Ed Feulner

Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D. is Founder of The Heritage Foundation, Washington’s leading public policy organization or think tank. On January 18, 1989 President Reagan conferred the Presidential Citizens Medal on him as "a leader of the conservative movement." The citation continues: "By building an organization dedicated to ideas and their consequences, he has helped to shape the policy of our Government. His has been a voice of reason and values in service to his country and the cause of freedom around the world."

Feulner also serves as Treasurer and Trustee of The Mont Pelerin Society; Trustee and former Chairman of the Board of The Intercollegiate Studies Institute; member of the Board of the National Chamber Foundation; member of the Board of Visitors of George Mason University; and Trustee of the Acton Institute and the International Republican Institute. He is past president of various organizations including The Philadelphia Society and the Mont Pelerin Society, and past Director of Sequoia Bank, Regis University and the Council for National Policy.

Dr. Feulner has studied at the University of Edinburgh (Ph.D.-Founding President, American Friends of the University), the London School of Economics (Richard M. Weaver Fellow), the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MBA-Recipient, Joseph Wharton Award), Georgetown University, and Regis University (B.S.-Distinguished Alumnus Award). He has received honorary degrees from Pepperdine University, Nichols College, Grove City College, Bellevue College, Gonzaga University, Universidad Francisco Marroquin (Guatemala), Hanyang University (Korea), St. Norbert College, Hillsdale College, and Thomas More College.

Feulner served on the Gingrich-Mitchell Congressional Task Force on U.N. Reform (2004-2005) and the Congressional Commission on International Financial Institutions ("Meltzer Commission," 1999-2000). He was the Vice Chairman of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform ("Kemp Commission," 1995-1996), Counselor to Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp (1996), Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy (1982-91), a Consultant for Domestic Policy to President Reagan, and an advisor to several government departments and agencies. He was a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellows (1981-83), of the Secretary of State’s UNESCO Review Observation Panel (1985-89), of the Carlucci Commission on Foreign Aid (1983), and served as a United States Representative to the United Nations Second Special Session on Disarmament (with the rank of Ambassador) where he delivered the final United States address to the General Assembly (1982).

Dr. Feulner served as the Executive Director of the Republican Study Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Confidential Assistant to Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, Administrative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Philip M. Crane (R-Illinois), and as a Public Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

He is the author of six books: Getting America Right (2006), Leadership for America (2000), Intellectual Pilgrims (1999), The March of Freedom (1998), Conservatives Stalk The House (1983), and Looking Back (1981). He is the editor of U.S.–Japan Mutual Security: The Next Twenty Years and China: The Turning Point, and a contributor to ten other books and numerous journals, reviews and magazines. He was the Publisher of Policy Review (1977-2001), and articles by him have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Times and other major newspapers. He is a regular contributor to Investor's Business Daily. As a member of Investor's Business Daily's "Brain Trust," he regularly contributes op-eds on issues of special interest to financial markets. His weekly column appears in dozens of newspapers across the country.

On a personal note, he is married to Linda Claire Leventhal. The Feulners have two married children, Edwin J. Feulner III, and Emily Lown. The Feulners live in Old Town, Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Feulner is listed in standard reference works including the current edition of Who’s Who in America.