Edwin Meese III, Director
(Independent/voting member – January 1993 – Present)

Mr. Meese served as the seventy-fifth attorney general of the United States after serving as counselor to President Ronald Reagan functioning as the president’s chief policy adviser and had management responsibility for the administration of the Cabinet, policy development, and planning and evaluation. Formerly he served as Governor Reagan’s executive assistant, chief of staff and legal affairs secretary. Before joining Governor Reagan’s staff, Mr. Meese served as deputy district attorney of Alameda County, California and was a professor of law at the University of San Diego, where he was also director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management. In addition, Mr. Meese has been a business executive in the aerospace and transportation industry and is author or coauthor of two books, With Reagan: The Inside Story(Regnery Gateway, 1992) and Leadership, Ethics and Policing (Prentice Hall, 2004). Mr. Meese is also a distinguished fellow and holder of the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation; a regent emeritus of the National College of District Attorneys; and a member of the board of trustees of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. He received a Bradley Prize in 2012.