Since 1975, many remarkable individuals have sustained the Miller Center as members of the Governing Council. They continue to bring different life experiences and fields of expertise to bear on their oversight of the Center’s work.

Nationally known cabinet secretaries and senior White House officials, serving under presidents from both political parties, have joined the Center’s scholars to think through major governing challenges. Leading journalists have helped our experts and professional staff frame and understand both the issues of the day and how the media reports on them. Locally beloved trailblazers and dignitaries influenced the values and early strategic direction of the Miller Center and maintain a synergistic relationship with the rest of the University.

Nationally known cabinet secretaries and senior White House officials, serving under presidents from both political parties, have joined the Center’s scholars to think through governing challenges

At times when Miller Center scholarship has sparked community debate, the Governing Council has vigilantly upheld the Center’s independence and academic integrity.

The Miller Center’s Governing Council is a unique body at the University of Virginia. Where other academic units of the University report to the provost, the Miller Center reports to the University’s president and to the Governing Council.

“Burkett Miller and former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton clearly wanted to establish academic and political independence for the Center,” said William J. Antholis, Miller Center director and CEO. “They hoped to reinforce two things: that the scholarship be intended for public audiences, and that efforts to address national challenges bring together voices from across the political spectrum.”

Burkett Miller and former Virginia Governor Linwood Holton hoped to reinforce two things: that the scholarship be intended for public audiences, and that efforts to address national challenges bring together voices from across the political spectrum

NOTABLE VIPS WHO HAVE SERVED AS GOVERNING COUNCIL MEMBERS OVER THE PAST 50 YEARS

Governor A. Linwood Holton Jr. (Governing Council 1975–2015) was governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974, the first Republican elected to that office since Reconstruction. He ended the state’s “massive resistance” school segregation strategies and was a transformational Governing Council leader. Holton personally orchestrated negotiations between Burkett Miller and the University of Virginia that resulted in the Center’s creation. After leaving office, he served on the Governing Council for 35 years, presiding as chair from 1977 to 1999. In 2014, the Holton Society was founded in his honor to recognize long-standing friends and supporters of the Center.

Henry H. Fowler (1979–1991) served in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson administrations and ultimately  became President Lyndon Johnson’s secretary of the treasury. After his government service ended, Fowler became a partner at what was then known as Goldman, Sachs & Company, offering both his public- and private-sector insights to the Council.

Herbert Brownell Jr. (1987–1993) had been U.S. attorney general and President Dwight Eisenhower’s close confidant on matters ranging from Joseph McCarthy’s “Red-baiting” tactics to Ho Chi Minh’s war in Indochina against France. Brownell advised Eisenhower that the president had the constitutional authority and responsibility to send federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, to enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. He also drafted the legislative proposal that became the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Warren E. Burger (1990–1992) was appointed by President Richard Nixon as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He wrote the unanimous 1974 opinion that rejected Nixon’s invocation of executive privilege after the Watergate scandal.

Howard H. Baker Jr. (1991–2001) was President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff. He was known in Washington, D.C., as the “great conciliator” from his years negotiating successful compromises, first as Senate minority leader and then majority leader.

General Brent Scowcroft (1995-2003) was national security advisor under President Gerald Ford and again under President George H. W. Bush. He also held senior roles in the Nixon, Clinton, and George W. Bush administrations. He was a participant in the Miller Center’s first oral history on the Ford administration, addressing the Nixon–Ford transition, and was later interviewed for the George H. W. Bush Oral History Project.

OTHER SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS

Thomas E. Donilon (1999–2008), the current chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, served as President Barack Obama’s national security advisor. During the Clinton administration, he was Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s chief of staff and assistant secretary of state. In the Carter administration, he worked in the White House Congressional Relations Office.

Sylvia M. Burwell (2000–2009) served under President Obama as the director of the Office of Management and Budget and then as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She had helped establish the National Economic Council in 1993 during the Clinton administration. In between her government service, Burwell was the COO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and president of the Walmart Foundation. She served until 2024 as president 
of American University.

Frances F. Townsend (2016–2023), a corporate executive and attorney, was President George W. Bush’s homeland security advisor from 2004 to 2008. She worked at the U.S. Department of Justice under Presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. She later joined CNN and then CBS as a security analyst and held senior roles at MacAndrews & Forbes and Activision Blizzard.

L. F. Payne (2016–2023) is president of Three Ridges Group. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1988 until 1997, representing Virginia’s fifth congressional district. Payne was a founder of the Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of moderate and conservative Democratic members of Congress. He is a member of the Center’s Holton Society.

Preston M. “Pete” Geren III (2021–2024) is president and CEO of the Sid W. Richardson Foundation. He served as a U.S. congressman for the 12th district of Texas from 1989 to 1997. Geren is credited with coining the term “Blue Dog Democrat” as a founding member of the Blue Dog Coalition. He also served as secretary of the U.S. Army under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

LEADING HISTORIANS AND JOURNALISTS

Bob Woodward (2001–2007), long-time Washington Post reporter, has shared in two Pulitzer Prizes. The first, in 1973, was for his coverage of the Watergate scandal with Carl Bernstein. The second, in 2003, was as the lead reporter on the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He has authored or coauthored 21 nonfiction books, most recently War (2024) and The Trump Tapes (2022).

Michael R. Beschloss (2002–2008), a presidential historian, is the author of 10 books, including two volumes written after the release of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential recordings by the LBJ Library in the 1990s: Taking Charge: The Johnson White House Tapes, 1963–1964 and Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965.

James C. “Jim” Lehrer (2016–2019) was known to millions of Americans as the cofounder of PBS NewsHour and moderator of more U.S. presidential debates than any other journalist. He once hosted a training seminar for Miller Center scholars on how to be interviewed and how to moderate a conversation. The Center’s annual James C. Lehrer Lecture honors his legacy.

Ann Compton (2015–2021), former ABC News White House correspondent, was the first woman assigned to cover the White House on a full-time basis by a network television news organization. Compton covered seven presidential administrations and served on the panels of two presidential debates. She is a member of the Center’s Holton Society.

PREVIOUS GOVERNING COUNCIL CHAIRS

Daniel K. Frierson (1985–2014) is chairman of the board and CEO of the Dixie Group in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Center hired former Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles to serve as the Center’s fourth director during Frierson’s time as Governing Council chair.

Eugene V. Fife (2001–2020) is a retired general partner of Goldman Sachs, where he was chairman of Goldman Sachs International. During Fife’s leadership as Governing Council chair, the Center hired its current director and CEO, William J. Antholis.

Alice W. Handy (2014–2022) helped develop the University of Virginia’s endowment portfolio and later founded the endowment management firm, Investure. As Governing Council chair from 2018 to 2020, she strengthened the Center’s partnership with the University and supported development of the Miller Center Values Statement. She and her husband, Peter Stoudt, helped endow the James C. Lehrer Lecture.

Stephen M. Burns (2016–present) is a managing partner at Quad-C Management in Charlottesville, Virginia. As Governing Council chair from 2020 to 2024, Burns helped guide the Center through the COVID-19 pandemic. He and his wife, Mary Anne, established the Mary Anne and Steve Burns Presidential Studies Endowment, which helps to secure the Miller Center’s core presidential studies scholarship for the future.

George K. Martin (2019–present) is the former managing partner of McGuire Woods in Richmond, Virginia, and the current Miller Center Governing Council chair. In 2013, Martin became the first African American rector of the University of Virginia, a position also held by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. During Martin’s tenure as Governing Council chair, the Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary.