The Witherspoon Institute works to enhance public understanding of the political, moral, and philosophical principles of free and democratic societies. It also promotes the application of these principles to contemporary problems.

The Institute is named for John Witherspoon, a leading member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the sixth President of Princeton University, and a mentor to James Madison. As important as these credentials and his other notable accomplishments were, however, Witherspoon’s commitment to liberal education and his recognition of the dignity of human freedom—whether it be personal, political or religious—inspires this Institute’s name.

In furtherance of its educational mission, the Witherspoon Institute supports a variety of scholarly activities. It sponsors research and teaching by means of a fellowship program. It organizes conferences, lectures, and colloquia. It encourages and assists scholarly relations and collaborations among individuals sharing the Institute’s interest in the foundations of a free society. The Witherspoon Institute also serves as a resource for the media and other organizations seeking speakers and public comment on matters of concern to the Institute and its associated scholars.

Frederic Clark, Trustee, is President of Pacific Equity Management and Inner-City Scholarship, Inc. He received his A.B. degree From University of Southern California, his J.D. degree from University of California, Berkeley, and his M.B.A. from Harvard University. He is on the board of International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, Los Niños, and Thomas More College. He is a volunteer teacher at an inner-city school and runs a scholarship program for inner-city youth.

Eric Cohen, Trustee, is Executive Director of the Tikvah Fund; an Adjunct Fellow and Program Director at the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) in Washington, D.C.; and until February 2007 was the Editor-at-Large of the EPPC’s quarterly journal The New Atlantis. His essays and articles have appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, The Public Interest, Commentary, and elsewhere, and he is the co-editor of The Future is Now: America Confronts the New Genetics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002). He was previously a fellow at the New America Foundation and Managing Editor of The Public Interest. He also serves as a senior consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics.

Michael G. Crofton, Trustee, is President & Chief Executive Officer of the Philadelphia Trust Company. He has served on numerous corporate and eleemosynary boards, including Cyberphone, Inc. and XRT Financial Systems, and was a member of Pennsylvania Governor Ridge’s 1998 Trade Mission to South Africa. Mr. Crofton lectures widely on fiduciary issues and has been interviewed on radio and television. He resides with his wife and five children in Laverock, Pennsylvania.

Sean Fieler, Trustee, graduated from Williams College with a degree in Political Economy and was the recipient of the Branson Memorial Scholarship there. Thereafter he joined Equinox Partners, L.P. and was later named a managing member of the same firm and the Kuroto Fund, L.P. Mr. Fieler is the President of the Williams Catholic Network and a board member of the International Crisis Group AB, Morley Publishing Group, Institute for American Values, National Bible Association, and the Committee for Monetary Research and Education. Sean lives in New York City with his wife, Ana Cecilia, and son, Philip.

Michael Fragoso, M.D., F.A.A.P., Trustee and Treasurer. Dr. Fragoso is Vice-President of Somerset Pediatric Group in Bridgewater, N.J.. He is also Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J., from which in the past he has received the Dean's volunteer faculty teaching award. He resides in Belle Mead, N.J., with his wife Carmen.

Deborah Garwood, Trustee. Mrs. Garwood graduated from Greenwich High School, Greenwich, Connecticut in 1975. She received her B.A. from Princeton University in 1979, married William Garwood, Jr. in 1980 and has two children: Will, III and Laura. Debbie lives in Houston, Texas and is currently active in a number of community and philanthropic organizations including St. Anne’s Catholic Church and the Daughters of Liberty.

Michael Maibach, Trustee, is President and C.E.O. of the European-American Business Council. He holds several degrees, including a B.A. in International Business at American University and an M.A. in Political Philosophy at Georgetown University. Mr. Maibach has held top positions in several companies, including Vice-President of the Intel Corporation. He has served on advisory councils for Presidents Reagan and Bush, Sr., the U.S. State Department, and other such bodies, advising on matters of trade, economics, and industry. Mr. Maibach has published over seventy essays and is currently a guest columnist for the Alexandria Times (Virginia) newspaper. He resides in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

John Metzger, Esq., Trustee and Secretary. Mr. Metzger is a lawyer. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard and his J.D. from New York University. Mr. Metzger has served on the New Jersey Economic Development Council and is a contributor of articles to various professional journals.

Daniel N. Mezzalingua, Trustee, graduated from Syracuse University, after which time he worked as a marketing analyst. He is now the Chairman of a manufacturer in the cable television industry. Mr. Mezzalingua is a member of the advisory council of HSBC Bank, the Resource Development Committee of the United Way, and of the boards of various associations in Central New York. He has served as a trustee for private educational instutions, has led fundraising efforts in Catholic dioceses, and is a past member of the Metropolitan Development Association. He serves on several advisory committees at Syracuse University, including the Chancellor’s Council. He and his wife, Kathleen Damico Mezzalingua, reside in Fayetteville, New York and Naples, Florida.

