. in political science and history from Tulane University. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Daniel Suhr is deputy director of the student division at The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, encouraging and equipping student leaders at 200 law schools across the country to promote conservative and libertarian ideas on their campuses. In addition to his full-time position with The Federalist Society, he is pursuing an LL.M. in law and the public policy process at Georgetown University Law Center. Daniel holds a J.D. from Marquette University Law School and is a member of the Wisconsin State Bar. His legal articles have been published in the Texas Review of Law & Politics, the Wisconsin Lawyer, and State Court Docket Watch. He is an Eagle Scout and a former Capitol Hill intern.