Goldwater Institute

Darcy Olsen serves as president and CEO of the Goldwater Institute, a groundbreaking state research and litigation center for conservative policy in the United States. Under Olsen’s leadership, the Goldwater Institute has acted as a policy architect for successful state level reforms, including school choice laws, initiatives to protect private property, and tax cuts. The Goldwater Institute has been named Arizona's Best Capitol Watchdog by the Arizona Capitol Times four times (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011).

An authority on state policy trends in education reform, economic policy, and government reform, Olsen has been a guest on National Public Radio, the O’Reilly Factor, and the former Dennis Miller Show, and appears regularly on Arizona’s Horizon and Sunday Square-Off public policy television shows. Olsen’s opinions have been widely published in such outlets as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and the National Review, and she has provided testimony before Congress.

Olsen has been recognized as one of Arizona’s top women in public policy by the Arizona Capitol Times and one of Arizona’s most influential people by PolitickerAZ.com. The Phoenix Business Journal selected Olsen as a recipient of its Forty-Under-40 award and named her as one of Phoenix’s 50 “Power People.” For exemplary achievement in state public policy, Olsen received the national Roe Award in 2006.

Olsen was previously the director of education policy at the Washington D.C.-based Cato Institute, and has served as a transitional house manager for the D.C. Coalition for the Homeless.

Olsen earned a B.S. at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and an M.A. in International Education at New York University. She is a native of the west from St. George, Utah. She also served on the Board of Directors for Independent Newspapers and newszap.com.

Clint Bolick serves as the Goldwater Institute’s Vice President for Litigation.

In a recent profile, the New York Times said that Bolick is “known for his aggressive litigation to defend individual liberties.”  He has argued and won cases in the United States Supreme Court, the Arizona Supreme Court, and state and federal courts from coast to coast. He has won landmark precedents defending school choice, freedom of enterprise, and private property rights and challenging corporate subsidies and racial classifications.

Before joining the Goldwater Institute in 2007, Bolick was co-founder of the Institute for Justice and later served as president of the Alliance for School Choice.

Bolick helped author the Health Care Freedom Act and the Save Our Secret Ballot amendment, which were added to the Arizona Constitution in 2010 and adopted in several other states. He also has assisted policy activists in several states to establish litigation centers based on the Goldwater Institute model.

In 2003, American Lawyer recognized Bolick as one of three lawyers of the year for his successful defense of school choice programs, culminating in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris in the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2009, Legal Times named Bolick one of the “90 Greatest D.C. Lawyers in the Past 30 Years.” Bolick received one of the freedom movement’s most prestigious awards, the Bradley Prize, in 2006 for advancing the values of democratic capitalism.

Bolick has authored several books, most recently Death Grip: Loosening the Law’s Stranglehold Over Economic Liberty (2011) and David’s Hammer: The Case for an Activist Judiciary (2007). In addition to his work at the Goldwater Institute, Bolick serves as a research fellow with the Hoover Institution.

Andrea Woodmansee is senior editor for the Goldwater Institute and was previously the Goldwater Institute director of communications, responsible for the Goldwater Institute’s media and community relations. Before joining the Goldwater Institute, Woodmansee worked as marketing communications program manager for a Phoenix technology firm, managing document production and website development. She is a former Goldwater Institute intern and has taught university-level courses in policy and economics. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brigham Young University, where she was a Trustees' Scholar.

Prior to joining the Goldwater Institute, Barbara was the Executive Assistant to the President of the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) Foundation. She previously served as Executive Assistant to the president Grand Canyon University (GCU), transitioning from that office to assist in the creation an interdisciplinary advanced studies institute (Canyon Institute for Advanced Studies), serving as CIAS Executive Manager as well as Executive Assistant to its Founder and President. The John Templeton Foundation selected CIAS to manage the prestigious Templeton Prize and Barbara served as the Prize program’s Executive Director for eight years.

Barbara graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Secondary Education where she also did post-graduate work in Health Science Education.

Dr. Byron Schlomach is an economist and works as the Director of the Center for Economic Prosperity at the Goldwater Institute. He has 15 years of experience working in and around state government. He has researched and written on tax and spending policy in two states in addition to studying transportation, health care, and education policy. Byron’s writings have appeared in National Review Online, Business Week online and numerous Texas and Arizona newspapers. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

As an attorney for the Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation, Carrie Ann Sitren works with Clint Bolick to defend property rights, enforce fiscal responsibility, and protect school choice in Arizona.  Prior to joining the Goldwater Institute, Sitren worked as a law clerk with the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter, and interned with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Neal Boortz Show. She earned her J.D. in 2007 from Wake Forest University School of Law, where she served as Vice President of the Student Trial Bar and as a member of the Moot Court Board. Sitren graduated cum laude as a Bright Futures Academic Scholar from the University of Central Florida with bachelor degrees in statistics and philosophy.

Christina Sandefur is a staff attorney at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation. Christina Sandefur most recently won Friedman v. Cave Creek Unified School District in which she upheld the contract between voters and the district when the district tried to spend bond money in ways voters did not approve. 