Roger Naill, Trustee. Mr. Naill is Senior Vice-President of forecasting for AES corporation. He received his A.B. from Princeton in Physics and his M.A. from MIT. He has done extensive research and published numerous papers on natural gas production and system dynamics in the energy industry. He has delivered lectures everywhere from industry conferences to the World Bank and is an advisor at the Department of Energy.

Mark O’Brien, Trustee and Vice-President. Mr. O’Brien is the President and Chief Executive Officer of O’Brien, Greene and Company, and a lecturer in the Politics Department at Princeton University. A graduate of Princeton University’s History Department, he received an M.B.A. in Finance and an M.A. in Liberal Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of two books in the field of Business and is a contributor to business and general interest magazines. He and his wife live in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Ion Ratiu, Trustee, is the C.E.O. of the Austin Thyroid and Endocrinology Center in Austin, Texas. Dr. Ratiu earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. After doing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Technical University in Hanover, Germany, he joined IBM and spent twenty years in advanced technical development and technical and business strategy, managing over $1 billion worth of revenue. He has been a leader in the development of the program in Western Civilization and American Institutions at the University of Texas at Austin.

Ignacio Rodríguez-Iturbe, Trustee, is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. He graduated from Universidad del Zulia in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and has an M.A. and Ph.D. from Caltech and Colorado State University. He has also held professorial appointments at MIT and Texas A&M University. He is a member of numerous academies, including the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering (U.S.A.), the Academia Nacional de Ingeniería (Venezuela), the Sociedad Real de Ciencias (Spain), and other institutions. He is the winner of the Stockholm Water Prize, the Macelwane Medal, and other international prizes. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Genoa and Zulia.

Simone Scumpia, Trustee, is the founder and clinical director of the Austin Thyroid and Endocrinology Center. She has been the principal and secondary investigator in over one hundred research studies in osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, and women’s health among others. She was trained in Bucharest, Romania, the University of Toronto, the University of Alberta, the University of Texas Health Science Center, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.

Edward (Ted) Smith, Trustee, is the Chairman and CEO of Oakwood Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company which he founded in 1997. He served as Chairman and CEO of Ben Venue Laboratories from 1990-1997. Ted received his B.A. from Harvard College in 1970 and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1973. Before that, he was associate professor at the Delaware School of Law.

Mark Smith, Trustee, is president and COO of Oakwood Laboratories, which he co-founded. He was Director of Business Development at Ben Venue Laboratories prior to 1997. He received his B.A. from Harvard University in 1976, and his M.B.A. from Stanford Business School in 1980.

Luis Tellez, Trustee and President. Mr. Tellez received a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering as well as an M.B.A. in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis. Mr. Tellez spent the early part of his career working in the chemical industry, and subsequently spent over twenty years administering several not-for-profit corporations. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.

Herbert W. Vaughan, Esq., Trustee Emeritus. Mr. Vaughan is retired from an Of Counsel with the law firm of Hale and Dorr, LLP. He holds a B.S. and a Law degree from Harvard University. He serves on the Advisory Council of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, and is active in several philanthropic organizations.

Stephen T. Whelan, Esq., Chair of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Whelan is a partner in the law firm of Thacher Proffitt & Wood LLP and a lecturer in the Princeton University Politics Department. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, he is a member of the Advisory Council of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, a trustee of Fraunces Tavern Museum in Lower Manhattan, and the author of three books on law. He and his wife live in New York City.

Eugene J. Zurlo, Trustee. Mr. Zurlo is the Chairman of Zurlo Investment Trust.

Staff

Ryan T. Anderson, Assistant Project Director of the Program in Bioethics and Human Dignity. Mr. Anderson is an assistant editor at First Things: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life, a Fellow of the Phillips Foundation, and a Publius Fellow of the Claremont Institute. Previously he served as the Executive Director of the Witherspoon Institute, where he also was research assistant to Robert P. George. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2004.

Alicia G. Brzycki, Director of Communications and Development. Ms. Brzycki formerly worked as an editor and writer with Princeton University’s Office of Communications.

John F. Doherty, Research Analyst. Mr. Doherty graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2005 with an A.B. in History.

Patrick L. Hough, Research Analyst. Mr. Hough graduated from Princeton University in 2007 with an A.B. in Classics.

Patrick Lee, Project Director of the Program in Bioethics and Human Dignity. Dr. Lee is Professor of Bioethics at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is the author of Abortion and the Unborn Human Life and has collaborated in numerous projects with Professor Robert P. George of Princeton University, most recently as co-author of the book Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics.

Duncan C. Sahner, Assistant Director. Mr. Sahner graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2006 with an A.B. in History.

Updated April 28, 2008