Staff

Peter W. Wood
President

Peter Wood is the President of the National Association of Scholars. Dr. Wood is an anthropologist and former provost. He was appointed president of the NAS in January 2009. Before that, he served as NAS’s executive director (2007-2008), and as provost of The King’s College in New York City (2005-2007).

Dr. Wood was a tenured member of the Anthropology Department at Boston University, where he also held a variety of administrative positions, including associate provost and president’s chief of staff. He also oversaw the university’s scholarly publications and served as acting university librarian.

He received his Ph.D. in anthropology in 1987 from the University of Rochester. His dissertation, Quoting Heaven, examined the emergence of an American folk religion and pilgrimage center in rural Wisconsin. His undergraduate degree is from Haverford College (1975) and he has a master’s degree in library science from Rutgers University (1977).

Dr. Wood is the author of Wrath: America Enraged (Encounter Books, 2021), 1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project (Encounter Books, 2020), A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now (Encounter Books, 2007), and of Diversity: The Invention of a Concept (Encounter Books, 2003) which won the Caldwell Award for Leadership in Higher Education from the John Locke Foundation. These books extend his anthropological interest in examining emergent themes in modern American culture.

In addition to his scholarly work, Dr. Wood has published several hundred articles in print and online journals, such as Wall Street Journal, The Spectator, Partisan Review and National Review Online, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Publications: The Illusion of Institutional Neutrality; Separate but Equal, Again; The Architecture of Intellectual Freedom; Inside Divestment; Sustainability; What Does Bowdoin Teach?; Recasting History; and The Vanishing West.

Christopher Kendall
Director of Development

Christopher Kendall joined NAS in 2017 as a Development Associate. He graduated from The King's College with a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. Prior to working at NAS, he spent time studying at New College in Oxford University, and served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Texas House of Representatives.

Petru Kokora
Controller/Human Resource Director

Petru Kokora joined the National Association of Scholars in June 2018. Before joining NAS he served as a Logistics Manager at Thomson Reuters, where he worked for 23 years, and a full-time pastor at Church of God of Ridgewood for 10 years. He was born in Uzdin, province of Vojvodina, Serbia. He is a happily married husband and a father of two daughters. Petru attended Technical College in Pančevo, Serbia,  and Lee University where he received a Master of Business Administration and studied Ministry Leadership.

Chance Layton
Communications Director

Chance D. Layton is the Director of Communications of the National Association of Scholars. Chance attended The King’s College in Manhattan, where he studied politics, philosophy, and economics.

Teresa R. Manning
Policy Director

Teresa R. Manning is the Policy Director of the National Association of Scholars. Teresa graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1993 after completing her first year of law school at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. She also has an M.A. in Western European History from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.A. in Philosophy is from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. Before joining the National Association of Scholars, Teresa served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Population Affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Publications: Dear Colleague: The Weaponization of Title IX

David Randall
Research Director

David Randall is the Research Director of The National Association of Scholars. David earned a Ph.D. in history from Rutgers University, an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Columbia University, a master’s degree in library science from the Palmer School at Long Island University, and a B.A. from Swarthmore College. Prior to working at NAS he was the sole librarian at the John McEnroe Library at New York Studio School. 

Publications: Shifting Sands: Zombie Psychology, Confounded Errors, Flimsy Food Findings, and P-Value Plotting and P-Hacking; The Franklin Standards; Curriculum of Liberty; Disowned Yankees; Taken for a RIDE; Learning for Self-Government; Skewed History; Climbing Down; Disfigured History; Social Justice Education in America; Beach Books; The Irreproducibility Crisis of Modern Science; Charting Academic Freedom; Making Citizens; and The Disappearing Continent.

Glenn Ricketts
Public Affairs Director

Public Affairs Director Glenn Ricketts joined the NAS staff in 1989. He was the founding president of the NAS New Jersey state affiliate and served for 20 years on the NAS board of directors. A graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, he received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He is also a professor of political science and U.S. history at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerville New Jersey, where he has taught since 1982.

J. Scott Turner
Director of the Diversity in the Sciences Project

Dr. Turner is a physiologist best known for his work on evolution and ecology. He is retired from the faculty of SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry, though still active in his research specialty, the study of termite colonies. His books include The Extended Organism:  The Physiology of Animal-Built Structures (Harvard University Press, 2002); The Tinkerer's Accomplice: How Design Emerges from Life Itself (Harvard University Press, 2010); and Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something "Alive" and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It (HarperOne, 2017). He has authored more than 100 scientific and popular articles.