Before joining the Institute, Christina worked to advance liberty as a law clerk at the Pacific Legal Foundation in California and a research intern at the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Christina earned her J.D. summa cum laude from Michigan State University College of Law. While at Michigan State, she served as notes editor of the Michigan State Law Review and president of the MSU Federalist Society. Christina graduated magna cum laude from Hillsdale College with a B.A. in history and political economy and completed an honors thesis on the economic history of the U.S. Postal Service.

Diane Cohen is the Goldwater Institute’s Senior Attorney.  Diane is leading the charge in Coons v. Geithner, the Goldwater Institute’s legal battle against Obamacare and her work on this has been featured in multiple media outlets nationally, including in a National Review cover story and a recent article by Washington Post columnist George Will. Diane recently returned from testifying before Congress about Obamacare.

During her tenure at the Goldwater Institute, Diane has also fought for—and won on behalf of—voters’ First Amendment rights, with two court injunctions against Maricopa and Coconino counties protecting the ability to wear clothing mentioning the Tea Party at the ballot box.

Prior to joining the Goldwater Institute, Diane spent more than ten years as a trial attorney for the City of Chicago Corporation Counsel’s office, where she represented the Chicago Police and Fire Departments.  She has also served as legal counsel to State of Illinois Comptroller Loleta Didrickson and as counsel to United States Senator Charles Grassley on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Diane began her legal career as an attorney for the US Department of Justice and has also worked as an associate in private practice.  Diane received her JD and BA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Johnny Jeltema serves as the Manager of Member Relations. In his role, he assists with the development, planning, and management of all events, develops relationships with new and current members, and manages the Barry Goldwater Legacy Society.

Johnny first joined the Goldwater Institute in 2010 as a Ronald Reagan Fellow. Prior to joining the Goldwater Institute, Johnny worked in the entertainment industry at ROAR, a talent management and film production company. Originally from Michigan, he grew up in the hospitality business, working at the restaurants owned and operated by his parents. Johnny studied political science at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California.

Jon Gabriel is the Goldwater Institute's Director of Marketing. Jon creates and implements strategies to promote the independent government watchdog to members, policymakers and the public at large. He designs printed materials, manages the online presence, and ensures consistency and excellence in delivering the limited government message.

Before joining the Goldwater Institute, Jon was a marketing manager with Honeywell, Cold Stone Creamery, and several high-tech companies. In his spare time Jon wrote several popular blog articles, garnering notices from National Review, the Weekly Standard, Rush Limbaugh, and many other prominent conservative voices. Prior to graduating summa cum laude from Arizona State University, Jon served as a submarine reactor operator in the U.S. Navy.

Jonathan Butcher serves as Education Director for the Goldwater Institute.  He has researched education policy and school choice programs at both the state and national level.  Prior to joining Goldwater, Jonathan was the Director of Accountability for the South Carolina Public Charter School District, South Carolina’s only statewide charter school authorizer.  Jonathan studied education policy at the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas and worked with the School Choice Demonstration Project, the research team that evaluated voucher programs in Washington, DC and Milwaukee, WI. 

From 2002-2005, Jonathan studied education and family policy at The Heritage Foundation, a research institute in Washington, DC.  He has appeared on FoxNews and many radio programs.  His commentary has appeared in newspapers around the country and on FoxNews.com and National Review Online.  He holds a B.A. in English from Furman University and an MA in economics from the University of Arkansas.

Le Templar is the writing director for the Goldwater Institute. He manages grant writing and foundation support for the independent government watchdog.

Mr. Templar has nearly 20 years of experience in writing about government and public policy, in editing and storytelling, and in appearances on broadcast media. A graduate of the University of Wyoming, Mr. Templar earned bachelor degrees with honors in political science and journalism. From 1992 until late 2005, he worked as a reporter and editor for daily newspapers in western Nebraska, northern Texas and the East Valley suburbs of the Phoenix metro area. He covered stories about every level of government from city councils to presidential elections. He has interviewed farmers driving tractors in sugar beet fields, professional football players practicing under the Texas sun, police officers working the midnight shift, and at least one governor aboard a military aircraft.

While covering the Arizona state capitol in 2004, Mr. Templar investigated the state agency that regulates nursing home administrators. He uncovered massive budget problems, dysfunctional management and huge delays in investigations that left vulnerable adults at risk. Mr. Templar’s reporting prompted the state senator who had sponsored legislation to continue the state agency for another 10 years to request, and receive, the governor’s veto so the Legislature could adopt a different law with better oversight.

In 2006, he was promoted to the six-person editorial board of the East Valley Tribune in Mesa, Ariz. In that position, he wrote daily about policy debates and reforming government to better protect liberty and economic freedom. He also served as the newspaper’s opinion page editor for a year before joining the Goldwater Institute in early 2010.

Mr. Templar has received writing and reporting awards from the Nebraska Press Club, the Nebraska pro chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Oklahoma Associated Press Managing Editors association, the Arizona Press Club and Arizona APME.

A resident of Phoenix, Mr. Templar has an extensive history of volunteer service. He organized publicity for the Red Ribbon drug abuse prevention week in Scotts Bluff County, Neb., and launched an Explorer troop for journalism in Wichita Falls, Texas. He has served as past president and in other leadership positions with the Arizona Press Club, the First Amendment Coalition of Arizona and Valley of the Sun SPJ pro chapter. He’s also a member of the advisory board for the Maricopa County community colleges’ occupational certificate for journalism.

