Who we are: VIAH Board of Visitors

BOARD OF VISITORS:

STEVEN P. BROWN, Ph.D. 

Dr. Steve Brown is Associate Professor and the Department Chair of Political Science at Auburn University. Dr. Brown received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and has taught at Auburn since 1998. He teaches several courses in American Constitutional Law as well as Religion and Politics, Law and Society, and Introduction to American Government. His research interests focus primarily on church and state issues and American legal history. In 2005, his book, Trumping Religion: The New Christian Right, The Free Speech Clause and the Courts received the National Communication Association's Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression. In 2006, he received the National Faculty of the Year Award from the National Society of Collegiate Scholars. 

STEPHEN F. KNOTT, Ph.D. 

Dr. Stephen Knott is a Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College. He served as co-chair of the University of Virginia's Presidential Oral History Program and directed the Ronald Reagan Oral History Project. Professor Knott received his PhD in Political Science from Boston College, and has taught at the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Virginia. He is the author of several books, including Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America (co-authored with Tony Williams), Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth, The Reagan Years, and Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics. He is a frequent contributor to such publications as the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Claremont Review of Books, and the LibertyLaw Blog. He was recently named one of the Powerline Top 100 Professors in America and lectures across the country. 

JEFFRY H. MORRISON, Ph.D. 

Dr. Jeffry Morrison is Professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, and Director of Academics at the federal government’s James Madison Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia. He graduated with distinction from Boston College and from Georgetown University, where he earned the M.A. and Ph.D. in Government. Dr. Morrison has also held faculty positions at Princeton University, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Georgetown University, and Regent University. He has published as author or editor five books on American political culture, including The Political Philosophy of George Washington (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), and chapters, articles, and reviews in numerous scholarly publications in fields including history, political science, and religion. He has lectured at colleges and historic sites throughout the United States and in England (Hertford College, Oxford), and made media appearances on radio, in journalism, and on television (C-SPAN and the BBC). 

ELIZABETH KAUFER BUSCH, Ph.D. 

Dr. Elizabeth Kaufer Busch is associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University and founder and co-director of the Center for American Studies (CAS). She received her PhD in American Politics; Political Theory from Michigan State University and her BA in Political Science and Sociology from Emory University. She is the co-author of Civic Education and the Future of American Citizenship (Lexington Books, 2012). 

SAM AGAMI 

Sam Agami has taught American History, Civics, and Economics in the Virginia Beach Public Schools since 1999. He earned a M.A. in American History and Government from Ashland University in Ohio. 

TONY WILLIAMS 

Tony Williams is the Program Director of the Virginia Institute for American History and a Senior Fellow at the Bill of Rights Institute in Washington D.C. He attended Syracuse University where he earned a B.A. in history and Ohio State University where he earned an M.A. in American history. He is the author of six books on colonial and Revolutionary America: Hamilton: An American Biography (Rowman Littlefield, 2018), Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America (2015) (co-authored with Stephen F. Knott), The Jamestown Experiment (2011), America’s Beginnings (2010), The Pox and the Covenant (2010) and Hurricane of Independence (2008). He has taught history for fifteen years.

MICHAEL MAIBACH 

Member, VIAH Board of Governors. He received his B.S. & M.A. in Political Science at Northern Illinois University and is a former Vice President of Intel Corporation. He also received a B.A. in International Business at American University and an M.A. degree in Political Philosophy at Georgetown University. He is the former President & CEO of the European-American Business Council. He serves on several non-profit boards and is the Managing Director and member of the Board of Trustees of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding.

J. DAVID GOWDY
B.A. Kansas State University, Phi Beta Kappa; J.D., J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University, Cum Laude. Has practiced law in Texas and California, and has been a co-founder and director of several businesses. Founded the Virginia Institute for American History (VIAH) in Virginia in 2004 and The George Washington Center for Constitutional Studies (GWCCS) in Virginia in 2017. Has taught continuing education courses on the Constitution, Constitutional History, and the American Founding to secondary school teachers in Virginia for the past 14 years. Is the author of “Seven Principles of Liberty,”  “Thomas Jefferson and James Madison’s Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Constitution,” and “The Constitutional Thought of J. Reuben Clark, Jr.” Serves on the Board of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society in Charlottesville, Virginia (TJHeritage.org).