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Dr. William Galston holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program. A former policy advisor to President Clinton and presidential candidates, Galston is an expert on domestic policy, political campaigns, and elections. His current research focuses on designing a new social contract and the implications of political polarization.
Dr. Galston is the author of eight books and more than 100 articles in the fields of political theory, public policy, and American politics. His books include The Practice of Liberal Pluralism (2004), and Public Matters (2005). A winner of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert H. Humphrey Award, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. Additionally, Dr. Galston is a frequent commentator on NPR and writes a weekly column for the Wall Street Journal.
Michael J. Gerson is the Roger Hertog senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His work focuses on issues of global health and development, religion and foreign policy, and the democracy agenda. He is the author of Heroic Conservatism (HarperOne, October 2007), a columnist syndicated with the Washington Post Writers Group, and a contributor to Newsweek. He serves on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience, and on USAID’s Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid.
Before joining the Council in July 2006, Mr. Gerson was a top aide to President George W. Bush as assistant to the president for policy and strategic planning (February 2005-June 2006). Prior to that appointment, he served in the White House as deputy assistant to the president and director of presidential speechwriting (January 2001 to July 2002) and assistant to the president for speechwriting and policy advisor (July 2002 to February 2005). Mr. Gerson joined Bush’s presidential campaign in early 1999 as chief speechwriter and senior policy adviser. He was previously senior editor covering politics at U.S. News and World Report. Mr. Gerson was a speechwriter and policy adviser for Jack Kemp and a speechwriter for Bob Dole during the 1996 presidential campaign. He has also served Senator Dan Coats from Indiana as policy director. Mr. Gerson is a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois. He grew up in the St. Louis area and now lives with his wife and sons in northern Virginia.