Mr. Templar previously served as the Goldwater Institute's communications director from January 2010 to June 2011.

In her capacity as External Affairs Manager, Lucy helps to meet the Institute’s objectives of realizing policy goals once they’ve been conceived of by the Institute’s expert policy analysts. To this end, Lucy works to strengthen the Institute’s relationships with key activists in the community locally and nationwide and to promote Goldwater policy recommendations and legal precedents.

Before joining the Goldwater team, Lucy served as Executive Director of Pass the Balanced Budget Amendment, a 501(c)4 organization co-chaired by Club for Growth board member Ken Blackwell and former U.S. Senate candidate Ken Buck. In the 2010 election cycle, Lucy coordinated Save Our Secret Ballot efforts in Arizona. The Save Our Secret Ballot Amendment, a ballot initiative that originated at the Goldwater Institute, passed overwhelmingly in all four states where it appeared on the ballot.

Lucy served as a Ronald Reagan Fellow at the Goldwater Institute in 2009. Previously, she worked as a journalist, and her work has appeared in National Review, the Daily Caller, Slate, and other national publications. Lucy holds a bachelor’s degree in British and American History and Literature from Harvard College.

As the Goldwater Institute's Production Manager, Michael Pfeifer coordinates all of the Institute’s donor contacts, policy reports, and special events, and also manages the Institute's database.

Roger Zetah, CPA, MBA, operates with strong financial controls and metrics to enhance and monitor the organization’s operations. Roger brings 15 years experience to the Institute with a background as V.P. of Finance for a publicly traded company. He also spent six years with KPMG in the audit and consulting practice. Roger received his undergraduate degree in Accounting from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, graduating summa cum laude. He received his MBA from the University of Phoenix in 2003. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at Scottsdale Community College for seven years. Roger has been a CPA since 1986 and is a member of the Arizona Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs. He served in the United States Air Force with a top secret clearance.

Starlee Rhoades is the Goldwater Institute’s Executive Vice President. She leads the communications and fundraising departments, coordinates outreach to policymakers at all levels of government, and works directly with partner organizations in Arizona and throughout the country to advance Goldwater’s policy recommendations.

Starlee joined the Goldwater Institute in 2005 as the director of communications and has overseen a 40 percent increase in media citations, with Goldwater now cited by traditional and online media 3-4 times each day. The communication team’s work was recognized in 2008 with a Templeton Freedom Award for Best Initiative in Public Relations. 

Starlee is a frequent guest on the Phoenix, Ariz. NBC affiliate’s Sunday morning news program, “Sunday Square Off,” among other television and radio shows.

Before joining the Goldwater Institute, Starlee Rhoades was the deputy publisher of TCSDaily.com, a Washington, D.C.-based online opinion journal. Prior to her work at TCS, she was an account executive at DCI Group. Her Arizona experience includes several political campaigns, the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, and the Border Trade Alliance. Starlee is a graduate of Arizona State University.

Stephen Slivinski is a senior economist at the Goldwater Institute. He is an expert in tax and budget policy at the state and federal level. He formerly held the position of research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and senior editor in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Prior to that he was director of budget studies at the Cato Institute, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, and director of tax and budget studies for the Goldwater Institute.

Mr. Slivinski is the author of the book, Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government, published in 2006. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, Businessweek, the Arizona Republic, and many other print and on-line publications. He has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. He holds a master's degree in economics from George Mason University.

Alan Charles Kors teaches European intellectual history at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is professor of history and holds the George H. Walker Endowed Term Chair. Kors has fought for academic freedom since his arrival at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1993, he defended Eden Jacobowitz in the infamous "water buffalo case," which led to the writing of The Shadow University and to the founding of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a non-profit organization whose mission is to defend and sustain individual rights at America's increasingly repressive and partisan colleges and universities. Kors has been elected four times to University and School Committees on Academic Freedom and Responsibility by his colleagues. He has received two awards for distinguished college teaching and numerous awards for his defense of academic freedom. He has also written and lectured widely on the assault upon liberty and freedom of conscience on America's campuses. Kors has published extensively on the conceptual revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries, and produced three taped series on the period for The Teaching Company. He was editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment in 2002. Kors holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is married with two children, and lives in suburban Philadelphia.

As a former constitutional policy analyst, Benjamin Barr researched and analyzed issues of federalism and the constitutional rule of law, including property rights, regulation, and campaign finance. Barr has experience as a litigator before the federal courts and as a legal counselor to the Illinois judiciary.

As an associate with Bopp, Coleson & Bostrom, Barr challenged several unconstitutional campaign finance reform measures throughout the United States and assisted in the advancement of three election law cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. As a staff attorney, Barr advised the Illinois judiciary on matters of constitutional import, complex litigation, and criminal law. Barr worked closely with several judges on legal issues of first impression in Illinois.

Barr graduated from the University of Wyoming with dual degrees in German and political science. He also studied abroad at the University of Oldenburg, Germany. Barr received his law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law where he served on the Moot Court Honor Society and the Journal of Intellectual Property.

One of the nation's leading authorities on Election Law and Campaign Finance, Bradley Smith is Professor of Law at Capital University, where he returned after five years in Washington, D.C., serving as Commissioner, Vice Chairman, and Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Prior to his nomination, Smith had become a fixture in the national discussion on campaign finance, and was called "the most sought after witness" when Congress considered campaign finance issues.

His writings have appeared in such academic journals as the Yale Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, and Pennsylvania Law Review, and in popular publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and National Review. In 2001, Princeton University Press published his book, Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform, which was praised by syndicated columnist George Will as "the year's most important book on governance."

Named FEC Chairman in January 2004, Professor Smith oversaw implementation of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, and successfully fought to increase due process protections for defendants in FEC enforcement actions. Professor Smith has spoken at over 30 of the nation's law schools, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, Michigan, and NYU. His many media credits include national appearances on ABC, NBC, PBS, Fox, CNBC, MSNBC, C-Span, and Bloomberg Media, including such programs as Hardball with Chris Matthews, and the O'Reilly Factor.

Professor Smith is of counsel to the Columbus, Ohio and Washington, D.C law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease. Prior to joining Capital's faculty in 1993, he served as United States Vice Consul in Ecuador.

Carrie Lukas is the director of policy for the Independent Women's Forum (IWF), an organization dedicated to advancing the spirit of enterprise and self-reliance among women, and supporting the principles of political freedom, economic liberty, and personal responsibility. At IWF, Lukas advances a liberty-oriented approach to women's rights. Prior to IWF, Lukas was senior domestic policy analyst for the House Republican Policy Committee and professional staff for the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. In addition, Lukas worked at the Cato Institute as an entitlements policy analyst and has published her original research widely, including national newspapers such as the Washington Post and USA Today. Lukas earned a B.A. from Princeton University and received a masters degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Dan Lips currently works as a policy advisor and investigator with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. Before coming to Capitol Hill, he worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dan previously served as a senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, where he covered federal and state education policy. Dan earned his bachelor's degree from Princeton University and his master's degree from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. Since 2008, he has served on the D.C. Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

David Schmidtz is a professor of philosophy and joint professor of economics at the University of Arizona. Prior to the University of Arizona, Schmidtz taught at Yale University and Bowling Green State University. Specializing in moral and social philosophy, Schmidtz has authored numerous works, including Rational Choice and Moral Agency, as well as multiple articles that have appeared in scholarly journals such as Political Theory and Social Philosophy and Policy. In addition, Schmidtz is currently working on two forthcoming books, The Elements of Justice and The Purpose of Moral Theory. Schmidtz has lectured at over 50 universities in 13 countries, and on 6 continents.

Fred E. Foldvary received his B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.  He has taught economics at the Latvian University of Agriculture, Virginia Tech, John F. Kennedy University, California State University at Hayward, the University of California at Berkeley Extension, and Santa Clara University.  Foldvary is the author of The Soul of Liberty, Public Goods and Private Communities, and Dictionary of Free Market Economics. He edited and contributed to Beyond Neoclassical Economics and, with Dan Klein, The Half-Life of Policy Rationales.  Foldvary's areas of research include public finance, governance, ethical philosophy, and land economics.

Graduating from the Nampa, Idaho public high school, Fred Kelly Grant attended the College of Idaho where, inspired by the constitutional contributions to American history of southerners James Madison, George Washington, and John C. Calhoun, he majored in History with Honors Work in Constitutional History and Law. After graduating summa cum laude, he attended the University of Chicago School of Law, where, in his Third Year he was awarded a silver cup for the Best Oral Argument in national moot court competition. He graduated with his JD degree in 1961, and then spent one year of graduate study and research, focusing on constitutional limitations on government control of speech and international communications.

While in Chicago, Grant worked at Lord, Bissell and Brooke, American counsel for Lloyds of London. He went to Baltimore, Maryland to clerk for Chief Judge Frederick W. Brune of the Maryland Court of Appeals. After admission to the Maryland Bar, he served as assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland, then assistant State’s Attorney and later Chief of the Organized Crime Division of the State’s Attorney’s office of Baltimore City. Following his prosecution days, he practiced criminal defense law in Maryland.

After his wife Lodice persuaded him to bring the family home to Idaho, Grant served as counsel in the administrations of Governors Cecil Andrus and John Evans. Then, as deputy clerk to the Board of Canyon County Commissioners, he served as chief of research for the Third Judicial District headed by Administrative District Judge Edward J. Lodge. Grant established and continues to operate Fred Kelly Grant Ltd. where assisted by his paralegal and daughter in law, Staci, and the rest of his family he pursues his work in land use, personnel, zoning, and trial consultation. For three decades he has served as Hearing Officer in personnel disputes, zoning cases and road validation cases.

He consults with Owyhee County, Idaho as its Planning Coordinator, and has helped the County develop a coordination system with federal agencies which has continued to protect the private property rights of ranchers throughout the County. He has assisted numerous counties, towns, and districts in fifteen states to establish their rightful place at the bargaining table with federal and state agencies. He served as Chair of the Work Group that put together the Owyhee Initiative Agreement, a collaborative effort that resolved land use conflicts that had plagued Owyhee County for decades. He helped draft and lobby the passage of the Owyhee Public Lands Management Act that implemented the Agreement. The Act was passed and signed by President Obama in March, 2009. He still serves as Chairman of the Owyhee Initiative Board of Directors formed to implement the Act. Currently, Grant is also president of Fred Kelly Grant, Ltd., Director of the Foundation for Common Sense, special advisor to the Business Council of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes of Duck Valley, Nevada, and President of American Stewards of Liberty.

Grant’s writings consist of a Thesis on The Genesis of the Articles of Confederation, a series of law review articles analyzing the need to provide an international process for protecting private property rights of U.S. citizens in foreign nations, a theme in the Deskbook for Prosecuting Attorneys, hundreds of appellate and trial briefs, articles for Cornerstone and Standing Ground, the book, “Justice My Ass” (2009), and posts for the blog at the website JusticeMyAss.com.

Fred is a loving grandfather, trying to spoil his grandchildren no more than he was spoiled by his grandparents. He counts among his friends all  those who truly believe that the United States of America is the greatest, most unique nation in the world.

George Reisman is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Pepperdine University and author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (1996). Reisman earned his Ph.D. from New York University under the direction of Ludwig von Mises, whose graduate seminar he attended for eight years, starting with his senior year in high school. In Capitalism, he presents, along with original contributions of his own, a synthesis of essential elements of the British Classical and Austrian Schools of Economics and important aspects of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism. The synthesis seeks primarily to unite the doctrines of Adam Smith, David Ricardo, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill with those of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, and Ludwig von Mises for the purpose providing a state-of-the-art understanding of the nature and value of capitalism.

Reisman is married to Edith Packer, J.D., Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, with whom he lives in Laguna Hills, California.   His web site is www.capitalism.net. His blog is www.georgereisman.com/blog.

A father of public choice theory, Gordon Tullock began his distinguished career in 1947 after receiving his doctorate in law from the University of Chicago. Before teaching at universities in South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Arizona, Tullock worked in law and government. In 1966, he began the Public Choice Journal and in 1968 he co-founded the Center for Study of Public Choice at Virginia Tech with Nobel Prize-winner James Buchanan. As the author of 23 books and hundreds of articles, Tullock is most well known for his book, The Calculus of Consent, which he co-authored with James Buchanan. Tullock has served as president of the Public Choice Society, the European Public Choice Society, the Southern Economic Association and the Western Economic Association. In 1998, he was honored with the title of Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. Tullock retired as a professor in the department of economics and School of Law at George Mason University.

Ilya Somin is an Associate Professor at George Mason University School of Law. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, and the study of popular political participation and its implications for constitutional democracy. Somin currently serves as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country's top-rated law and economics journals. His work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. He has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com, Newark Star Ledger, Orlando Sentinel, South China Morning Post, Legal Times, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post,  BBC, and the Voice of America, among other media. In July 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog.

During the Fall 2008 semester, he served as visiting professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Somin has previously been a visiting professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, he was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003.  In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.

James D. Gwartney holds the Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University, where he directs the Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education. He served as chief economist of the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress from 1999-2000.  He is the co-author of Economics: Private and Public Choice and Economic Freedom of the World, a worldwide annual report on the institutions and policies of more than 120 countries. His publications have appeared in both professional journals and popular media such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society, he was invited by the incoming Putin Administration in March 2000 to make presentations and have discussions with leading Russian economists concerning the future of the Russian economy.  In 2004 he was the recipient of the Adam Smith Award of the Association of Private Enterprise Education for his contribution to the advancement of free market ideals. In addition, Gwartney held the distinguished position of Chairman of Youth for Goldwater in Washington State during Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign.

Jay P. Greene holds an endowed chair and heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Greene conducts research and writes about education policy, including topics such as school choice, high school graduation rates, accountability, and special education.

His research was cited four times in the Supreme Court's opinions in the landmark Zelman v. Simmons-Harris case on school vouchers. His articles have appeared in policy journals, such as The Public Interest, City Journal, and Education Next, in academic journals, such as The Georgetown Public Policy Review, Education and Urban Society, and The British Journal of Political Science, as well as in major newspapers, such as the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He has appeared on numerous national TV and radio shows, such as CBS's 60 Minutes, ABC's 20/20, and NPR's Talk of the Nation. Jay Greene is the author of Education Myths: What Special-Interest Groups Want You to Believe About our Schools—and Why It Isn't So (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005).

Dr. Greene has been a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Houston. He received his B.A. in history from Tufts University in 1988 and his Ph.D. from the Government Department at Harvard University in 1995. He lives with his wife and three children in Fayetteville, AR.

Jeffrey Parker is a law professor at George Mason University and serves as coordinator of the school's litigation law track. His academic focus is on criminal law and sentencing, civil and criminal procedure, evidence, litigation theory and practice, and law and economics. Prior to joining the George Mason law faculty in 1990, Professor Parker was a practicing lawyer specializing in litigation at Sullivan & Cromwell and Sacks Montgomery in New York City. He also served in the federal government as deputy chief counsel and consulting counsel to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Today, Parker is still active in litigation involving public policy issues, most recently in cases on habeas corpus for federal prisoners held in violation of their constitutional rights, the medical use of narcotics to treat chronic intractable pain, and police immunity from liability for unjustified killings of citizens.

John Shadegg, a native Arizonan, grew up in the shadow of Barry Goldwater, one of our country's and Arizona's most revered statesmen. Shadegg's father, Stephen, was Senator Goldwater's campaign manger and speechwriter. From these two men, Shadegg learned that the most important thing in politics, and in life, is integrity. Throughout his sixteen years representing Arizona's Third Congressional District, Shadegg has remained true to his principles and acted in the best interest of Arizona and the nation, regardless of consequence.

Recently, The Arizona Republic endorsed Shadegg saying, "for his remarkable consistency - dare we say, for his adherence to principle - The Arizona Republic recommends that District 3 voters return Republican incumbent John Shadegg to Congress."

Congressman Shadegg's strong principles have earned him endorsements and recognition from numerous groups and organizations, including, but not limited to:

Arizona State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police
Citizens Against Government Waste -109th Congress score: 98%
Club for Growth - 110th Congress 1st Session Score: 97%, 110th Congress 1st Session Rank: 14
National Federation of Independent Business
National Right to Life - 2005-2006 Rating: 100
National Vietnam & Gulf War Veterans Coalition
U.S. Chamber of Commerce - 2007 Spirit of Enterprise Award
National Rifle Association
The Council for Affordable Health Insurance
American Conservative Union - 2007 Rating: 100, Lifetime: 98.25
Americans for Prosperity - Arizona Federation of Taxpayers: 2007 Friend of Taxpayer
Americans for Prosperity - Freedom from Foreign Oil Scorecard: Score: 100%
Americans for Tax Reform - 109th Congress, 1st Session: 88%, 109th Congress, 2nd Session: 100%
Arizona Tax Research Association - 2007 Watchdog Award
Gun Owners of America - 110th Congress Grade: A-
National Tax-Limitation Committee: "Tax Fighter Award," 110th Congress Grade: A
National Taxpayers Union - "Taxpayers Friend Award," 110th Congress 1st Session Score: 92%, Grade: A

Senator Goldwater said, a government that is large enough to give you everything you want, is also large enough to take it all away. Recognizing that growth of government constricts this nation's fundamental value of individual liberty, Shadegg is a leading advocate in Congress and in the National Conservative Movement for limited government. He has fought to reduce government spending, bring federal tax relief to hardworking Americans, and re-establish state and individual rights.

Shadegg, who was named to the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, has been an advocate for American-made energy. He voted to create both the residential and commercial solar tax credits and has voted multiple times for their renewal. His efforts to promote hydroelectricity have spilled over into his fight to save and preserve Lake Powell. Radical environmental groups have called for Lake Powell to be drained, which would have devastating economic and environmental consequences throughout the Southwest. Shadegg helped form the Friends of Lake Powell to fight efforts to drain the lake.

Shadegg is committed to increasing our domestic oil supply, and decreasing our dependence on foreign oil. This would reinvest, in the American economy, the $700 billion we currently spend overseas, and create hundreds of thousands American jobs.

In August 2008, Shadegg and his colleagues, led the Republican Energy Revolt calling for increased domestic drilling on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. Making national headlines, they ultimately forced Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Congress to allow the expiration of moratoria on oil exploration in our Outer Continental Shelf - which is supported by more than 70% of the American public.

That same month, Shadegg led a Congressional delegation trip to ANWR, where he learned the vast majority of Alaskans support responsible development. The Alaskans Shadegg met told how the Alaskan pipeline and development at Prudhoe Bay had dramatically improved their lives and enabled their children to have access to education and opportunities available to other Americans. On that same trip, Shadegg learned radical environmentalist groups have consistently used our nation's courts to block domestic oil production, filing suit against every lease in the OCS in Alaska and the lower 48 states. Shadegg subsequently introduced legislation to give expedited judicial review to these cases so that energy exploration cannot be halted.

 
He has introduced several bills to address the problem of the uninsured, lessen the bureaucracy of Medicare, give patients the right to hold HMOs accountable and strengthen the doctor/patient relationship.

Shadegg has fought against the government takeover of health care and in favor of greater choice, ownership, and portability in health insurance. His bills – the Improving Health Care for All Americans Act, the Patients Health Care Reform Act, and the Health Care Choice Act -- offer free-market solutions to rapidly rising healthcare costs. The Health Care Choice Act would allow individuals to purchase their health care plan across state lines. These proposals increase competition within health care, reduce costs, improve quality, and most importantly, put individual Americans in control, enabling them to pick the health care plan that best meets their needs.

John Shadegg remains committed to fight for fiscal responsibility in government, access to quality and affordable health care, and balanced energy and environmental policies. He will also continue his efforts to draft and pass wildfire prevention legislation that will help protect the Arizona's forests and rural communities from the type of fires that have devastated our state all too often.

Shadegg served as Chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee

The fifth-ranking position in the House Leadership, from 2005 to 2006. At the time, he was the only member of the Republican Class of 1994 serving in the House Leadership. He resigned that position when he entered the race for Majority Leader.

Shadegg was Chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC)

From 2000 to 2002, Shadegg chaired the RSC, the largest conservative organization in the House of Representatives. Under Shadegg's leadership, the organization grew from 40 to more than 70 members, and became the most influential and respected force in the U.S. House shaping conservative policy for the country.

In 2006, Shadegg received national attention when he ran for House Majority Leader following Tom DeLay's resignation. The motto for Shadegg's race was Shadegg = Reform, and he was widely credited with altering the debate and, ultimately, changing the outcome. During the race, Shadegg received the endorsement of newspapers, magazines, and blogs across the country, including the Arizona Republic, the San Diego Union Tribune, the Rocky Mountain News, the Indianapolis Star, the Mobile Register, National Review, Human Events, and Townhall.com.

Lee Ann Elliott was appointed Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate for a six-year term.  She was reappointed and confirmed in 1987.  In 1993, President William Clinton appointed her to a third term.  Becoming an expert on the administration of election law, and achieving an unprecedented record, her published opinions were supported by the U.S. Supreme Court when these arguments were brought before the Court. During her 18 year tenure at the FEC she served as chairman or vice-chairman for six years.  Prior to her Federal appointments, she was Vice President of Bishop, Bryant, a political consulting firm specializing in political action committees.

Ms. Elliott served as the Associate Executive Director of the American Medical Political Action Committee for over 18 years.  Known as “Mrs. AMPAC” she encouraged the development of and compliance of over 300 political action committees.  Often requested as a public speaker, she has given numerous presentations in every state in the United States, lectured at several universities, and represented the United States in developing a free election process in the former Soviet Union.  Ms. Elliott is a graduate of the University of Illinois.  She is a Certified Association Executive, an author, lecturer, patent holder and artist.

Since moving to Arizona in 2000 she has been appointed by two Arizona governors and confirmed by the state senate as a member of the Arizona Board of Appraisal, served 11 years as treasurer of Kids Voting USA, was on the founding board of directors of the Amblyopia Foundation, served six years as president of the Arizona chapter of the Colored Pencil Society of America, served on the Board of Trustees of the Scottsdale Artists’ School, and is currently vice chairman of Advocates for the Disabled.

Dr. Matthew Ladner is a research scholar at the Foundation for Excellence in Education. He previously served as vice president of research and director of the Center for Economic Prosperity for the Goldwater Institute. Prior to joining Goldwater, Ladner was director of state projects at the Alliance for School Choice, where he provided support and resources for state-based school choice efforts. Ladner has written numerous studies on school choice, charter schools and special education reform. Ladner is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and received both a Masters and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Houston. Ladner previously served as vice president of policy and communications at Children First America.

Michael J. New is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama. Prior to joining the University of Alabama, New held the title of Post Doctoral Fellow at the Harvard-MIT Data Center. New has been at the forefront of research on tax limitation, campaign finance reform, and welfare reform. His writings have appeared in a number of publications including Investor's Business Daily, National Review Online, and the New York Post. Currently, New serves as a board member of the Stanford Review and as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University.

Patrick Chovanec is an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing, China, where he teaches in the school's International MBA Program. His expertise is in finance, international relations, economics and political strategy.

Before coming to Asia, Chovanec worked as an aide to political strategist William Kristol at Project for the Republican Future, where he helped play a key role in the defeat of the Clinton health care plan. As editor of Legislative Digest, while working for the House Republican leadership as an aide to U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, Chovanec had a central role in coordinating passage of the “Contract with America.” Professor Chovanec first visited China in 1986, and has traveled to every one of its 31 provinces, as well as Taiwan. His travels have taken him to over 45 countries, including Pakistan, Cuba, Vietnam, and Cambodia. He is one of only a handful of U.S. citizens to have visited North Korea.

His insights into Chinese business, economics, and culture have been published in the Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, Far Eastern Economic Review, and The Atlantic. He also appears frequently as a guest commentator on Chinese Central Television (CCTV-9), Al Jazeera, and China Radio International (CRI). Chovanec holds an MBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar, and a BA in Economics from Princeton University.

Professor Chovanec has worked for several private equity funds focused on China, and continues to serve as a fund advisor. He has also served as director of Institutional Investor’s Asia Pacific Institute, based in Hong Kong, and its Global Fixed Income Institute, based in London.

Randy Barnett is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor at the Boston University School of Law where he teaches constitutional law, contracts, and cyberlaw. He is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and has visited at Northwestern University School of Law, the Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala, and Harvard Law School. Professor Barnett lectures internationally and appears frequently on radio and television programs, including the CBS Evening News, the News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Talk of the Nation (NPR), and even the Ricki Lake Show.

He has written numerous books and articles including, The Structure of Liberty: Justice and the Rule of Law and Perspectives on Contract Law. In November 2004, Professor Barnett argued the case of Ashcroft v. Raich in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of users of cannabis for medical purposes, having previously argued the case successfully in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On April 6, 2004, Professor Randy Barnett joined the Goldwater Institute for a discussion of his new book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty, in which he argues that the U.S. Supreme Court has dramatically reinterpreted the Constitution to eliminate essential parts that limit governmental powers and protect basic rights.

Robert C. Balling Jr. is a professor in the Department of Geography at Arizona State University. Dr. Balling has served as Director of the ASU Office of Climatology and has been a leader in climatology research. He has published over 70 articles in professional scientific literature, received nearly $2,000,000 in research grants, presented approximately 100 lectures throughout the United States and more than a dozen foreign countries, and appeared in a number of scientific documentaries and news features. He is presently serving as a climate consultant to the United Nations, the World Meteorological Organization, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Balling has written several books on climate change, including The Heated Debate: Greenhouse Predictions Versus Climate Reality.

Rob Natelson is a leading expert on the American Founding.  His publications on the Constitution's original meaning have pioneered the use of such critical, but formerly neglected, historical sources as eighteenth-century law, language, and drafting practice.  In 2010, Cambridge University Press published his co-authored work on the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause.

Rob also is the author of The Original Constitution: What It Really Said and Meant, a survey for the lay reader of the entire Constitution's meaning immediately after adoption of the Bill of Rights.  He has published literally hundreds of articles, chapters, books, and monographs on the Constitution, legal history, politics, real estate, and other subjects.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Rob practiced law and ran his own businesses, primarily in Colorado.  In 1987, he became Professor of Law at the University of Montana where, in addition to his teaching and writing, he became Montana's best-known grassroots leader -- successfully fighting for lower taxes, privatization, and more effective public service delivery.  In 2000, he ran second among five candidates in the open primary for Governor of Montana.

Rob spent much of 2005 researching the Founding Era at the University of Oxford in England.  In 2010, he left his law professor position with the University of Montana to move back to Colorado, where he is Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Independence Institute.

Stephen Moore is an editorial page writer for the Wall Street Journal. Prior to joining the paper, Moore founded the Free Enterprise Fund and co-founded the Club for Growth. Moore is a contributing editor to National Review and a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He has authored several books including, Government: America's #1 Growth Industry, Still an Open Door? U.S. Immigration Policy, and The American Economy. Prior to founding the Free Enterprise Fund, Moore served as president of the Club for Growth. He was the Grover M. Hermann Fellow in Budgetary Affairs at the Heritage Foundation and senior economist at the Joint Economic Committee under Chairman Dick Armey of Texas.

Currently, Moore's work has frequently appeared in major publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Human Events, and Reader's Digest. Moore has appeared on numerous television shows, including CNN's Inside Politics, Crossfire and Moneyline, NBC's Nightly News, Fox Morning News, and the McLaughlin Group.

Steve Pejovich is a professor emeritus at Texas A&M University. Pejovich has written numerous books and articles on economics, including Fundamentals of Economics: A Property Rights Approach and Life in the Soviet Union: A Report Card on Socialism. Dr. Pejovich received an LL.B., from the University of Belgrade and a Ph.D. in economics from Georgetown University. He currently serves as an adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation and as a senior research fellow at the International Centre for Economic Research in Torino, Italy.

Steven M. Greenhut is Director of the Pacific Research Institute's Investigative Journalism Center and News Bureau. He is based in Sacramento. Greenhut was a columnist and senior editorial writer for the Orange County Register for 11 years and editorial page editor for The Lima News in Ohio.

He is a former building and remodeling editor for Better Homes and Gardens. He is author of the 2004 book, "Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain." His latest book is called "Plunder: How Public Servants Have Become the Public's Masters." Greenhut's columns have been distributed on the McClatchy Tribune and Freedom news wires and have been printed in major newspapers around the country. He has contributed columns to the Wall Street Journal and writes for magazines including The Freeman. In 2005, Greenhut won the Institute for Justice’s Thomas Paine Award for his writing promoting freedom. He graduated from George Washington University. He is married and has three daughters.

Todd J. Zywicki is Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law and Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review.  From 2003-2004, Professor Zywicki served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission. And in 2006, he served as a Member of the United States Department of Justice Study Group on "Identifying Fraud, Abuse and Errors in the United States Bankruptcy System."

Professor Zywicki is currently a Senior Scholar of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Bill of Rights Institute.  He is the author of more than 60 articles in leading law reviews and peer-reviewed economics journals.

Professor Zywicki has testified before Congress on multiple occasions and is a frequent commentator on legal issues in the print and broadcast media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Nightline, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC, The Diane Rehm Show, and The Laura Ingraham Show.  He is a contributor to the popular legal weblog The Volokh Conspiracy.

Vernon L. Smith, Nobel Prize winner in Economics, 2002, is currently professor of economics and law at George Mason University, a research scholar in the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, and a fellow of the Mercatus Center, all in Arlington, VA. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Cal Tech, and his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles and books on capital theory, finance, natural resource economics and experimental economics. He serves or has served on the board of editors of the American Economic Review, the Cato Journal, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, the Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Science, Economic Theory, Economic Design, Games and Economic Behavior, and the Journal of Economic Methodology. The Cambridge University Press published his Papers in Experimental Economics in 1991, and they published a second collection of more recent papers, Bargaining and Market Behavior, in 2000. He received an honorary Doctor of Management degree from Purdue University, and is a fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Freedom and Prosperity. She was previously a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, and a research fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation.  In France, she directed academic programs for the Institute for Humane Studies-Europe. Ms. de Rugy earned an M.A. in economics from the University of Paris IX-Dauphine and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Paris-Sorbonne.  She is the coauthor of numerous articles published in academic journals and is the author of Action ou Taxation, published in Switzerland in 1996.  Her research interests include the federal budget, homeland security, tax competition, bioterrorism and financial privacy issues.