William B. Allen, Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Political Science and Emeritus Dean, James Madison College, at Michigan State University. 2008-09: Visiting Senior Scholar in the Matthew J. Ryan Center for the Study of Free Institutions and the Public Good at Villanova University. He also served previously on the National Council for the Humanities and as Chairman and Member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He was recently the Ann & Herbert W. Vaughan Visiting Fellow in the James Madison Program on American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

He has published extensively. Some of his books include Re-Thinking Uncle Tom: The Political Philosophy of H.B. Stowe, George Washington: America’s First Progressive, and The Personal and the Political: Three Fables by Montesquieu. He previously published many other books, journal articles, reviews and encyclopedia entries, including articles in American Journal of Jurisprudence; American Political Science Review; Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law; College Teaching; Educational Researcher; Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy; Proceedings: Statistics, Science and Public Policy; Publius: The Journal of Federalism; The Good Society: A PEGS Journal; Rutgers Law Review; and San Diego Law Review.

Daren Bakst, Esq., is Director of Legal and Regulatory Studies for the John Locke Foundation. In this position, he analyzes and writes about a wide range of issues, including constitutional law, property rights, and regulatory reform.

His op-eds and quotes have appeared in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Times, USA Today, National Review Online, AOL News, American Enterprise Online, American Thinker, Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Charlotte Observer. Bakst serves on the Federalist Society’s Administrative Law and Regulation Executive Committee and he is an adjunct professor at Barton College, teaching business law.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Bakst was Policy Counsel for the National Legal Center for the Public Interest in Washington, DC., which recently merged into the American Enterprise Institute.

In 1998, Bakst founded the Council on Law in Higher Education (CLHE), an independent nonprofit organization that analyzes timely legal challenges facing colleges and universities. He still serves as president of CLHE.

A licensed attorney, Bakst earned his J.D. from the University of Miami and his LL.M. in Law and Government from American University, Washington College of Law. Both his B.A. and M.B.A. are from The George Washington University.

David J. Bobb is founding director of the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, in Washington, D.C. He also serves as a lecturer in political science at Hillsdale, where he teaches courses in American politics to students participating in the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program.

From 2001-2010 Bobb also served as founding director of the Charles R. and Kathleen K. Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence, a national civic education program of Hillsdale College. Having earned a Ph.D. in the department of political science at Boston College, Bobb is the recipient of Earhart and Bradley Foundation fellowships, a Weaver Fellowship from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and a Publius Fellowship from the Claremont Institute. Formerly he was a research associate at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. He has authored reviews and articles in the Washington Times, Boston Herald, Claremont Review of Books, American Spectator, Perspectives on Political Science, and Modern Age. He is completing a book for publication later this year, Humility: How America Can Recover a Lost Virtue in an Age of Arrogance.

William Duncan is the director of the Marriage Law Foundation, a legal organization whose mission is providing legal resources in defense of marriage as the union of a husband and wife. He previously served as acting director of the Marriage Law Project at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law and a visiting professor at

Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School where he was executive director of the Marriage and Family Law Research Grant. He teaches family law to undergraduates at BYU as an adjunct professor.

Troy Kickler is Founding Director of the North Carolina History Project and Editor of northcarolinahistory.org. He holds an M.S. in Social Studies Education from North Carolina A&T State University and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Tennessee.

Kickler is currently editor of Nathaniel Macon: Collected Letters and Speeches. He is also writing Black Children and Northern Missionaries, Southern Conservatives, Freedmen’s Bureau Agents, and Freedmen in Reconstruction Tennessee, 1865-1869. He has contributed to the anthology Children and Youth during the Civil War Era (New York University Press, January 2012; James Marten, ed.).

He has presented numerous papers at various conferences and forums, including the American Political Science Association and the Bradley Institute for the Study of Christian Culture.

In addition to contributing to constitutingamerica.org, he has served as editorial assistant for the Journal of East Tennessee History and has written articles and reviews for such publications as American Diplomacy, Carolina Journal,Journal of Mississippi History, Tennessee Baptist History, Tennessee Historical Quarterly, and The Journal of the North Carolina Association of Historians. He has also contributed to Exploring American History: From Colonial Times to 1877; Encyclopedia of American Environmental History; and The Old West: Yesterday and Today.

Kickler also teaches at North Carolina State University.

Marc S. Lampkin has served in leadership positions on the Hill and in state government, in presidential campaigns, and in the private sector. Currently he works for Quinn, Gillespie and Associates. He has been quoted and appeared in numerous media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, National Journal, The Hill, Roll Call, the AP, and Huffington Post.

During his tenure at Quinn Gillespie, he has been involved in several high profile and successful public advocacy campaigns. Most recently, Lampkin led the Strong American Schools 9SAS) issue advocacy campaign (2006-2009), a joint project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundations. Lampkin organized and ran the Americans for Better Education (ABE) coalition (2001-2002), supporting President George W. Bush’s education reform plan.

Lampkin has held several senior positions in the United States Congress. He served as Policy Director for the late U.S. Senator Paul D. Coverdell (R-GA)(1999) and General Counsel for the House Republican Conference under then-Chairman John A. Boehner (R-OH)(1995-1998

In his own time, Lampkin has helped raise millions of dollars for nonprofits that support education options for parents and disadvantaged children. He serves on the Board of Directors of Horton’s Kids Inc. and the Boehner-Lieberman Dinner to benefit the Consortium of Catholic Academies in Washington, DC.

