Philip Zelikow is the White Burkett Miller Professor of History and Wilson Newman Professor of Governance at the Miller Center, both at the University of Virginia. There he has also served as Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs. His scholarly work, first at Harvard, later at Virginia, focuses on critical episodes in American and world history, including most recently The Road Less Traveled: The Secret Turning Point of the Great War, 1916-17.
Before and during his academic career he has served at all levels of American government – federal, state, and local, including as an elected member of his town’s school board. His full-time federal service began as a teacher for the Navy and then as a career foreign service officer. Serving in five administrations, he held positions in the White House, the State Department, and the Defense Department. He has also led three bipartisan national commissions: executive director of the Carter-Ford commission on federal election reform, the 9/11 Commission, and the Covid Crisis Group, whose report, Lessons from the Covid War, has just been published. A former member of the Intelligence Advisory Board for President Bush 43 and later for President Obama, he was also a member of the Defense Policy Board for Secretary Ash Carter. Dr. Zelikow is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group.