Congressman Lee Hamilton served in U.S. House for 34 years, chairing the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Intelligence Committee, and Select Committee to Investigate Covert Transactions with Iran. He was the co-chair of the 9/11 Commission as well as the Iraq Study Group. His expertise includes national security, foreign policy, representative government, and civic education. In 2015 he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Hamilton is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress and representative democracy. Hamilton founded the Center on Congress (now the Center on Representative Government) 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.
Among his published works are How Congress Works and Why You Should Care, Strengthening Congress, and Congress, Presidents, and American Politics. He writes twice-monthly commentaries about Congress and what individuals can do to make representative democracy work better. He is a frequent contributor to national press.
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. He frequently speaks to students, faculty, and the public about the importance of sustaining democratic institutions, the necessity of participating in representative government, and benefits for the American government and its citizens to stay globally engaged.
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