Office of the Chair

Michael McDonald

Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities

McDonald joined NEH in 2003 and has worked in several positions at the agency, including the Assistant Chairman for Programs, the Acting Deputy Chairman, Acting Chairman, Senior Deputy Chairman, and, for most of his time at the agency, the General Counsel. Following the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump in 2025, Michael McDonald was appointed Acting Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in March 2025, and served in that capacity until January 2026. He was nominated by President Trump as the 13th Chairman of NEH on February 4, 2026. 

Michael McDonald received his Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from the Catholic University of America. He also holds a J.D. from the National Law Center at George Washington University and is a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. From 1988 to 2002, McDonald was on the Board of Directors and served as President of the Center for Individual Rights, a non-profit public interest law firm in Washington, D.C. that he co-founded. In addition to writing for legal journals, McDonald has written scholarly articles, essays, and reviews for publications such as The American Scholar, The National Interest, The Wilson Quarterly, The Wall Street Journal, Academic Questions, The Italian Quarterly, The Claremont Review of Books, The New Criterion, The International Review of Modernism, The Journal of European Studies, Commentary, and the Times Literary Supplement.