Co-Chairs
 President Jimmy Carter
President Carter was the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 and 83rd Governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. In 1982 he founded the Carter Center as a forum for mediating conflicts and promoting democracy, health care, and human rights. He co-chaired with former President Gerald Ford the National Commission on Election Reform.
Read full bio
 The
Honorable James A. Baker, III
James A. Baker, III has served in senior government
positions under three United States Presidents. He
served as Secretary of State, Secretary of Treasury,
and White House Chief of Staff. Mr. Baker is presently
a senior partner in the law firm of Baker Botts and
Honorary Chairman of the James A. Baker III Institute
for Public Policy at Rice University.
Read full bio
Executive Director
 Dr. Robert Pastor
Dr. Robert Pastor is the Director of the Center for
Democracy and Election Management and Vice President
of International Affairs at American University. Before
coming to AU in 2002, Pastor was Professor at Emory
University and Founding Director of The Carter Center's
Latin American and Democracy Programs, where he organized
the monitoring of elections all over the world. He
was Senior Advisor to the National Commission on Election
Reform. Read full bio
Other Members
 Ms. Betty Castor
Betty Castor is the founder and President of the Campaign for Florida's Future. She was the 2004 Democratic Party nominee
for the US Senate from Florida. Castor served as Florida
Commissioner of Education from 1986-93 and was the president of the Univeristy of South Florida for six years after that. She served
three terms as a state senator from the west coast
of Florida, becoming the first female to hold the
position of President Pro Tempore (1985-86). Read full bio
 Hon. Tom Daschle
Tom Daschle was elected and served as a U.S. Congressman
(1978-86) and U.S. Senator from South Dakota (1986-2004).
From 1994-2004, he was the Senate Democratic Leader.
In 2005, Senator Daschle joined the Legislative and
Public Policy Group of the law firm Alston & Bird,
LLP. Read full bio
 Ms. Rita DiMartino
Rita DiMartino was the Vice President of Congressional
Relations for AT&T. DiMartino was appointed in
February 2002 as the Principal U.S. Delegate to the
Inter-American Commission of Women and also the Principal
Representative to the Inter-American Children's Institute.
She serves as Executive Vice-Chair of the New York
Republican State Party, and on the Board of Directors
of the National Endowment for Democracy, National Association
of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc., and the City University
of New York. Read full bio
 Hon. Lee Hamilton
Lee Hamilton is president and director of the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars. Prior to
becoming director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in 1999,
Hamilton served for 34 years in Congress representing
Indiana's Ninth District. During his tenure, he served
as Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee
on Foreign Affairs. He was Vice Chair of the National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States
and co-chair with Senator Howard Baker of the Commission
to Investigate Certain Security Issues at Los Alamos. Read
full bio
 Ms. Kay Coles James
Kay Coles James was the Director of the U.S. Office
of Personnel Management from 2001 to 2005. James served
as a Senior Fellow and Director of The Citizenship
Project at the Heritage Foundation. Under President
George H. W. Bush, James was an Assistant Secretary
for Health and Human Services. Read
full bio
 Dr. Benjamin Ladner
Benjamin Ladner was President of American University
in Washington, D.C. from 1994 to 2005. As President, Dr. Ladner
led the transformation of AU into a distinctive,
global university with a reputation as "a private
university with a public responsibility." Dr. Ladner served as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Consortium of fourteen Universities in the Washington Metropolitan area. Before coming to AU, he was President of the National Faculty, an association of university professors founded by Phi Beta Kappa. Read
full bio
 Mr. David Leebron
David Leebron was appointed president of Rice University
in Houston, Texas in 2004. Leebron joined Rice from
Columbia University School of Law, where he was Dean
since 1996 and a faculty member since 1989. Prior to
that, he was a professor of law at New York University
and director of NYU’s International Legal Studies
Program. Read full bio
Dr. Nelson Lund
Nelson Lund is the Patrick Henry Professor of Constitutional
Law and the Second Amendment at George Mason University
in Virginia. Professor Lund served in the White House
as associate counsel to the president from 1989 to
1992. He served as a law clerk to Judge Patrick Higginbotham
of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor. Read full bio
