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Meet National Review Institute’s 2012 Washington Fellows
Jordan Allott
Jordan Allott is Founder and Executive Producer for In Altum Productions, a Washington, D.C., based film and video production company. Through In Altum Productions, Jordan has produced and distributed documentary projects with themes ranging from Catholic spirituality to mountain climbing to Cuban and American politics. Mr. Allott’s work has been seen globally on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), CNN International, Telemundo and Univision and has been featured by media outlets globally, including the G. Gordon Liddy Radio Show. Mr. Allott has also written opinion pieces for The Washington Times, The American Spectator, and Catholic World Report. Additionally, Mr. Allott’s work has been screened at several film festivals across the United States and Canada, including the Washington, D.C. Independent Film Festival. Currently, Mr. Allott is working on a documentary entitled Flashes of Color: Disability in the Age of Perfection. Mr. Allott was born in Reading, England, received a B.A. in Political Science, Philosophy, and Film from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and resides in McLean, Virginia.
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Will Adams
Will Adams is the Deputy Chief of Staff to freshman Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI). Mr. Adams helps manage Rep. Amash's D.C. office and supervises the policy and press shops. Prior to his current position, he worked in Colorado politics as Policy Director for U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck and as Communications Director for Rep. Tom Tancredo. While in Colorado, he also clerked for Judge Tim Tymkovich (10th Cir.). He graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was the President of the Federalist Society and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
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Chris Armstrong
Chris Armstrong serves as Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means, where he conducts oversight and investigations for Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI). Before joining the Ways & Means staff, he was Investigative Counsel to the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees under Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and an attorney at the Office of Special Counsel. Chris is actively involved with the Federalist Society, and is Co-Chair of the Capitol Hill Chapter and a founder of the D.C. Young Lawyers Chapter. He received a B.S in Political Science from Kennesaw State University in 2002 and a J.D. from the Catholic University of America in 2005, where he was Federalist Society chapter president and an editor of the law review. Chris is from Fayetteville, Georgia.
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Eleanor Bartow
Eleanor Bartow is managing editor of the American Enterprise Institute’s magazine The American and its Enterprise Blog. Previously, she was a reporter for Congressional Quarterly—writing for its publications CQ Politics, CQ Weekly, CQ Today, and CQ Homeland Security—and a researcher for National Geographic Traveler magazine. Her articles have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, The American, The American Spectator, Washingtonian magazine, National Geographic News, and National Geographic Traveler. She has been interviewed on NPR and WABC, and, as an intern, reported and produced stories for a regional NPR program and the Radio Network. Ellie was the 2003 recipient of Fulbright Professional Grant in Journalism, and lived in Spain for several months, researching the Basque terrorist group ETA. She attended the University of Virginia as an Echols scholar, and was editor in chief of U.Va.’s magazine, The Declaration. When not working for AEI, Ellie manages her family’s wine business, Ten Sisters, importing wine from her grandmother's vineyard in New Zealand. She grew up in London, and now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband Dennis.
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Eric Blankenstein
Eric Blankenstein is an attorney at Williams & Connolly LLP, where he focuses on general litigation, including professional malpractice, mass torts, and complex commercial disputes. Prior to his career in law, Eric was a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM Business Consulting, and Infinitive. While with PwC, Eric worked alongside Kenneth Feinberg as the hearings coordinator for the September 11th Victims Compensation Fund. Eric has a B.S in Commerce, an M.A. in History, and a JD from the University of Virginia. While at U.Va. Law, he was managing editor of the Virginia Law and Business Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. His history thesis examined the landmark case of Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer and suggested that the current interpretation of the case is incorrect. Eric spent the summer of 2008 as a clerk for the Hon. Margaret Ryan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. He currently lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and two daughters.
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Mitch Boersma
Mitch Boersma works in the Washington, D.C. area as a research associate in conservative studies while he pursues a Master’s degree in Moral Theology and Ethics at the Catholic University of America. Before returning to graduate studies, he worked for two years as a research assistant in religious, social and political studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He began his career in Washington, D.C., as an intern at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. A Colorado native, Mr. Boersma is a Tertio Millenio Fellow, Summer Institute of Catholic Social Thought graduate, and holds a B.A. in Business Leadership with a concentration in Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility from the University of Dallas.
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Zeljka Buturovic
Zeljka Buturovic is Senior Researcher at IBOPE Zogby International’s Washington, D.C. office. Ms. Buturovic joined the company in 2008 and has since worked in all aspects of public-opinion polling. In collaboration with John Zogby, she has published opinion articles in Huffington Post and National Review Online, and her academic work has been discussed in Wall Street Journal and The New Republic. Born in Split, Croatia, Ms. Buturovic was raised in Belgrade, Serbia and immigrated to the US as an adult. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Statistics from Carnegie Mellon University, a Masters degree in Statistics from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Columbia University in New York.
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Christopher M. Griffith
Christopher M. Griffith currently serves at the Senior Policy Advisor to the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. In this capacity, he is the lead analyst and primary author of SIGIR's quarterly reports to the Secretaries of State and Defense and the U.S. Congress on the reconstruction effort in Iraq. He also serves as SIGIR's lead analyst on Iraqi rule of law and governance issues. Mr. Griffith has also served as SIGIR's Acting Director of Public Affairs. Prior to joining SIGIR, Mr. Griffith worked for the Department of State as the U.S. Embassy-Baghdad's Senior Legal Advisor on Anticorruption for more than two years. There, he helped to author Iraq's first-ever financial disclosure laws, worked regularly with Iraq's main law-enforcement organizations, and drafted regular reports on the state of public corruption in the Government of Iraq. He also worked with several international organizations on issues pertaining to the rule of law in Iraq, including the World Bank, the UNDP, and the International Monetary Fund. Before joining the Department of State, Mr. Griffith spent several years as a litigation associate at the Wall Street law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he specialized in securities matters and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases. He is a graduate of Cornell Law School, where he was Vice President of the Federalist Society chapter, and received his A.B. in 19th Century U.S. History from Harvard, where he was active in a variety of conservative organizations.
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Sean Harrison
Sean Harrison has managed and won two high profile, hard-fought political campaigns. In 2009, he managed Barbara Comstock’s successful campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates, a race that cost over $1.2 million and was viewed as a bellwether for the Republican comeback in 2009. In 2010, Mr. Harrison served as Congressman Robert Hurt’s (R-VA) Campaign Manager/Spokesman, in a campaign that resulted in the ouster of incumbent Tom Perriello. Robert Hurt’s congressional race was one of the most high-profile campaigns in the country, totaling over $7 million in spending between the two candidates and outside interest groups. The race attracted national media attention throughout 2010. Mr. Harrison is a 2004 graduate of American University and co-founder of its first conservative newspaper, The American Journal. Currently he works as Director of State Relations for Citizens United.
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Sarah Hawkins
Sarah Hawkins is an attorney in Washington, D.C. She is currently a law clerk to the Honorable Richard J. Leon on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She also clerked for the Honorable J. L. Edmondson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and worked as an associate in the Washington office of Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. Before practicing law, Ms. Hawkins worked on President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign, serving as the research assistant for policy on the President’s Debate Prep team. She later worked on the Presidential Inaugural Committee before serving as Deputy Press Secretary at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Ms. Hawkins graduated from Duke Law School in 2008, where she was the Editor in Chief of Law & Contemporary Problems and an Executive Board Member of the Federalist Society. She holds a B.A. in Public Policy and Spanish from Duke University. An Atlanta native, Ms. Hawkins is actively involved with numerous educational and philanthropic organizations in Georgia.
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Laura Holland
Laura Holland serves as a policy advisor to Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price (GA-06). She focuses on health care policy, including entitlement reform. In this role, she drafts health care legislation and advises the Congressman in his role on the Ways & Means Committee. She received a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, and prior to working on the Hill, she spent over two years at Alston and Bird, LLP, as an associate in the Health Care, Legislative and Public Policy group. She also previously worked for Congressman Nathan Deal (GA-09), who now serves as the Governor of Georgia, and served a short stint with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions during her time in law school. Laura received a B.A. in religious studies, with distinction, from the University of Virginia. She is originally from Savannah, Georgia.
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Robert Kennedy
Robert Kennedy is a criminal trial attorney at the Department of Justice. Born and raised outside of Boston, Mr. Kennedy received his B.A. with honors from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied in the Program of Liberal Studies, a Great Books program, and was a member of the university intramural boxing team. In 2005, he received his J.D. from Boston College Law School, where he was winner of the Mock Trial program and president of the law school Republicans. Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Mr. Kennedy worked for five years as an Assistant District Attorney at the New York County District Attorney's Office, prosecuting violent street crime and white-collar matters. Mr. Kennedy serves as an alumni representative for his class at St. Sebastian's School and is a member of the Federalist Society.
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Dan Lips
Dan Lips currently works for the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. Before coming to Capitol Hill, he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dan previously served as a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, where he covered federal and state education policy. Dan earned his
bachelor's degree from Princeton University and his master's degree from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. Since 2008, he has served on the D.C. Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
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Jonathan Nabavi
Jonathan Nabavi currently serves as Counsel to Congressman Steve King (R-IA) where he handles a wide array of issues including matters that come before the House Judiciary Committee and foreign affairs. A graduate of the George Washington University Law School, Mr. Nabavi has completed clerkships with the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Federal Communications Commission, as well as a fellowship with the House Budget Committee. He is a former Penn State football player, and has served on numerous state and national political campaigns. He lives in Washington, D.C.
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Stephen J. Obermeier
Stephen J. Obermeier is an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Obermeier worked as an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, a Washington, D.C. law firm, and is a member of the Federalist Society. He graduated Order of the Coif from Vanderbilt University Law School in 2006, where he was a Managing Editor on the Vanderbilt Law Review. Following law school, Mr. Obermeier served as a law clerk to Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He graduated cum laude from Princeton University in 2003 with an A.B. in Economics.
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Brian Pawlowski
Brian Pawlowski served as an active duty officer in the United States Marine Corps and has twice deployed in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Prior to joining the military, Brian attended Carthage College where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science with a focus on international relations and political philosophy. Brian currently works in Washington, D.C. for a technology firm handling intelligence issues. He and his wife Ashley, both originally from Indiana, live in Alexandria, VA, and are expecting their first child.
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Robert Porter
Robert Porter serves as General Counsel in the office of Senator Mike Lee and Chief Counsel of his Judiciary Committee staff. Previously he worked at the law firms of Sidley Austin and Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., and as a visiting professor in the political science department at Brigham Young University. Rob served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas Griffith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. He holds an A.B. in Government from Harvard College and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. He also studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he earned an M.Phil. in Political Theory and is currently a D.Phil. candidate.
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Julia D. Shaw
Julia D. Shaw is a research associate and program manager for The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for Principles and Politics where she oversees the content of Heritage’s First Principles educational programming. She is editor of Heritage’s most popular weekly e-newsletter New Common Sense, a contributor to the Heritage blog The Foundry, and the managing editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution: Teaching Companion. A Texas native, Shaw received a bachelor’s degree in politics from the University of Dallas, where she graduated second in her class, summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. She won the Willmoore Kendall Award in Political Philosophy, given to the top student in the Politics Department. Shaw also was a Hatton Sumners Fellow through the University of Dallas, a Publius Fellow at the Claremont Institute, and a Fellow at the American Enterprise Summer Institute.
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Jonathan Slemrod
Jonathan Slemrod is a Legislative Assistant for Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), where he advises the Senator on tax, budget, banking, housing, and Social Security issues before the United States Senate and the Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship. He works closely with the Senate Steering Committee and outside organizations to advance Senator Rubio's agenda of limited government and economic freedom. Prior to joining Senator Rubio's staff, Slemrod worked for Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and The Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He studied political science at the University of Michigan, where he was Editor-at-Large of The Michigan Review and active in campus politics. He is a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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Satya Thallam
Satya Thallam is Director of the Financial Markets Working Group and an economist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Satya founded and manages all aspects of this financial services research and outreach group, winner of the 2010 Templeton Award. He was previously the 2007 Hernando de Soto Fellow, a Research Associate at the Mercatus Center, and acting director of fiscal policy at the Goldwater Institute. He also acts as advisor to groups such as the American Action Forum, Pulitzer Prize winner PolitiFact, the Congressional Oversight Panel, and was senior editor of the journal Lombard Street. He graduated with honors from Arizona State University with a degree in economics and completed his doctoral studies in economics at Emory University.
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Jason Torchinsky
Jason Torchinsky is a partner at Holtzman Vogel PLCC, a boutique law firm specializing in campaign finance, election law, lobbying disclosure, and issue advocacy groups. He has represented candidates running for office from City Council to President, and organizations ranging from small Republican women's organizations to a national party committee, and groups engaging in some of the largest independent expenditures ever recorded in political campaigns. In 2011, Jason successfully represented the Louisiana House of Representatives in the preclearance of the redistricting plan before District of Columbia federal court and U.S. Department of Justice, and is currently representing defendants opposing Congressman Chris Van Hollen's (D-MD) attempt to expand disclosures required under the Federal Election Campaign Act. Jason previously served at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division and in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. He lives in Arlington, VA with his wife and daughter.
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Patrick Urda
Patrick Urda is an attorney for the federal government based in Washington, D.C. Prior to moving to Washington, Mr. Urda clerked for the Honorable Daniel A. Manion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. He began his legal career in Chicago as an associate at McDermott, Will & Emery, and then at Maciorowski, Sackmann & Ulrich, with his practice focusing on commercial litigation. Mr. Urda is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He received his B.A. in Classics, summa cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame, where he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He is a native of South Bend, IN.
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The landing place of the link
Our Future: NRI Washington Fellow Profiles
Tyler Grimm
Tyler Grimm knows his stuff. He’s a numbers guy with a gift for writing—not a bad skill to have as an up-and-comer in Washington. A former college debater, he has published work in important journals (The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and The Wall Street Journal, etc.), and he has provided research for several studies and books (including The End of Prospertity by Art Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter Tanous, and Glenn Beck’s number 1 New York Times bestseller Arguing with Idiots). While serving as a researcher for Stephen Moore, the senior economics writer at The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Grimm decided to apply to the NRI Washington Fellows Program for a chance to broaden his understanding of conservatism.
“The NRI Washington Fellows Program was a wonderful chance to meet authors and eminent thinkers in the modern conservative movement,” Grimm reports. But what set it apart for him was the chance to have real discussions with the people he was reading. “It's one thing to read their work, but it was the opportunity to sit down with the authors and pick their brains that made for a much deeper experience. It provided a lot of insights that I never would have gleaned on my own.”
And the breadth of the program also impressed him. “The participants came from a great variety of backgrounds -- journalism, government, advocacy, and the private sector. This provided for very well-rounded discussions about contemporary problems and the importance of securing a culture of freedom.”
Now a professional staff member at the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Grimm works for Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) on the Herculean feat of rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government. Conservatives should expect great things in the future from Tyler Grimm, as from so many of our fellows.
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Dan Lips
Dan Lips is a member of the 2012 class of Washington Fellows. A notable contributor to Washington policy debates on numerous issues over the years, Dan has served in policy development roles at some of the top think tanks in the country. But he admits that as a Hill staffer it can be a challenge to remain philosophically grounded: “Working on Capitol Hill, it is easy to focus on the current political debates. The NRI fellowship provides a helpful perspective about the larger battle of ideas that is playing out through history.”
By day, Dan works as a policy advisor and investigator with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In this role, he follows policy issues for Senator Tom Coburn on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and works on oversight investigations. Before coming to the Hill, Dan worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He previously worked as a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, where he was the lead policy analyst handling education issues. In this role, he developed innovative policy solutions to improve children’s learning opportunities. For example, Arizona’s first-in-the-nation K-12 scholarship program for children living in foster care was based on Dan’s research.
A graduate of Princeton University and The Institute of World Politics, Dan is currently a senior fellow with the Goldwater Institute and a member with the DC Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights. He has contributed op-eds and blog posts to National Review Online since 2000. In 2010, Dan was an honorable mention in the NRI’s idea contest, with an innovative policy recommendation for “popping the higher education bubble.”
He encourages others to apply to the Washington Fellowship. “The NRI fellowship program has been a great opportunity to learn from some of the brightest minds in the conservative movement. It’s also been an ideal place to meet other people working in Washington who are interested in conservative ideas.”
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Paul Edattel
Paul Edattel is a Capitol Hill veteran and a committed conservative, but when the opportunity to apply for the second class of NRI Washington Fellows program came around, he was one of the first to apply. “The need for engaged and thoughtful articulation of conservatism is needed more than ever to combat the conventional wisdom of Washington,” he says. “I'm just glad institutions like NRI are doing so much to equip my generation of conservatives with the knowledge to advance this important cause.”
The Fellows program did more than reiterate things he already knew. It allowed him to explore more deeply the principles he embraces, while challenging his thinking on some questions. As he explains, “The NRI program afforded me the opportunity to personally interact and converse with intellectual heroes who have both shaped and challenged my worldview.”
Edattel serves as professional staff member on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, where he fights the good fight against Obamacare. (During his time as a Washington Fellow, he served as Legislative Director to Arizona Republican congressman John Shadegg.) He began his career in Washington working for former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and 1996 GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Jack Kemp at Empower America.
Edattel explains that he was drawn to work in Washington by a desire to advance prosperity by limiting the federal government to its proper role. “I am still amazed on a daily basis,” he admits, “by the unwavering and entrenched belief in this city that nearly every aspect of our economic life should be managed by technocratic top-down control from the federal government.” Adding, “Along the way, I have found plenty of evidence for the wisdom of Bill Buckley's comment that he would rather ‘entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.’”
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Daniel Allott
Daniel Allott writes about a wide range of topics for American Values, a public-policy organization in Washington, D.C. With his twin brother, a current NRI Washington Fellow, he is also a documentary producer. Their documentary on Cuban democracy advocate Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet was released to acclaim in April.
“It’s been rewarding to meet and listen to some of my favorite authors and thinkers,” he says of his time as a Washington Fellow. “And I’ve benefitted greatly from meeting and talking with other youngish conservatives with such varied backgrounds. It leaves me hopeful about the future of American conservatism.”
Allott first became interested in politics through his work in the pro-life movement. “I was, in a sense, a pro-life community organizer. I did a lot of activism, educating, demonstrating, rallying, lobbying and more. Most of this happened while I was attending the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where I was part of a small but very active and motivated group of students and activists who promoted the pro-life cause amid a much larger group of active and motivated liberal students and activists.”
He came to D.C. to attend graduate school at Georgetown University, where he received a master of public policy degree. He is now at work on a documentary called Flashes of Color: Disability in the Age of Perfection. Documentary filmmaking is not a field typically associated with conservatives, but Allott hopes to change that: “The challenge of documentary filmmaking is the challenge not only to entertain but also to inform, persuade and even edify. A well-made film can reach a very wide audience and potentially in a more profound way than a print article. There is no reason for conservatives not to be making documentaries. We can tell stories just as well as the left can, and we know there’s an audience for films from a conservative point of view.”
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Sean Hayes
“I will be forever grateful to the National Review Institute for choosing me to be a member of the inaugural class of Washington Fellows,” says Sean Hayes, who works for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. “In one year I learned more about the conservative movement than I could ever imagine. I continue to rely on those lessons learned, as well as the network of friends, colleagues, and mentors I met through the program.”
Hayes has already had a storied career in the Republican Party, working for the Republican National Committee in various capacities. Before that, he was a litigation associate for the prestigious Wiley Rein firm. Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Sean is a graduate of Fairfield University and Stanford Law School.
As a fellow, Hayes particularly appreciated the events featuring Charles Kesler, Richard Brookhiser, and Steven Hayward—delving into the history of the conservative movement, National Review and William F. Buckley Jr., and Ronald Reagan, respectively. Together they added up to an expert tour of modern conservatism.
Hayes adds, “The experience was not just about politics or public policy, however, but about the importance of history, values, and principles. I do not speak so highly of the Washington Fellows program just because it made me a better conservative, but because I truly believe it made me a better person.”
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Nicole Gustafson
“Far too often, we separate our philosophy from our actions,” says Nicole Gustafson, a senior policy advisor and chief legislative counsel for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. “But the Washington Fellow gatherings helped me put those principles into action in my job.” The Fellowship was especially helpful, she adds, in deepening her understanding of the constitutional role of Congress.
An Iowa native, Gustafson has worked for several conservative congressmen and organizations. Her current portfolio includes judiciary policy, education policy, government reform policy, and values issues.
Gustafson stresses the practical benefits of the Fellowship. “We also delved into topics that are very high on congressional Republicans’ priority list, like ways to jump-start the economy by getting the government out of the way of private job creators. The personal relationships I built with other fellows and NRI staff during the program are some of the closest I have in D.C.
“Participating in the NRI Washington Fellows Program was invaluable to both my personal and professional development. Having the opportunity to read works by some of today’s best conservative authors and then discuss those books with their authors is an experience unlike any other I’m aware of.
“I continue to recommend the program to intelligent young conservatives who would both benefit from participation and positively contribute to their own class’s discussions.”
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Marion Smith
Marion Smith is a Buckley conservative. “I arrived too late in this world to see William F. Buckley, Jr. in his prime,” says Smith, “but through books, articles, histories, and personal accounts, I came to be inspired by Buckley’s audacity to take his ideas to the public square and his hope that he could persuade the American people with arguments.”
After college he moved to DC to research and write about U.S. diplomatic history for the Heritage Foundation, and became a NRI Washington Fellow in 2010. “Young American conservatives are often poorly equipped to defend or explain the philosophical basis of their politics. There is also an impulse among too many to be purist and radical about their political beliefs, which unhelpfully steers them into utopian waters and causes them to reject prudence,” Smith explains. “NRI emphasizes reading classics and understanding philosophy, and provides for discussions with luminaries in the movement; this is profoundly needed.” He adds that the program, “allowed me to rub shoulders with bright young people who will undoubtedly play a vital role in this country’s future.”
His deep interest in foreign policy led him to found the Common Sense Society, an organization that exists to promote civic engagement, entrepreneurship, and the ideals of responsible liberty among university students and young professionals in Hungary. “Together with a group of young Hungarians, I began organizing debates in Hungary two years ago . . . We sought to establish a regular forum for vigorous, intelligent, and civil debate on the pertinent issues of the day.” The challenge of reforming a post-Communist Hungary is an immense task, but the group believes that “modern political discourse and policy-making are greatly enhanced by an understanding of and engagement with political theory, philosophy, and historical experience. We seek to contribute to the intellectual development of our generation by providing a regular forum for rational and civil engagement.”
“Too few American conservatives realize that if Europe sees a cultural revival, it will come from this region,” Smith warns. “Within the EU, these countries can help shape the politics of Europe, but must constantly challenge the liberal orthodoxies of established Western European countries . . .The future of the West is still, in part, dependent on developments in the former communist space of Europe.” It is crucial, he argues, that Americans and Europeans join common cause to remedy the crisis of the West by returning to first principles.” The Common Sense Society, which is now also organizing debates in Washington, DC on foreign policy issues, is doing its part, and the NRI is proud of a Washington Fellow who is also educating the next generation of young leaders.
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Brock Dahl
Brock Dahl traces his conservatism to his father’s influence, the strong sense of responsibility and individual initiative found in his native Kansas, and his education in the Catholic faith. He was also impressed, during college, with Hayek’s The Use of Knowledge in Society, which argues that central planners cannot possibly have the knowledge to accomplish their designs. Defending the U.S. during his studies in Turkey—others were burning American symbols on campus in protest of the Iraq war—deepened his conservatism, and Dahl would later work for the U.S. government in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dahl was attending George Washington University Law School during his tenure as a Washington Fellow. “The National Review Institute provided a training ground to sharpen our ideas and achieve a greater understanding of how they may apply in the practical situations in which [we] find [our]selves.” He is also grateful to NRI for helping him publish some of his reflections on his experiences abroad.
One point Dahl stresses, based on those experiences, is that applying American leverage today “requires a new skill-set that differs drastically from the game-theory models that governed thinking during the Cold War. We live in a world where nation-states no longer hold a monopoly on influencing future outcomes.”
Now Dahl is headed to Palo Alto to practice law. “I returned from Iraq and Afghanistan knowing that there will always be physical threats to our safety, but feeling that perhaps the greatest existential threat to American well-being is an economic climate that suffocates entrepreneurial initiative and human potential. Working with entrepreneurs who are sharing their talents with society offers an incredibly satisfying way to further enable the potential that has always been essential to our national character.”
There are, finally, moral threats to the national character that Dahl believes conservatives must resist. “The confusion of tolerance with permissiveness, rather than respect, is a subtle but pernicious trend that young conservatives – and I would actually argue all of us - must resist. . . . Whether in our personal lives or as a matter of policy, we must try to seek moral clarity. The greatest challenge we face is a society that increasingly blurs those lines, making it incredibly challenging to achieve that clarity.”
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Justin Polin
“I’ve been a conservative since my teenage years,” says Justin Polin. “My grandfather (a Democrat) gave me a subscription to National Review when he learned of my interest in politics.” After September 11, he studied foreign policy more seriously. He went to Columbia, where “it was said (and likely true) that there were more socialists on campus than Republicans.” He then studied national-security issues at the Institute of World Politics. Now he works as a research associate for Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense, at the Hudson Institute.
He appreciates the National Review Institute’s Washington Fellowship because, he says, it “provides a unique opportunity to interact with smart conservatives across a diverse range of fields. It’s easy to remain somewhat isolated and absorbed with one’s own work within a think tank, on Capitol Hill, or in the private sector. NRI offers a chance for dialogue and lasting friendships among conservatives that will pay dividends for years to come.
“It’s also been a privilege to learn from and interact with conservative luminaries. Many of the speakers have either inspired the fellows to be conservatives or have shaped their thinking in some fashion.”
Polin wants to continue to work in the national-security field. “Amidst a time of record-high deficits and a decade-long war, there is a temptation to adopt a narrower conception of U.S. national interests. It’s important for young conservatives to keep in mind that such a choice incurs costs.”
It’s also important, he thinks, for young conservatives to be well-armed in the battle of ideas. They should know liberal arguments better than the liberals do, he says—just like William F. Buckley Jr.
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Stephen Martinko
Stephen Martinko has worked on Capitol Hill for a variety of conservative lawmakers for almost a decade. Though a well-informed and successful conservative, Martinko feels that the National Review Institute’s Washington Fellowship has helped him. “The opportunities to engage with leading conservatives and build relationships with a diverse group of distinguished colleagues has been educational, interesting, extremely valuable, and – last but not least – fun.”
He grew up conservative, with parents who “always stressed the importance of personal responsibility, strong values, and living within our family budget.” He found those conservative views “challenged on a daily basis” when he went to Brown University—a well-known citadel of liberalism. But instead of causing him to jettison those convictions, the challenges led him “to constantly examine my own beliefs, result[ing] in a deeper understanding of my political positions, and prepar[ing] me to ably defend my views.”
Martinko has an M.A. in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University. He urges that we not let our understandable concern about domestic issues blind us to events abroad. “The threat my generation faces from ideological extremism and terrorism is very real, and we also must remain vigilant to the threat posed from rising peer competitors such as China. To counter these threats, we must remain committed to President Reagan’s philosophy of ‘peace through strength.’”
Based on his experience, he has some advice for young conservatives: “The biggest challenge is the feeling of being different or isolated from their peers because the dominant political group among young people tends to be Democrats. It’s important to stick to one’s values and remember that we are not alone.”
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Karin Agness
Karin Agness is a young Washington lawyer with a cause. Although she works in a traditional corporate law firm by day, she manages to keep a non-profit organization running—and growing—in her free time.
Agness founded the Network of enlightened Women (NeW) while an undergraduate at the University of Virginia out of frustration with the lack of resources available for culturally conservative women on campus. She was determined to change things, and launched NeW as a book club for conservative female students. “I started NeW just to fill a niche at UVA, but there has been a growing demand for it on other campuses. We are now on 20 campuses nationwide.”
Now practicing law in DC, Agness spent a year as a Washington Fellow with National Review Institute. “The NRI Fellowship provided a wonderful classroom experience in DC. The books we read…have opened my eyes to some new approaches to issues and have made me better understand conservatism as a political philosophy.” High praise from a woman who founded a conservative book club of her own. She continues, “I am grateful for the NRI Fellowship for introducing me to an outstanding group of young conservative leaders in DC. Some of us have even started a dinner group now that the program has ended.” She recommends the program to her friends.
What does Agness think the future will hold for conservative women? “I think more and more conservative women have decided to stand up and speak out. Conservative women are frustrated with radical feminists who claim to speak for all women and are looking for an alternative.”
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Benjamin Hackett
Before attending Carnegie Mellon University, Benjamin Hackett took a year off in 2001 to earn money for his tuition and work on campaigns. While living the NY Metro Area, Hackett witnessed the collapse of the Twin Towers. He describes it as the defining moment of his life. He’s been making the case for American exceptionalism and democratic values ever since.
He began his career in Washington working with USAID. Later, while living in the Middle East, he co-founded the United States and Bahrain Civil Society. After several years working for democratic reform overseas, Hackett moved back to Washington to work for the Koch Foundation. He currently edits The International Affairs Forum and works with a new media startup that assists conservative political campaigns.
As a National Review Institute Washington Fellow, Hackett has the opportunity to meet with other like-minded young conservatives, for which he is grateful. “The readings and relationships [are] immensely beneficial,” says Hackett. He especially appreciates hearing from authors who have lived through previous challenges to the idea of limited government and individual liberty. Such encounters “provide direct personal and political benefit.”
But he warns that remaining too isolated inside the Beltway could tempt some “to become too chummy with those that would place government as the highest power.”
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Tim Peterson
As a young adult Tim Peterson would buy several newspapers each day, devour the sports pages, and, sated, turn to the opinion pages. “Although I was initially too young to appreciate the subtleties of their writing, columnists such as William F. Buckley, Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, George Will, Ray Kerrison, and Pat Buchanan all helped influence and shape my thinking,” Peterson says. Although he still loves sports, he admits “the Op-Ed pages have since supplanted the sports pages as my first destination each morning, along with opinion sites such as National Review Online, Instapundit, First Things, and Powerline.”
Peterson holds a joint degree in economics and political science from SUNY Binghamton and a JD from Boston College Law School. He was later graduated from Columbia Journalism School, and “ruefully conclude[s] that the school serves as an echo chamber for liberal assumptions.” Recently, he “informally pitched a class to a dean at Columbia Journalism School called ‘Covering the Right’ that would use the structure of the Washington Fellows program to give students an opportunity to learn why conservatives think as they do.” Peterson is currently working to advance his career as a political opinion columnist in Washington.
“My time with the National Review Institute has been enormously rewarding. The readings have organized and inspired my thinking, [and] I have made several good friends during this past year,” he says. “I will always be grateful for the opportunity to participate in the Washington Fellows program.”
He encourages young conservatives to recognize that they are not alone, and to argue confidently for their beliefs. Describing a remarkable chance meeting with a fellow conservative in San Francisco, Peterson says, “What I found out later is that we were not the rarest of birds. Conservatives are everywhere, even in San Francisco. We should not be afraid to speak out. I increasingly think we have an affirmative duty to speak out. Organizations like the National Review Institute can gird us for that task. “
* * *
Ben Moncrief
“I came to Washington almost by accident,” says Ben Moncrief, a member of NRI’s inaugural class of Washington Fellows. Through a series of friends he made through the Federalist Society (Moncrief was heavily involved in its University of Virginia chapter while attending law school there, and remains active today), he was offered a job as counsel to Senator Mel Martinez (R., Fla.). A young attorney in private practice with a growing family, he knew that his window of opportunity to work on Capitol Hill was closing. So he and his wife decided they should make the move from Alabama.
Six months into the job he was thrown a curve ball as Martinez announced his early retirement. Martinez’s successor, Senator George LeMieux (R., Fla.), decided to keep him on staff, and with this new boss he found new opportunities to help set the agenda. “Working for Senator LeMieux was the most professionally satisfying time in my career—calling attention to the nation’s fiscal crisis, attacking the administration’s healthcare and financial regulatory reform efforts, and pressing for bold support for democracy in Latin America.”
The NRI Washington Fellows Program was an invaluable resource during his two years in Washington. In addition to the time he spent reexamining the “foundation[s] of conservatism,” Moncrief says the “readings and small seminar setting gave me an opportunity to break down complicated policy questions into their fundamental parts and then reassemble them into politically useful, persuasive arguments.”
Moncrief also credits the NRI Fellowship with enabling him “to build relationships with other young conservatives that helped me to advance arguments on the Hill.” This new network proved fruitful when he and other NRI fellows were able to “coordinate several seminars for Republican Hill staff regarding the unconstitutionality of the individual-mandate provisions of the administration’s health-care legislation. The staffers in turn educated congressmen on the issue and enabled them to articulate the arguments in floor debate and in the media – eventually making that issue one of the public’s central objections to the legislation.”
Having returned to his Southern roots, Moncrief now works in the private sector in Mississippi. In retrospect, he believes the most important thing the NRI Fellowship provided for him was a “network of conservatives in and outside of Washington, D.C., that I can continue call on to help identify and raise key policy issues promoting conservatism beyond the confines of I-495.”
“I think it is an exciting time to be a young conservative,” he says. “Thanks to the political discourse of the last three years, more and more Americans are taking the time to learn political history, to understand the reasons for our limited federal government, and to educate themselves on critical federal issues, like the national debt.”
“For young conservatives, this provides fertile ground to build political coalitions that can elect political leaders who will more closely reflect conservative values while in office.”
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Monica Sanders
Working as Counsel for the House Committee on Homeland Security, Monica Sanders could easily get swept up in the idea that Washington politics is paramount. But Sanders believes that local involvement is crucial to spreading conservative principles and values. Her family would raise funds for conservative candidates and even “serve as poll captains and election judges.” For conservatives in the heavily Democratic city of New Orleans, there was always plenty of work to do.
Soon Sanders expanded her world beyond the Big Easy by attending the University of Miami and later earned her J.D. from Catholic University and her L.L.M. in International Business Law from the University of London. She participated in the Federalist Society and wrote for the Institute for Humane Studies.
While here in Washington, Sanders has been pleased with the “invaluable exposure” to other conservatives through the NRI Fellowship Program whom she might not have met otherwise. The access to more conservative writings and lectures has helped serve “as a guide for applying conservative thought and values in my work.”
Sanders believes that we should combine the academic strength of conservatism with “truly creative leadership from our movement.” She looks to young conservatives such as Paul Ryan as examples of younger, new conservatives ready to engage the public with innovative ideas. “I would like to see us match or surpass post-Obama liberal activists” in their enthusiasm and reach.
One of Sanders’s concerns is the lack of “public morality in this country.” She believes young conservatives have the daunting task of “readjusting the country’s moral compass” by rejecting “crass representations of sexuality, vulgarity, and the gleeful disrespect of faith and family institutions.” It will take grassroots efforts on the part of all conservatives, she believes, to turn the tide in our favor.
* * *
Apoorva Shah
“Like many other young people,” recounts Apoorva Shah, “I went to college with the desire to ‘change the world.’ I became enamored with technocratic, top-down approaches that tilted me towards the Left. It wasn’t until I spent more time abroad, in countries like Mexico and Chile, that I realized how ineffective liberal approaches to development were. I became more skeptical of the big government approach to fixing problems and realized that conservative approaches to policy often did much more good to help the poor.
“I also realized how unmerited most international critiques of the United States were. I became a much prouder American after living abroad, noticing just how special our way of life is.”
Shah grew more familiar with conservatism through reading Edmund Burke, Irving Kristol, Russell Kirk, Frank Meyer, and other giants of the tradition. He now regularly reads National Review, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and the Claremont Review of Books.
After completing his studies at Rice University, Shah moved to Washington, D.C., to become a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “I came to learn more about public policy and become a better thinker and writer.” The National Review Institute’s Washington Fellowship, he says, “has connected me with a wonderful network of bright, energetic, and immensely kind young conservatives from all walks of life. It's been a great opportunity to share experiences and ideas and most importantly, become friends. Furthermore, the fellowship is a wonderful professional network. And as all of us inevitably look toward the next step in our careers, we will look to the NRI network for new opportunities and guidance.”
Shah encourages all young conservatives to “speak up, whether it is at their universities or among friends and family. Liberal ideas are presumed as truth far too often, just because that's what we hear on TV or what our professors claim as truth. It's amazing how even one lone dissenter can stir things up and change the way people think about a particular issue.”
* * *
Reggie Gibbs
Reggie Gibbs started subscribing to National Review in high school. He paid special attention to security policy because he wanted to join the military.
“Once I joined the Marine Corps,” he remembers, “my interest in politics and policy took a back seat for a few years. I was very focused on my training and my Marines. And once 9/11 and then the Iraq War began, the mission was all that mattered.”
Gibbs is now manager of operations and business development for Starr International Companies. Based in New York City, he is actively involved with the Council on Foreign Relations and National Review Institute. “My passion remains national security and foreign policy,” he says, but “building a strong private sector here in the U.S. is just as crucial to ensuring the future success of our country.”
One of Gibbs’s chief concerns is that too many people are adopting the idea that America is in inevitable decline. “Decline is a choice,” he says, quoting Victor Davis Hanson. “When we want to accomplish something, America can still do it.”
The NRI Fellowship, he says, “provided me with a philosophical foundation in conservatism. . . . I had an opportunity to study beliefs that I had held throughout my life, but had had very little opportunity to explore and debate thoroughly.” He has also made new friends both in D.C. and New York through the fellowship, and relied on them “many, many times for both advice and guidance.”
“WFB is a hero of mine,” he concludes, “and the opportunity to have my name associated with anything he did is both an honor and a valuable accolade for me.”
* * *
Stephen Cox
“My conservative and traditional values were part of my family upbringing,” says National Review Institute Washington Fellow Stephen Cox. "But my views began to crystallize when I started reading William F. Buckley, Jr. and National Review during college, and Robert Bork’s Tempting of America when I was deciding to go to law school."
Cox ran the Federalist Society chapter at the University of Houston Law School, and later clerked for the Eleventh Circuit. He then went to work for the Bush administration as a legal adviser to the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Since then he has been working at the distinguished law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr—but staying involved in the political debate through NRI.
He is now headed back to Texas where he will be the corporate counsel for international business at Apache Corporation, a multinational oil and gas exploration and production company. “My wife Cristina and I . . . felt that it was time to move back to Texas, settle down, and start a family.” He intends to continue working for the conservative cause in the state.
Cox describes the Fellowship as “a wonderful experience. I’ve been able to meet some very interesting young conservatives with a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and I’ll keep in contact with them down the line. At each of the monthly events, I’ve been able to meet very smart conservative leaders and read terrific literature.”
He adds, “In my view, the biggest challenge for young people is to make informed and sound decisions, whether that is in the context of public service or in supporting the right candidates and policies. As we learned from watching the President’s 2008 campaign, it is easy for young people to get caught up in the excitement of politics and rhetoric even with no ‘there’ there. .
Having a certain level of sophistication and maturity is important in making good political decisions. Young conservatives should be excited about the future, but they should be grounded in their principles and values first. . . . Education is key to growing the number of informed and principled young conservatives and can therefore be a force multiplier for the conservative movement.”
* * *
Daniel Suhr
Daniel Suhr is a reader—a regular consumer of National Review, First Things, Imprimis, and 42 blogs. “But as important as all those words on a page (or a screen) were, I could never discount the greater influence of my family, of my extended family, of my neighborhood and church and Boy Scout troop. Reading about the greatness of America or Burke's little platoons is important, essential, but it's far more fun to experience it firsthand.”
In high school and college, Suhr turned to activism. “Our annual College Republican kickoff was a ‘Barbecue for Animal Rights’ with a pig on a spit on the main campus lawn” of Marquette University. But there was serious work as well: getting out the vote for conservative candidates; trying to help politically incorrect professors get tenure; bringing in speakers to challenge campus orthodoxy.
Now he works at the Federalist Society. “It gives me such tremendous hope to see all of these young [law students] -- bright, earnest, patriotic -- who are dedicated to the Constitution and the first principles of our republic. They are the future leaders of the conservative legal movement and of our nation, and they are already making a significant impact on the course of the legal culture.”
Next year Suhr will be back home in Wisconsin clerking for federal judge Diane Sykes. As for what comes next, “We’ll see what doors God opens. Whether as a profession or avocation, I intend to remain active in the conservative movement, fighting for families and the first principles that make America great.”
For Suhr, the best part of the Washington Fellowship was “was getting to know the other fellows, not just my fellow denizens of think-tank land, but the Hill staffers, the journalists, the defense analysts. Some I regularly see at events around town, others for an occasional lunch, and a few are now among my best friends in life. What a joy -- when your friends are also your colleagues and compatriots in the defense of freedom and families.”
He has some advice for conservatives around the country based on his own experience. “Look for opportunities to mentor young conservatives -- take the chairman of College Republicans at your local university or alma mater out to lunch, and encourage him or her. Next time your local Tea Party needs a speaker for its monthly meeting, consider a young person who can talk about the crushing debt being imposed on future generations.
“And when we feel down and out walking by yet another ‘HOPE and CHANGE’ poster taped to a dorm door, remember how much more of a challenge faced Bill Buckley, Frank Meyer, and the other founders of the conservative movement, and take courage from their example.”
* * *
Christopher Malagisi
Christopher Malagisi has, notwithstanding his youth, already served the conservative movement as an activist, writer, and teacher. He teaches a course at American University called History of the Conservative Movement. “There has been a wait list to get in each time it’s been offered,” he reports. He has recently become the director of the American Conservative Union’s Conservative Political Action Conference, the largest annual gathering of conservatives. He writes a bi-weekly column for the Washington Examiner. And he also finds the time to be an active participant in the National Review Institute’s Washington Fellows Program.
As familiar as Malagisi is with conservatism’s past and present, he still found the Fellowship intellectually stimulating. “What makes the fellowship program stand out from the rest was the quality of the literature assigned, the one-on-one opportunities to meet and discuss our readings with the actual authors, and the ability to network with other young professional conservative leaders. The professionalism and good humor of the NRI staff made the experience memorable and I can safely say that I am now more knowledgeable and confident in my understanding of the conservative movement and the great legacy that William F. Buckley Jr. has left for future generations.”
His view of the opportunity CPAC presents is right in line with our program’s mission. “I believe there is much untapped potential with CPAC. Half of the participants of CPAC are under the age of 30.” Thus the chance to “articulate conservatism to a new generation.” He is looking forward to having an impact on the national debate. “If you’re a young professional conservative in Washington, D.C., you have a unique opportunity to participate in one of the greatest political and ideological battles of our time.”
* * *
Walton Liles
Walton Liles is a young attorney who recently took on a client in desperate need of representation: the American Taxpayer.
After graduating from the University of Virginia and University of Alabama Law School, Walton clerked for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Montgomery, Ala. From there he moved to Washington, D.C., with his wife and two small children to work at a prestigious law firm.
He applied to NRI’s Washington Fellows program “to get more involved in political discourse,” he tells us. “What I quickly learned is that I looked forward to our meetings and the discussions surrounding politics much more than I did my day job.” So after the 2010 election, he accepted a position as Counsel to the House Financial Services Committee.
Walton says the fellowship and the friendships he has made through it have “refined many of my political views.” The readings “have enabled me to make stronger arguments for my beliefs.”
Working on Capitol Hill, Walton has been impressed by how much of the energy in conservative politics is supplied by young people. “One reason I think the future is bright is because of all the young conservative leaders such as Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan. Specifically on the Hill, it’s shocking how many important staff positions, including Chiefs of Staff, are held by people in their twenties.”
* * * * * * * * * *
National Review Institute’s 2011 Washington Fellows
Karin Agness is an attorney at a Washington, D.C. firm, and is the Founder and President of the Network of enlightened Women (NeW), the nation’s premier organization for conservative college women. Started as a book club at the University of Virginia in 2004, NeW has expanded to over 20 college campuses nationwide. Ms. Agness is a regular writer for Townhall.com, and has had her columns published in The Washington Post, The Washington Times and The Richmond Times-Dispatch. She has debated on CSPAN’s Washington Journal and appeared on national shows, such as CNN’s American Morning, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and the Laura Ingraham Show. A proud Midwesterner from Indiana, Ms. Agness interned for the Office of Senator Richard Lugar and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She earned both her undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Virginia.
Daniel Allott is senior writer at American Values, a Washington, D.C. area public policy organization. His opinion and commentary pieces have appeared in more than a dozen publications, including the Houston Chronicle, the Wall Street Journal Online, the Washington Times, Politico, the American Spectator and National Review Online. While he has written about a wide variety of topics—including language, disability, sports, travel and Cuban and Sudanese politics—his commitment to the pro-life cause informs all of his writing. Mr. Allott is also as associate producer with In Altum Productions, a documentary film company founded by his twin brother, Jordan. One of their current projects is Oscar’s Cuba, a feature-length documentary about imprisoned Cuban democracy advocate Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, which was released to acclaim in April and is currently screening in America and Europe. He received his Master’s of Public Policy from Georgetown University, where he was academic editor of the Georgetown Public Policy Review. He received his B.A. in English and International Relations from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Mr. Allott was born in Reading, England, and resides in McLean, Virginia.
Howard Anglin is a lawyer with Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C. Beyond his legal practice, he has written articles and reviews for National Review Online, The American Conservative, The National Post, The Ottawa Citizen, The Montreal Gazette, The Salisbury Review, as well as numerous online publications on topics including international law, national security, politics, literature, architecture, food and wine. Mr. Anglin is also a sometime speechwriter and political advisor and has been invited to testify before the Parliament of Canada on questions including the application of the Geneva Conventions, the involvement of children in armed conflict and refugee law. Prior to moving to Washington, Mr. Anglin clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced law in London. He is a graduate of McGill University and New York University Law School.
Benjamin Bowman recently completed a master's degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy, and Washington, D.C., with a concentration in Global Theory and History and International Finance. Specific research topics included elitism in American politics, prospects for democracy expansion, and the 2008 financial collapse. Prior to SAIS, Mr. Bowman participated in several entrepreneurial endeavors. He was a cofounder and manager of a Pennsylvania firm that manufactures and distributes novel products for pick-up trucks. The company grew from product prototype to nationwide sales in two years and currently continues to increase revenue and employ more than twenty people. He also established a mobile construction company that completed building projects in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean. In addition, he worked on a project for Corning-Asahi to help redesign plant production lines. While obtaining a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Grove City College, he designed a water pump that harnessed river energy and was implemented in Honduras to irrigate crops. Mr. Bowman grew up in Frostburg, a small town in western Maryland
Miles Coleman currently serves as a law clerk at the United States Court of Federal Claims. Mr. Coleman earned a law degree with honors from the University of South Carolina where he was a member of the Law Review, the moot court team, the mock trial team, and was the president of the Christian Legal Society and the Federalist Society. While in law school, Mr. Coleman served as the minister of music at his church and worked on judicial selection for the South Carolina Senate. Prior to law school, he attended Bob Jones University, graduating in 2005 with a degree in Rhetoric and Public Address. Mr. Coleman is a Blackstone Legal Fellow, a published author, a past editor for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and has argued cases before the South Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. He is an ironman triathlete and has run many marathons and one ultramarathon.
