Lee Hamilton

Lee H. Hamilton, is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress and representative democracy.  Hamilton founded the Center on Congress at Indiana University in 1999 and served as its Director until 2015; after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented Indiana from 1965-1999.  He also served as President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., from 1999-2010.   He is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2015).

Hamilton currently serves as a Distinguished Scholar in the School of Global and International Studies and as a Professor of Practice in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University."

For more than 40 years, Hamilton has been an important voice on international relations and American national security. From 1965 to 1999 he served Indiana in the U.S. House, where his chairmanships included the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee to Investigate Covert Arms Transactions with Iran. He also was Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Organization of Congress and worked to promote integrity and efficiency in the institution.

Since retiring from Congress, Hamilton has been at the center of efforts to address some of our nation’s highest-profile homeland security and foreign policy challenges. He is currently a member of the President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council, the CIA External Advisory Board, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Task Force on Preventing the Entry of Weapons of Mass Effect on American Soil.

Hamilton served as Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known as the 9/11 Commission), which issued its report in 2004. He was Co-Chairman, with former Secretary of State James A. Baker, of the Iraq Study Group, which in 2006 made recommendations on U.S. policy options in Iraq. He was Co-Chairman, with former Sen. Spencer Abraham, of the Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future, which issued a report in 2006 calling for reform of the nation’s immigration laws and system. Until recently, he served as a member of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and as Co-Chairman, with former White House National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future.

From 1999 through 2010, Hamilton was President of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, an institution in Washington, D.C., where scholars, policymakers and business leaders engage in comprehensive and non-partisan dialogue on public policy issues.