 Dr. Shirley Malcom
Shirley Malcom is Head of the Directorate for Education
and Human Resources Programs of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a trustee
of the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Malcom
served on the National Science Board, the governing
board of the National Science Foundation from 1994-2001,
and has served on the Boards of the Carnegie Corporation
and the H. John Heinz III Center for Science. Read
full bio
 Hon. Bob Michel
Bob Michel was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Illinois from 1957 to 1993. He served as Minority
Whip for the ninety-fourth through ninety-sixth Congresses
and Minority Leader for the ninety seventh through
one hundred third Congresses. He was Vice Chair of
the Carter-Ford National Commission on Election Reform. Read
full bio
 Hon. Susan Molinari
Susan Molinari is Chairman and CEO of the Washington
Group, a government relations and lobbying firm, and
the President of Ketchum Public Affairs.Molinari served
in Congress from 1990 to 1997 representing Staten
Island, NY. In 1994, she was elected to the Republican
Majority Leadership, making her the highest ranking
woman in Congress. Unanimously re-elected to the House
Leadership in 1996, Molinari was also selected by GOP
Presidential candidate Senator Robert Dole as Keynote
Speaker at the Republican National Convention in San
Diego. Read
full bio
 Hon. Robert Mosbacher
Robert Mosbacher is chairman of Mosbacher Energy
Company. He is the past chairman of the Republican
National Committee and served as National Finance Chairman
for the election campaigns of Presidents Ford and George
H. W. Bush. He served as Secretary of Commerce under
President Bush from 1989 to 1992. Read
full bio
 Hon. Ralph Munro
Ralph Munro was the Secretary of State for Washington
State from 1980 to 2001. Under Mr. Munro’s leadership,
Washington State saw significant advancement in the
efficiency of state election services including absentee
voting, voter registration, election reporting and
voter information. Read
full bio
 Mr. Jack Nelson
Jack Nelson was the Washington Bureau Chief of the
Los Angeles Times. He covered the past six presidents and every
presidential campaign from 1968 through 1996. Since
retiring in December, 2001, he has taught as a visiting
professor of the University of Southern California’s
School of Journalism. In 2002 he was a Shorenstein
Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School
of Government. He was presented the Drew Pearson Award
for Investigative Reporting, the Robert F. Kennedy
Award for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism, and was
named a Fellow by the National Society of Journalists. Read full bio
 Mr. Spencer Overton
Spencer Overton is Associate Professor of Law at
The George Washington University Law School where his
scholarly interests include voting rights, race, and
campaign finance. Overton was Charles Hamilton Houston
Fellow at Harvard Law School and serves as a director
of the National Voting rights Institute and the Fannie
Lou Hamer Project. He practiced law with Debevoise
and Plimpton and is on the Board of Common Cause. Read
full bio
 Hon. Tom Phillips
Tom Phillips is the Spurgeon E. Bell Distinguished Visiting Professor at South Texas College of Law in Houston.
Phillips was first appointed to the Texas Supreme Court as Chief Justice in 1988, and was subsequently elected and served until 2004.Justice Phillips worked as an attorney with Baker Botts from 1974-1981. From
1981-87, he was a district judge for Harris County. He was elected President of the National Conference of Chief Justices (1997-98), and was a member of the Committee on Federal-State Relations of the Judicial
Conference of the United States. Read full bio
 Ms. Sharon Priest
Sharon Priest was the first woman elected Arkansas
Secretary of State in 1994 and was President of the
National Association of Secretaries of State. She has
chaired the Arkansas State Election Improvement Study
Commission, the State Board of Election Commissioners,
and currently chairs the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission. She
has been elected to public office six times from 1986
to the present, including Little Rock Board of Directors
(1986-90), Vice-Mayor of Little Rock (1989-90), and
Mayor of Little Rock (1991-92). Read
full bio
Mr. Raul Yzaguirre
Raul Yzaguirre is presidential professor of practice
in community development and civil rights at Arizona
State University. From 1974 to 2004, Yzaguirre was
president of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s
leading Hispanic advocacy organization and the largest
constituency-based national Latino organization. Read
full bio
Meet the Academic Advisory Committee Members.
Photo credit: The Carter Center/Rick Diamond | James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
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