Office of the Chair

Michael McDonald

Acting Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities

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, Mr. 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 2003, Mr. McDonald joined the National Endowment for the Humanities where he has worked in many positions, such as the Assistant Chairman for Programs, the Acting Deputy Chairman, and, for most of his time at the agency, the General Counsel. In addition to writing for legal journals, Mr. McDonald has also 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, and the Times Literary Supplement.