Stanley Young
Director of the Shifting Sands Project

Dr. Young is currently the CEO of CGStat and previously worked at Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences on questions of applied statistics. He graduated from North Carolina State University, BS, MES and a Ph.D. in Statistics and Genetics. Dr. Young worked in the pharmaceutical industry on all phases of pre-clinical research. He has authored or co-authored over 70 papers including six “best paper” awards, and a highly cited book, Resampling-Based Multiple Testing. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and an adjunct professor of statistics and biostatistics. Dr. Young is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Louis Galarowicz
Research Fellow

Louis Galarowicz joined NAS in 2024, previously working in political consulting and classical education. He received his B.A. in philosophy and history from the University of Pennsylvania, and is currently completing a masters in theology at the Pontifical Institute of John Paul II in Washington, D.C.

Mason Goad
Research Fellow

Mason Goad is a Research Fellow at the National Association of Scholars. He graduated from the University of North Georgia with a bachelor's in Strategic and Security Studies, and is currently a graduate student of International Security at George Mason University. His writings have appeared in various outlets including The Cipher Brief and the American Intelligence Journal.

Publications: Instagram the Intifada; DEI, Left to Die; and Ideological Intensification. 

Kali Jerrard
Communications Associate

Kali Jerrard is a 2022 graduate of Patrick Henry College, where she graduated with a degree in Economics and Business Analytics. Prior to joining NAS, she worked as a client strategy analyst for a prolific political consulting group in Washington, D.C. Kali resides in Loudoun County, Virginia with her husband and son, and is an ardent lover of romantic era music, cooking, and English literature. 

Ian Oxnevad
Senior Fellow for Foreign Affairs and Security Studies 

Ian holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California and holds a MA in National Security Studies along with degrees in Arabic and English. He has taught at multiple levels of higher education, and has specialties in issues of economic warfare, counterterrorism, and Middle East politics. He is widely published in these subjects and has consulted for the private sector on these issues. In his spare time, he is an equestrian and is pursuing a second doctorate in theology. 

Publications: China and Our Children; The Company They Keep; and After Confucius Institutes: China's Enduring Influence on American Higher Education

Nathaniel Urban
Development Associate 

Nathaniel Urban is a 2018 graduate of the Ashbrook Scholar Program at Ashland University. Prior to joining NAS, Nathaniel managed the What Will They Learn?® project at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, an annual assessment of the general education programs at over 1,100 colleges and universities. He lives in his hometown outside Cleveland, Ohio, and is an avid photographer and Tolkien aficionado.

Joe Benzing
Executive Assistant

Joe Benzing serves as the Executive Assistant of the National Association of Scholars. Joe attended Drexel University where he studied Entertainment and Arts Management, with a focus on performing arts. Before joining the NAS, Joe worked with university students around the United States and globally and served as a pastoral assistant to Citylight Church in Philadelphia.

Jared Gould
Managing Editor, Minding the Campus 

Jared Gould is a Managing Editor of Minding the Campus. He also assumes roles as a Research Fellow at Speech First and a consulting role at the Faith & Politics Institute (FPI). Prior to joining NAS, Jared served as Senior Editor of Campus Reform and, before that, as Executive Assistant and Policy Analyst at Bryant Songy Snell (BSS) in Ridgeland, Mississippi, where he worked with former Governor Phil Bryant. Prior to BSS, Jared interned at the Office of Governor Phil Bryant, focusing on education and workforce development, and was a staff member of Mississippi’s State Workforce Investment Board, researching education and employment.

Seth Forman
Managing Editor, Academic Questions

A Ph.D. in American history with a Master of Public Administration degree, Seth Forman has taught history, political science, and public policy at Stony Brook University, Nassau County Community College, Long Island University, SUNY Farmingdale, and Suffolk County Community College since 1993. A long-time regional planner on Long Island, Dr. Forman’s most recent book, American Obsession: Race and Conflict in the Age of Obama (2011), has been called “A terrific, comprehensive telling of Obama’s rise to power,” by Abigail Thernstrom, the Vice-Chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. Earlier books include Blacks in the Jewish Mind: A Crisis of Liberalism (NYU Press 1998) and The Fire Island National Seashore: A History 1964-2004 (SUNY Press 2008).

Board of Directors

Keith Whitaker
Chairman

Keith is President of Wise Counsel Research. He has consulted for many years with leaders of enterprising families, helping them plan succession, develop next-generation talent, and communicate around estate planning. Family Wealth Report named Keith the 2015 "outstanding contributor to wealth management thought-leadership."

Keith has served as a Managing Director at Wells Fargo Family Wealth, an adjunct professor of management at Vanderbilt University, an adjunct assistant professor of philosophy at Boston College, and a director of a private foundation. He was also a special assistant to the President of Boston University.

Wilfred McClay
Chairman-Elect

Wilfred McClay is the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College.  Prior to this, he was the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty at the University of Oklahoma, and the Director of the Center for the History of Liberty. He is the author of numerous books, and he served for eleven years on the National Council on the Humanities and the advisory board for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is currently a member of the U.S. Commission on the Semiquincentennial, which has been charged with planning the celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday in 2026.

Steve Balch
Founder

Stephen H. Balch is the director of The Institute for the Study of Western Civilization at Texas Tech University. He previously served for twenty-five years as the founding president and then the chairman of the National Association of Scholars. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley and was for fourteen years a member of the faculty of the Department of Government and Public Administration of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York. In 2007 he received the National Humanities Medal from President George W. Bush. In 2009 he was the recipient of the Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award from the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.

Daniel Asia

Professor of Music, University of Arizona, whose compositions include five symphonies, an opera, and numerous other works.

Jay A. Bergman

Professor of History, Central Connecticut State University, whose research focuses on modern Russian history.

George W. Dent, Jr.

Schott - van den Eynden Professor of Law Emeritus, Case Western Reserve University.

David Gordon

Professor of History, City University of New York, where he focuses on the economic history of France and French investments in East Asia.

Gail L. Heriot

Professor of Law, University of San Diego and member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission.

Joshua Katz 

Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He previously taught at Princeton where he was Cotsen Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics, and a faculty associate of the James Madison Program.

Adam Kissel

Visiting Fellow in Higher Education Reform at the Heritage Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Cardinal Institute for West Virginia Policy. Adam previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education, and he has held senior roles at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the Philanthropy Roundtable.

Thomas Klingenstein

Founder and Principal of Cohen Klingenstein LLC, a New York City investment firm; Chairman of Claremont Institute; and playwright.

Wight Martindale

Former journalist and Wall Street businessman who worked at Lehman Brothers for 17 years as a Senior Vice President in the bond department and later as a managing director with Guggenheim Capital Markets. He has taught at Lehigh University, Temple University, and Villanova University.

Alexander Riley

Professor of Sociology at Bucknell University and Senior Fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. In 2013-14, he received a Fulbright Scholar Award from the Council for International Exchange of Scholars and the Franco-American Commission to do archival research in France related to the biographies and work of a group of 20th-century French intellectuals, including Michel Leiris and Roger Caillois.

Richard Vedder

Distinguished Professor of Economics Emeritus, Ohio University; founder, Center for College Affordability and Productivity.

Brian Volkman

Director of the Chemical Biology Program and Professor of Biochemistry at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Bradley C.S. Watson

Department Chair, Philip M. McKenna Professor of Politics, and Co-Director of the Center for Political and Economic Thought at St. Vincent College, Latrobe, PA.

Amy L. Wax

Robert Mundheim Professor of Law, University of Pennsylvania, and an expert in civil procedure, appellate litigation, social welfare law and policy, and the law and economics of work and family.

Elizabeth Weiss

Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at San Jose State University. 

Former Chairmen of the Board of Directors

Herbert Ira London

Steve Balch

Current Board of Advisors

John Agresto
Robert P. George
Roger Kimball
Leslie Lenkowsky
Harvey C. Mansfield
Christina Hoff Sommers
Shelby Steele
Stephan Thernstrom
Virginia Thomas  

Past Members of the Board of Advisors

Paul Hollander
Jacques Barzun
James David Barber
Walter Berns
Edwin J. Delattre
Eugene D. Genovese
Gertrude Himmelfarb
Irving Louis Horowitz
Harry V. Jaffa
Robert Jastrow
Donald Kagan
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
Irving Kristol
Seymour Martin Lipset
Richard D. Lamm
Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Nelson W. Polsby
Willard V. Quine
Leo Raditsa
Milton J. Rosenberg
Stanley Rothman
John R. Silber
Ernest van den Haag
James Q. Wilson

Founding Editor-at-Large of Academic Questions

Carol Iannone (1948-2023)