Board of Visitors

David Adamany (1963 MS Political Science, 1967 Ph.D. Political Science)

David Adamany is Chancellor and Laura Carnell Professor of Law and Political Science at Temple University. He previously served as president at Temple and at Wayne State University in Detroit. Adamany served as Wisconsin Secretary of Revenue and in other state government positions in Wisconsin and Michigan. He is a Wisconsin native and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Robert Barnett (1968 BA English/History)

Robert Barnett is a senior partner with the Washington, D.C., law firm Williams & Connolly LLP. He represents major corporations and individuals in litigation matters, corporate work, contracts, crisis management, transactions, government relations, and media relations. He has served as debate adviser for eight Democratic presidential and vice presidential campaigns, including Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton. During his almost 30 years of practice, he has represented clients before almost every executive department and administrative agency in Washington, D.C. He represents hundreds of authors, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, James Patterson, Daniel Silva, Dick Cheney, and Hillary Clinton. He also represents televisions news correspondents, including Brian Williams, Lesley Stahl, Sam Donaldson, and his wife, Rita Braver of CBS News. He earned a bachelors degree in English and History from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Ron Bonjean (1993 BA Political Science)

Ron Bonjean is the first person to serve as the lead spokesman in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate. Before leaving Capitol Hill to start the full service public affairs firms of Singer Bonjean Strategies and The Bonjean Company, Ron was chief of staff to the Senate Republican Conference under Senator Jon Kyl. Previously he was a top strategist and adviser for House Republicans as director of communications to then-Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. He also served as press secretary to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and director of public affairs under U.S. Secretaries of Commerce Don Evans and Carlos Gutierrez.

Rita Braver (1970 BA Political Science)

As a national correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, Rita Braver reports on everything from arts to national politics to foreign policy. Prior to that, Braver worked for CBS News as Chief White House correspondent during the Clinton administration. At Sunday Morning she has filed stories on Doomsday Scenarios, the Rise of the Blogosphere, Dr. Jill Biden and Attorney General Eric Holder. She has also reported a series of personality profiles on designers including Giorgio Armani, Business leaders such Barry Diller, and entertainment like Smokey Robinson, Harrison Ford, and Annette Benning. Her honors include five Emmy Awards, a star award from American Women in Radio and Television, and Mother of the Year from the National Mothers' Day Committee. She holds a bachelors degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is married to attorney Robert Barnett, also a Wisconsin Grad.

Edward B. Cohen (Career/Internship Committee Chair) (1971 BA Political Science)

Edward B. Cohen is vice president for government and industry relations for Honda North America. Prior to joining Honda, he served as deputy solicitor for the U.S. Department of the Interior; a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine; deputy special assistant to President Jimmy Carter; and counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a law degree from Georgetown University.

Richard A. Davies (1979 BA Political Science/Economics)

Mr. Davies is the Managing Director, Defined Contributions for Russell Investments. Mr. Davies is responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of Russell's U.S. institutional defined contribution business. He joined Russell in 2011 from Alliance Bernstein where, over a 15-year career, he led the company's institutional defined contribution, retail retirement and college savings businesses as well as served as head of global marketing and product management, and led several business lines and distribution channels for the company's mutual funds group. Mr. Davies joined Alliance in 1995 from First Chicago Corporation, where he served as President of retail investment services and as a Managing Director of First Chicago Investment Management Company. Prior to joining First Chicago in 1989, he was a strategy consultant and manager with The Boston Consulting Group. He worked in brand management for Procter & Gamble before graduate school.
Mr. Davies received a BA in Economics, with Honors, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his MBA from the Harvard Business School. He serves on the University of Wisconsin Madison Advisory Committee of the Economics Department. Mr. Davies serves on the Executive Committee and chairs the Investment Policy Committee for the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association. He also serves as the Manhattan Borough President for the Greater New York Councils, Boy Scouts of America.

George C. Edwards III (1970 MA Political Science, 1973 Ph.D. Political Science)

George C. Edwards III is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University and holds the Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies. A leading scholar of the presidency, he has written or edited 25 books on American politics. Professor Edwards has served as president of the Presidency Research Section of the American Political Science Association, which has named its annual Dissertation Prize in his honor and awarded him its Career Service Award.
He has held visiting appointments at Oxford, Sciences-Po, Paris, University of London, Peking University, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and West Point. He has also advised leaders in a number of other countries and frequently comments on politics in the national press. Mr. Edwards received his BA from Stetson University, his MA and PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Steven Freedman (1974 BA Political Science)

Steven Freedman is president of Freedman Jewelers Inc, a Boston family owned jewelry store, established in 1945. Steven joined the family business in 1974. Steven served as trustee for Temple Shalom in Newton, MA. Presently, Steven has been part of an action based group in downtown Boston, facilitating the improvement of Downtown Crossing, it's safety & revitalization. Steven and his wife Ruth (Wisconsin alumni B.S. 1974) have hosted many Badger "send offs" for the new incoming Badger students.

Jeffrey Gershman (1970 BA Political Science, JD 1973 Law)

Jeffrey is a shareholder with the law firm Stone, Leyton & Gershman. His practice areas include: real estate, general business and tax law. Jeffrey is a member of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, the Missouri Bar, the District of Columbia Bar and the American Bar Association.. He attended the University of Wisconsin Madison where he received his B.A. with Distinction, 1970; and J.D. 1973.

Gayle Haller (1979 BS Political Science)

Gayle Haller is the Regional Director for the National Executive Service Corp. After earning her master's of business administration from the University of Chicago, she spent her career with Motorola in a variety of marketing management roles. She led data product and network product marketing for the launch of the Nextel cellular phone and directed the marketing effort for a line of next generation cellular phones. After moving to New York, she remained with the company as a consultant. She received a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
She is also President of The Community Fund, a non-profit organization that provides grants and technical support to non-profit agencies serving residents of Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe, NY .

Martha Harris (1974 MA Political Science, 1981 Ph.D. Political Science)

Martha Harris has been an educator, public servant, policy analyst and civic contributor. She served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs in the State Department (1993-97) where she negotiated international agreements on technology transfer and managed export controls. As Director of the Office of Japan Affairs at the National Research Council (1988-93), she developed a new program on competing and cooperating with Japan as a technological superpower. As policy analyst and project director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, she wrote reports on issues relating to transfers of advanced technology. Her professional career also includes teaching (University of Washington, Georgetown University) and leadership of a book project on energy and the environment as an Abe Fellow. She has published a number of articles and edited volumes, including Energy Market Restructuring and the Environment: Governance and Public Goods in Globally Integrated Markets (University Press of America, 2002).

Scott Harris (1970 MA Political Science, 1980 Ph.D. Political Science)

Recently retired after fifteen years with Lockheed Martin Corporation. For the last ten years he held the position of President for Europe of Lockheed Martin Global, Inc., responsible for business development and corporate representation throughout Europe. He is currently involved in a number of projects and activities related to transatlantic defense issues. Scott joined Lockheed Martin from the Department of Defense, where he was Special Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense. Earlier in his career he served as Senior Analyst and Assistant Director of the Washington office of the RAND Corporation. He also worked for more than eight years on Capitol Hill, including serving as national security advisor to Senate Majority Leaders Robert C. Byrd and George Mitchell.

Eliot S. Jubelirer (1971 BA Political Science)

Eliot S. Jubelirer is a partner in the San Francisco office of Schiff Hardin LLP where his practice focuses on complex commercial, product liability, and legal malpractice litigation. He has tried numerous jury trials, court trials, and arbitrations to verdict. He is an adviser on a national level on toxic tort issues for clients involved in mass tort litigation and is a nationally recognized speaker on toxic torts, occupational lung injuries, and asbestos litigation. Before joining Schiff Hardin, he was a founding partner in the San Francisco litigation firm of Morgenstein & Jubelirer where he practiced for 25 years until the firm combined with Schiff in 2007. Eliot earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a law degree in 1974 from the University of California, Berkeley.

Sherry Kaiman (1979 BS Political Science/History)

Sherry Kaiman is a consultant in the areas of education, workforce development, health, and the environment. Her current consultation portfolio includes facilitation initiatives and strategic development for RESOLVE, Inc. which is a Washington, DC based nonprofit organization that assists clients in building solutions through collaboration. Sherry spent over two decades on Capitol Hill where she held an array of senior legislative positions. During her Hill career, she was on the staff of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and served as a legislative director to former Senators Jim Jeffords, Mark Andrews, and former Representative Steve Gunderson. Sherry was also a senior aide to former Governor William Donald Schaefer (Maryland), staffed the 1988 Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic, and served as the policy development director for the Trust For America's Health which is a Washington, DC nonprofit focused on health prevention. She holds a BA degree in Political Science and History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Amed Khan (1991 BA Political Science)

Amed Khan is the President of Paradigm Global Group Inc., a private investment firm, and serves as senior advisor to the Clinton-Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative. His career includes many positions in the federal government including Special Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Peace Corps. He served as Chief Operating Officer and Director of Administration for the 1997 Presidential Inaugural Committee and managed planning for the Democratic National Convention and Presidential Debates as Deputy Chief Operating Officer of the Clinton/Gore '96 campaign. He also worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Tanzania where he was Chief Administrator/Logistician for Rwandan and Burundian refugee camps. He holds a bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tracey Klein (1990 BA Political Science)

Tracey L. Klein is a shareholder in the firm, Reinhart Boerner Van Deurens' Health Care Practice. Ms. Klein has served as general counsel to acute care hospitals, multiprovider health care systems, multispecialty clinics, managed care companies and health insurance companies for more than 20 years. She has experience in regional and national transactions involving health care providers and insurance companies including the formation of joint operating entities, hospital affiliations and mergers, the formation of physician group practices and the formation and reorganization of insurance companies. Ms. Klein has significant experience in the area of corporate governance. Ms. Klein routinely provides legal support and counsel to health system Boards of Directors, as well as the compensation, governance and nominating committees. Ms. Klein conducts frequent educational sessions on D&O coverage, audit committee and accounting issues, as well as on the requirements imposed on publicly traded companies by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Ms. Klein attended the 2003 Kellogg School of Management Program on "Strategies for Improving Directors' Effectiveness."

Laura Lake (1967 BA Political Science)

A former Ford Foundation program officer in Resources and the Environment, and UCLA faculty member, she is an environmental professional, community advocate, author, and expert on public involvement in policy implementation. Laura is president of Lake & Lake Consulting, Inc., which provides strategic research for communities challenging inappropriate development and working with developers who want to make their projects compatible with communities. She is frequently quoted in the LA Times as a leading voice for effectively battling the City Hall bureaucracy and has testified at every level of government: Congress, Sacramento and City Hall. Recently Laura lead the successful campaign to stop the sale of Los Angeles municipal garages.

Kathy N. Lefco (1971 BA Political Science)

A law librarian since 1975, Kathy Lefco served for more than fifteen years as firmwide director of library services at Chicago-based Winston & Strawn LLP, retiring in 2010. Previous positions include senior legal reference librarian at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP in New York City, assistant librarian at Kaye Scholer LLP, also in Manhattan, as well as reader services librarian at the Wisconsin State Law Library in Madison. In addition to serving on the Board of Visitors, Kathy was invited to join the Thomson West Advisory Board, a committee of leaders in the librarian community who provide information on West products and services from the law firm perspective. She received her bachelor's degree in political science at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and her master of arts in library science at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee.

Jeffrey Lyons (1978 BS Political Science)

Formerly the president of Charles Schwab's $400 billion asset management business, Jeffrey Lyons now focuses his energy on community involvement and board service. Jeff worked for 22 years at Schwab in a variety of marketing, strategy and general management jobs and served on their Executive Committee. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and his masters in business administration from the University of California-Berkeley.

Doug Mark (1981 BA Political Science)

Doug Mark has represented all possible entities in the music and film industries, including independent record companies, major record companies, independent and major music publishers, superstar recording artists and songwriters, new recording artists, record producers, film composers, executives, private equity, technology companies, etc..
His firm, Mark Music & Media Law, P.C., was founded in 2007, with offices in Los Angeles and New York. The firm's current clients range from pop stars such as Sara Bareilles, Darren Criss and Jason Derulo, rock bands such as Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses, alternative artists such as Andrew Bird and Tegan and Sara, to film composers such as Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat and many others. The firm represents some of the biggest indie labels and divisions of three out of the four major label groups.
Doug serves on the Board of UCLA's Entertainment Law Institute and remains active as a speaker and fundraiser for various educational, social and political causes.

Laura Miller (1980 BA Political Science / Journalism)

Among her accomplishments as Mayor of Dallas from 2002 to 2007, Laura Miller formed a statewide coalition of elected officials to oppose the construction of 18 old-technology coal plants in Texas - an effort memorialized in an award-winning Robert Redford documentary entitled "Fighting Goliath." Her environmental leadership as Mayor led to her current position as Director of Projects, Texas, for Seattle-based Summit Power Group, which is developing the world's first clean-coal IGCC power plant with 90 percent carbon capture in West Texas. Before being elected Mayor, Laura served three-and-a-half years on the Dallas City Council and worked for 18 years prior to that as an award-winning newspaper columnist and investigative reporter in Dallas, Miami and New York. She won a Distinguished Service Award from the UW-Madison Journalism School in 2003. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Journalism in 1980, when she was named one of America's Top Ten College Women by Glamour magazine.

Keith M. Pattiz (1973 BA Political Science)

Keith Pattiz is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP and is based in the Firm's New York office. He is the partner-in-charge of the New York office and head of the Firm's Real Estate Group. Keith has extensive experience in the areas of commercial leasing, financing, sales and acquisitions, hotel transactions and real estate workout matters. Clients have included major residential, office, hotel and shopping center developers, lending institutions, and foreign and U.S. investors. A member of the Real Estate Board of New York, Keith has served as a member of its Arbitration Board. He is also a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and served on the Real Property Committee from 1992 to 1995. He is admitted to the federal bar and the bar of the State of New York. He has been a regular panelist at the New York University Hospitality Industry Investment Conference and has served as moderator for the panel on legal developments in the hospitality industry. Keith has been recognized as a leading real estate lawyer in Chambers USA 2011 and in the 2006-2011 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® and Super Lawyers.

Ronald Rose (1970 BA Political Scienc)

Ronald Rose manages his own real estate portfolio and is a former consultant with LoopLender, an affiliated commercial mortgage brokerage firm of LoopNet Inc. This follows a 30-year career in commercial real estate with Metropolitan Life, The Federal Home Loan Bank, John Hancock Real Estate Financial Services and LoopNet Inc. Mr. Rose is also the former chair of the Political Science Vis Boa and is currently a trustee for the University of San Francisco. Additionally, Mr. Rose serves on three additional committees at the University o San Francisco: The Regional Council, the McCarthy Center for Social Justice and Common Good, and the Dean's Circle at the School of Business and Professional Studies. In addition, he co-produces new works with the Magic Theater in San Francisco and is participating in extending the regional outreach programs of BuildOn. He holds an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, a masters degree in government from the University of Arizona, a masters degree in city planning from San Diego State University and a masters degree in finance from the University of San Francisco.

 

Former Members

UW-Madison degrees indicated in parentheses.

NOTE: The Political Science Department and La Follette School of Public Affairs shared a Board of Visitors prior to November 2008.

• P. Bai Akridge
• Loise Anderson
• Martin Begun (1953 BA Political Science)
• Edwin Behrens (1960, 1961 BS/MS Chemical Engineering)
• Michael Bright (1990 MA Public Policy)
• Jay Carlson (1964 BS History)
• Bernard Cohen (Emeritus Professor of Political Science)
• Anthony Carroll (1980 MA Public Policy & Administration)
• Charles Fischbah (1960 BS Political Science & History)
• Tom Hefty (1969, 1973, BA, JD, Econoics & Law)
• Charles O. Jones (Emeritus Professor of Political Science)
• Douglas Kiel (1971 BA Political Science)
• Philip Kaiser (BA 1935 Philosophy & Classics)
• Tery Lierman (1971 MA Public Policy)
• James Klauser (1961 BS Political Science, 1964 Law Degree, 1968 MA Political Science)
• Tom Loftus (1972 MA Public Policy & Administration)
• Ronald uskin (1979 MA Public Policy & Admiistration)
• Karl Meyer (1951 BS History)
• Robert Milbourne (1968 BA Economics, 1978 MA Public Policy)
• Theresa Mintle (1991 MA Public Policy & Administration)
• Felicia Norwood (1982 MA Political Science)
• Patti McGill Peterson (1968 MA Political Science, 1974 Ph.D. Educational Science Studies)
• Joy Picu (1951 BA Political Science)
• Phillip Schemel (1982 BA Political Science & Economics)
• John Karl Scholz
• Allan Selig (1956 BS Political Science & History)
• Lee Shapiro (1979 BS History, Political Science)
• Joel Skornicka (1959 BS, 1964 MS, Political Science)
• Lon Sprecher (1974, 1975, BA, MA Political Science, Public Policy & Administration)
• Michael Youngman (1975 BA Political Science, 1982 MA Public Policy & Administration)
• Gerald Whitburn (1968 MA Political Science)