William Galston is the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. He joined the Brookings Institution on January 1, 2006. Formerly the Saul Stern Professor and Dean at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Dr. Galston specializes in political theory, American public philosophy, and political institutions and processes.

After serving as a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps and then receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973, Galston taught for nearly a decade in the Department of Government at the University of Texas. From 1988 until 2005, he was professor of public policy at the University of Maryland. From 1993 through 1995, he served as deputy assistant for domestic policy to President Clinton, and after leaving the administration, as executive director for the National Commission on Civic Renewal. Dr. Galston was the director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), an organization he founded with support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, and also director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, both located at the University of Maryland.

Galston is the author of eight books and more than one hundred articles on questions of political and moral philosophy, American politics and public policy. His most recent book is Public Matters: Politics, Policy, and Religion in the 21st Century (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). Galston is also a co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Political Choices Undermine Citizen Participation and What We Can Do About It, published by the Brookings Press.  A recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Hubert  H. Humphrey award, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004.