Stephen J. Cox is a senior associate at the prestigious law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr, where his practice currently focuses on high-profile Congressional investigations, defense and national-security matters, public policy, and crisis management. He also does a significant amount of pro bono work, representing, for example, Hannah Giles in ACORN-related litigation and consulting to the FBI on certain counterterrorism issues. Prior to joining the law firm, Mr. Cox worked in the Bush Administration at the Department of Homeland Security as counselor to the Assistant Secretary of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He also clerked for the Honorable J.L. Edmondson on the Eleventh Circuit. Mr. Cox was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up in Houston, Texas. He studied computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University, after which he worked as a management consultant in the energy industry, and then went to law school at the University of Houston, where he graduated summa cum laude. He is married to the incomparable Cristina Maria Cox.
Paul Edattel currently serves as the Legislative Director to Congressman John Shadegg (R-AZ). In this capacity, he also advises Congressman Shadegg on health care and entitlement issues. Prior to working on Capitol Hill, Mr. Edatell began his career in Washington, D.C. working for former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and 1996 GOP Vice-Presidential nominee Jack Kemp at Empower America. He subsequently worked as a regulatory consultant and paralegal at Beveridge & Diamond P.C. with a focus on environmental law. Mr. Edatell is a Yonkers, N.Y. native and received his B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in Public Law from the University at Buffalo.
Tyler Grimm currently serves as Director of Research at Public Notice, an independent non-profit dedicated to providing facts and insight on the economy and how government policy affects Americans’ financial well-being in a non-partisan way. Mr. Grimm also serves as research assistant to Stephen Moore, senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal editorial page. He has been published in The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and The Wall Street Journal among other places. He has also contributed to several studies and books, including Art Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter Tanous’s The End of Prosperity, and Glenn Beck’s number 1 New York Times bestseller Arguing with Idiots. Mr. Grimm received a degree in Government and International Politics from George Mason University, where he was a member of the policy debate team, and also spent a semester at Oxford University studying postmodernism and contemporary political thought. Mr. Grimm hails from a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA.
Kevin P. Gundersen is a Republican Professional Staff Member on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security. In that role, he is responsible for the Intelligence and Counterterrorism portfolios for Ranking Member Peter T. King (R-NY). Prior to joining the Committee, Mr. Gundersen was Manager of Program Development at the Organization for International Investment (OFII), a trade association representing 160 U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies. Before working at OFII, Mr. Gundersen was a Credit Analyst at CreditUs.com, Inc., a Miami-based business-to-business credit report repair company. A graduate of Boston College High School, Mr. Gundersen holds a BA in Political Science from Fordham University and is currently pursuing a MS in Strategic Intelligence at the National Defense Intelligence College at the Defense Intelligence Agency. A native of Hanover, MA, Mr. Gundersen is an avid Boston sports fan and enjoys the beaches of Cape Cod.
Benjamin Hackett, from Brooklyn, NY, is an associate at the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. Previously, as an Information Officer at USAID, Mr. Hackett worked on civil society issues with the Cuba Program and project management in new technologies with the Development Leadership Initiative. Currently, Mr. Hackett serves as editor for International Affairs Forum. Presently, he also works with Advanced Campaign Solutions, a new media startup creating solutions for conservative campaigns. Before returning to the US, Mr. Hackett lived in the Middle East. While in Bahrain/Qatar/UAE, he co-founded the United States and Bahrain Civil Society. Mr. Hackett served as policy advisor to GCC Ministries and as a Leadership Development Professional in a venture between the State Department and Bahrain’s Ministry of Interior. Early in his career, he worked in network/nodal analysis of terrorist organizations with CASOS at CMU, gaining exposure to open-source intelligence exploitation. A Master Mason at Federal Lodge #1 F.A.A.M, Mr. Hackett is active in the DC metro community. He serves on boards at the McClendon Center, Arlington Young Republicans, and worked with the Arlington DHS Citizenship Program. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Mr. Hackett triple majored in Public Policy and Management, International Relations, and Political Science.
Gene Hamilton will be working as an attorney for a federal agency in the metro D.C. area starting this fall. He graduated magna cum laude and was elected to the Order of the Coif at the Washington and Lee (W&L) School of Law. While at Washington and Lee, Mr. Hamilton was tapped into Omicron Delta Kappa; served as President of the W&L Federalist Society; taught Legal Research as a Burks Scholar; and was a semi-finalist in the Mock Trial program. He also served as a research assistant for a Professor at W&L; served as a research assistant for a Professor at the Coast Guard Academy; and served as an Editor on the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy’s Annual Symposium Issue. Mr. Hamilton interned with a political office during his first semester of law school; worked for the Department of Homeland Security during the summer after his first year of law school; and worked for the Air Force General Counsel's office after his second year. Before law school, Mr. Hamilton worked in the commercial landscape industry. Mr. Hamilton received his bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the University of Georgia. Mr. Hamilton and his wife, Rebecca, will live in Northern Virginia.
Walton Liles is a litigation associate at Goodwin Procter LLP, where his practice focuses primarily on consumer financial services litigation. Prior to joining Goodwin Procter, Mr. Liles on served as a law clerk to Judge Joel F. Dubina of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Mr. Liles received a B.A. in History and Economics from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the University of Alabama School of Law. During law school, Mr. Liles served as the Acquisitions Editor of the Alabama Law Review and was a member of the Christian Legal Society and the Federalist Society. Mr. Liles lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife Grace and their two children.
Christopher Malagisi is President of the Young Conservatives Coalition (YCC) – a DC-based, young professional conservative leadership and networking organization dedicated to organzing the next generation of the conservative movement. He also serves as Director of Political Training at The Leadership Institute – a national conservative political training organization. Mr. Malagisi is also a political science Adjunct Professor at American University teaching two courses titled The Modern Conservative Movement in US Politics: 1945-Present and Campaigns & Political Activism, earning him a 2010 Pollie Award for political education. Mr. Malagisi was also awarded the 2009 Rising Star Award from Campaigns & Elections Politics Magazine for significant achievements in national politics. Previously, he worked on three US presidential campaigns, a high-profile US Senate campaign, the International Republican Institute (travelling to Afghanistan), Capitol Hill, and the College Republican National Committee. He is a published op-ed writer and has been a political analyst on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN. He is orginally from Buffalo, NY, received a Master’s of Public Administration (M.P.A.) from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School, a B.A. in Political Science from American University, is presently an officer with the Republican Party of Virginia (8th Dist.), has worked/studied in 36 countries and recorded two original music piano albums.
Stephen Martinko serves as Legislative Director for Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA), where he acts as chief policy advisor with special emphasis on Rep. Shuster’s activities on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Before joining Congressman Shuster’s staff, Mr. Martinko served as the Director of Floor Debate for the House Republican Conference and Chairman Deborah Pryce (R-OH). He has also worked as a legislative aide for former Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV) and on the staff of former Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV). A native of Toledo, Ohio, Stephen earned a B.A. in History / Public Policy from Brown University and an M.A. in Strategic Security Studies from the National Defense University. Mr. Martinko has previously participated in fellowships with Partnership for a Secure America and the American Enterprise Institute. He is a member of the Middle East Institute, Young Professionals in Foreign Policy, and the Republican Communicators Association.