Lampkin is a graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Political Science and Boston College Law School. Lampkin is married to Emily Kertz Lampkin and is the father of three young boys, Marc, Andrew, and James.

Will Morrisey holds the William and Patricia LaMothe Chair in the United States Constitution at Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, where he has taught since 2000.

Born and raised in Rumson, New Jersey, he received his A. B. from Kenyon College, graduating summa cum laude in 1973 with a double major in political science and English. He received his M. A. in Liberal Studies in 1998 from the New School for Social Research and his Ph. D. in 2002, also from the New School, where he received the Hannah Arendt Memorial Award in Politics for his dissertation on the political thought of the American presidents of the founding and Civil War periods.

He served as legislative aide to New Jersey State Senator Thomas Gagliano; Assistant for Communications, Office of the Executive Director, NJ Transit Corporation; and as Executive Director of the Monmouth County (NJ) Historical Commission.

Dr. Morrisey is the author of eight books on statesmanship and political philosophy, including studies of Charles de Gaulle, André Malraux, moral relativism, culture and commercial republicanism, pacifism, and regime change. His most recent book, The Dilemma of Progressivism: How Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson Reshaped the American Regime of Self-Government, is the companion volume to his previous book, Self-Government, The American Theme: Presidents of the Founding and Civil War (Lexington Books, 2004). He is currently working on a study of the geopolitical strategies of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle.

His articles and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Times, The American Political Science Review, Social Science and Modern Society, and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, of which he has served as an editor for thirty years.

Charles K. Rowley is a Duncan Black Professor of Economics at George Mason University and General Director of The Locke Institute.

He has written nine books with his most recent book Never Let A Good Crisis Go To Waste just published by The Locke Institute in December 2010. He has also edited 32 books and published some 200 papers in such scholarly journals as The Journal of Political Economy, The Economic Journal, The Journal of Law and Economics, The Journal of Legal Studies, The Journal of Public Economics, Public Choice, Economica, The International Review of Law and Economics, The Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, The Washington University Law Quarterly and The Independent Review, as well as in edited books.

He was born in Southampton England, taught at the Universities of Nottingham, Canterbury, York and Newcastle Upon Tyne, and held summer fellowships at the Center for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University, prior to migrating to the United States to join Jim Buchanan and Gordon Tullock at the Center for Study of Public Choice in December 1983. He co-edited Public Choice between May 1990 and July 2007. He was a Founding Editor of The International Review of Law and Economics from 1980-1987.

Julia D. Shaw studies and writes about American political thought as research associate and program manager for The Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. Her subjects include the American founding, progressivism and modern conservatism.

Shaw also oversees the content of Heritage’s First Principles educational programming, from the Congressional Fellows and James Madison Fellows programs on Capitol Hill to the internal lecture series of the Center for American Studies.

She is editor of New Common Sense, the weekly e-newsletter of the First Principles initiative, and a contributor to The Foundry, Heritage’s rapid-fire policy blog.

A Texas native, Shaw received a bachelor’s degree in politics from the University of Dallas, where she graduated second in her class and summa cum laude. 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.

She and her husband currently reside in Washington, D.C.

Matthew Spalding serves as Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He also serves as project leader of Heritage’s First Principles initiative. The overall objective of First Principles is to reorient the nation’s politics and public policy to the enduring principles of the American founding.

In his latest book, We Still Hold These Truths: Rediscovering Our Principles, Reclaiming Our Future Spalding details America’s core principles, shows how they have come under assault by modern progressive-liberalism and lays out a strategy to recover them.

Spalding is executive editor of The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a line-by-line analysis of each clause of the U.S. Constitution. His previous books as author or editor include A Sacred Union of Citizens: Washington’s Farewell Address and the American Character; Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition; and The Founders’ Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding.

Spalding is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College. He earned a doctorate in government from Claremont Graduate School and has taught American government at George Mason University, the Catholic University of America and Claremont McKenna College. He is an adjunct fellow of the Kirby Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship at Hillsdale College.

Spalding’s work on The Heritage Guide to the Constitution earned him Heritage’s prestigious W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award in 2006. Spalding and his wife, Elizabeth, have two children. They live in Arlington, VA.

Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Paul Teller graduated in 1993 from Duke University in Durham, NC, where he got his B.A. in political science. Paul has worked for The Washington Times–National Weekly Edition, the National Center for Public Policy Research, the College Republican National Committee, the Bush/Quayle ‘92 campaign, and the American Enterprise Institute. After completing his undergraduate work, he went right into American University’s Ph.D. program as a Dean’s Scholar in political science, which he completed in 1999.

Shortly afterwards, he became a professional staff member for the Committee on House Administration under Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) in the U.S. House of Representatives. In early 2001, Paul joined the staff of the House Republican Study Committee (RSC), where he has done legislative research, analysis, and strategy, as well as coalitions and communications work across a broad range of issues. Now as the RSC’s Executive Director (serving under his sixth RSC chairman) and the Conservative Movement’s point-man on the House side, he sets and implements strategy for the RSC’s policy, communications, and coalitions efforts. The Washington Post recently described Paul as “one of the most influential conservative aides in Congress.”

Paul also helped found, and continues to advise, the House Conservatives Fund. Additionally, Paul was the Senior Policy Advisor in 2004 for Bill Spadea for Congress (New Jersey-12) and was the President of the Duke Club of Washington from 2008-2010 (and still serves on the Club’s board of directors).

Paul and his wife, Maxine, are the proud parents of a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy.