William Galston was born in 1956. He received his bachelor of arts in 1967 from Cornell University and his Ph.D. in 1973 from the University of Chicago. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration. He was also a senior advisor to Al Gore's presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2000.
In 1989, Galston became a senior advisor to the Democratic Leadership Council and to the Progressive Policy Institute. He also became the founding director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and co-editor of The Responsive Community, a journal exploring the issues of community, responsibility, and the common good in public policy.
Galston was the Saul Stern Professor and Dean at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. Since 2006, Galston has held the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, where he serves as a Senior Fellow.
Galston is the author of numerous articles books on questions of political and moral philosophy, U.S. politics and public policy, including the book Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State. His voluntary sector activities include service as executive director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal, and as chair of a task force on religion and public values, for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
Galston delivered the Beatty Lecture on October 9, 2002, titled, "Religion and Liberal Society". His Lecture was given as part of Pluralism, Religion & Public Policy, a conference designed to bring together people from academia, law, politics and religious institutions to debate foundational issues, particularly in regards to the tragic events of September 11, 2001. John Neuhaus delivered the Beatty Lecture as part of the same conference. The project was co-sponsored by McGill's Faculty of Religious Studies and the Centre for Cultural Renewal in Ottawa.
Image: Brookings Institution Archives