Tim Peterson is an attorney and journalist who specializes in internet and intellectual property law. Mr. Peterson has served as counsel for SBC Internet Services as well as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for inServ. Mr. Peterson currently provides legal services and consultation to a variety of commercial clients. Most recently Mr. Peterson earned an MSc in New Media from Columbia University School of Journalism. He is also a graduate of Regis High School in Manhattan, SUNY Binghamton, and Boston College Law School. Mr. Peterson has served as Editor-in-Chief for the Authentics Foundation, a London-based international leader in the fight against counterfeit goods. Originally from Brooklyn, Mr. Peterson is active in the Catholic Church and Republican politics, including serving as campaign manager for a Republican State Senate candidate in East Boston. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Internet Society, and the Republican National Lawyers Association.
Justin Polin is Research Associate for Senior Fellow Douglas J. Feith at the Hudson Institute's Center for National Security Strategies. There he has worked on a wide range of national security issues including strategic communications, civilian stabilization and reconstruction, arms control, detainee treatment, and others. Mr. Polin has also researched and written extensively about South Asia-related topics such as ideological outreach to Pakistan's Pashtuns, constitutional issues of Pakistan, the ideological foundations of Indian and Pakistani foreign policy, and Kashmir. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Weekly Standard, the Providence Journal, and elsewhere. Mr. Polin serves as a member of the Panel of Experts for Spearhead Research, a Lahore-based research institute headed by former Pakistani Army Chief of Staff and former Ambassador to the United States Jehangir Karamat. Originally from Warwick, Rhode Island, Mr. Polin earned an M.A. in Statecraft and National Security Affairs from the Institute of World Politics and a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University. He is proficient in Italian, speaks intermediate-level Hindi-Urdu, and has studied in Northern India.
James Rice is a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa for whom he has worked since June 2000. Mr. Rice handles a variety of legislative issues for Senator Grassley including: education, natural resources, governmental affairs, Senate rules, defense, and veterans. His previous professional experience includes positions in the Iowa Senate, the British Conservative Party, and various political campaigns. Mr. Rice speaks French and enjoys international travel. He also serves as the Parliamentarian for the State Society of Iowa. Mr. Rice received a B.A. from Drake University with majors in political science and history. He is a native of Davenport, Iowa.
David Rybicki is an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Mr. Rybicki was Assistant Special Legal Counsel to the McCain-Palin 2008 presidential campaign and represented the Republican Party of Pennsylvania in election-law matters, including litigation against ACORN and its affiliates. He has also worked as an associate at Wiley Rein LLP, a Washington, D.C., law firm, and is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association. Mr. Rybicki graduated from Stanford Law School in 2006, where he was president of the Federalist Society and executive editor of the Stanford Law Review. Following law school, Mr. Rybicki served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds a B.A. from Yale College and an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of the inaugural class of Gates Cambridge Foundation Scholars. Before entering law school, Mr. Rybicki worked for the State Department in Vienna and Moscow. He speaks German and Russian.
Monica Sanders is currently a legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she has been employed since January 2009. Ms. Sanders handles a variety of issues including homeland security, energy and trade. Ms. Sanders has an L.L.M. in International Business Law from the University of London, a J.D. from the Catholic University of America and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Most recently, she served as a fellow at the Harvard Project on Negotiation where she worked with an international non-profit. Prior to embarking on a legal career, Ms. Sanders was a journalist for several years and won awards for her work at CNN. She currently resides in Maryland.
Apoorva Shah is a senior research associate in foreign and defense studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington D.C. His areas of research include the political economy of emerging countries, international security, governance, and development policy, with a regional focus on South Asia and Latin America. Prior to joining AEI, Mr. Shah received a Rice University Wagoner Scholarship to Sri Lanka and Brazil, where he conducted field research on the interaction between non-governmental organizations and public policy. He has also conducted field work in Mexico and Chile. Mr. Shah blogs frequently on AEI’s Enterprise Blog and has written for several publications including Policy Review, The Journal of International Security Affairs, The American, TCS Daily, WeeklyStandard.com, and WashingtonPost.com. He is a Claremont Institute Publius Fellow, a Fulbright Scholarship recipient, and holds a B.A. in Policy Studies and Hispanic Studies from Rice University.
Thomas M. Skypek is a national security analyst specializing in strategic planning, policy analysis, and net assessment. He has supported research and analysis efforts for the Departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, and Intelligence Community. His areas of interest include U.S. foreign policy, international relations, and defense policy. His articles on defense and foreign policy have been published in The National Interest, The Washington Times, The Weekly Standard, China Brief, The Journal of International Security Affairs and The Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. He is a 2010 Nuclear Scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Since 2008, he has blogged on foreign policy and American politics at hopeisnotaforeignpolicy.org. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Western New England College in Springfield, MA and a Master's of Science in Defense and Strategic Studies from Missouri State University. A native of Somers, CT, he currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, Shannon, and their daughter, Eleanor.
Marion Smith researches and writes on the principles of U.S. foreign policy at the Heritage Foundation, where he is completing a research fellowship in the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. Mr. Smith is a native of South Carolina where his ancestors fought on both sides of the American Revolution. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wofford College in 2007, with a B.A. in government and history. Mr. Smith has studied international relations and law at Oxford University, the University of Amsterdam, and Central European University. In 2009 while living in Budapest, Mr. Smith founded the Common Sense Society of which he remains president (www.commonsensebudapest.com). Common Sense seeks to promote civic engagement, entrepreneurship, and greater understanding of the ideals of liberty in Hungary. Before deciding on politics and international relations, Mr. Smith studied ancient history and participated in archaeological excavations in the Middle East.
Toby Stock is managing director of development at the American Enterprise Institute, focusing on outreach to individuals. He joined AEI after 3 ½ years heading up admissions at Harvard Law School and advising Dean Elena Kagan. Prior to his work at Harvard, Mr. Stock was a partner and co-founder of Brody Admissions, a college and graduate school admissions advising and test prep company, headquartered in Chicago. Before that, he was an associate in McKinsey & Company’s Chicago office, where his work focused on financial institutions. Mr. Stock is a 2001 graduate of Harvard Law School and has a degree in finance from the University of Missouri. He is a native of Des Moines, Iowa.
Erich Telfer is a career Coast Guard officer who graduated from Penn State University. In his 19 years of service, he has held assignments in Search and Rescue and Maritime Law Enforcement operations. He has worked afloat on the cutter Reliance and ashore in Miami, San Diego, and the Midwest. Mr. Telfer was a military attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and recently left command of a Deployable Specialized Forces unit focused on counter-smuggling operations in the Pacific and Caribbean oceans and the Persian Gulf. In the 1990s, he served as a senior White House Social Aide. Mr. Telfer holds a Master’s degree in Military Studies from the USMC Command and Staff College. He is married to the former Jennifer Wickersham of Houston. The Telfers have three children.
Spencer Wayne is a legislative assistant for US Senator George LeMieux, focusing on budget, taxes, entitlement reform, transportation, banking, and economic issues. He has over five years of experience examining and scrutinizing appropriations bills as they work their way through the Senate. Mr. Wayne uses this experience in the appropriations and budget process to help Senator LeMieux propose bills and amendments to limit federal spending and ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent effectively. Prior to working for Senator LeMieux, Mr. Wayne served as a legislative assistant to Senator Mel Martinez. Originally from Kentucky, Mr. Wayne holds a B.S. in Political Science from the University of Louisville (UofL). While in college, he led UofL's College Republican chapter, and started a conservative campus newspaper. He lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife Lisa.
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National Review Institute’s 2010Washington Fellows
(Inaugural Class)
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.
J. Curtis Gwilliam is a Marine officer and aviator. His operational flying experience includes ship-board deployments to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and a tour as a presidential helicopter pilot. He is a designated foreign area officer and served as a military attache in Mexico and Colombia. He holds an AB in government from Cornell University and is currently assigned in Washington.
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 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.
NRI hosts Senator Corker in New York
NRI’s Andrew McCarthy debates the treatment of suspected terrorists
NRI’s Andrew McCarthy appears in Orange County
NRI hosts Jonah Goldberg in Colorado Springs
NRI and AEI co-host: On the Ropes: What William F. Buckley Jr. Can Teach Today’s Conservatives
Judicial Nominations in the New Administration
Whither Conservatism?
