'Can Democracy and Capitalism Be Reconciled?'

William A. Galston holds the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in the Brookings Institution’s governance studies program, where he serves as a senior fellow. He was previously the Saul Stern Professor and acting dean at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, founding director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), and executive director of the National Commission on Civic Renewal. He served from 1993 to 1995 as deputy assistant to President Clinton for domestic policy and was later interviewed for the Miller Center's Bill Clinton Oral History Project. Galston has published widely and makes regular media appearances. He holds a BA from Cornell and an MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.

Christine Mahoney is a professor of public policy and politics and chief innovation officer at the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. She studies social justice advocacy, activism, and direct action through social entrepreneurship. She is the author of Brussels vs. the Beltway, which explored how advocates shape public policy in the US and the EU. Her second book, Failure and Hope: Fighting for the Rights of the Forcibly Displaced, addressed 7 conflict zones in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America and inspired the launch of the Refugee Investment Network. At the University of Virginia, she launched and led Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia (SE@UVA) for a decade. Mahoney holds a BA, MA, and PhD from Pennsylvania State University.

Scott C. Miller is the director of the Democracy and Capitalism Lab at the University of Virginia Karsh Institute of Democracy and an assistant professor of business administration at the UVA Darden School of Business. As an economic historian, Miller examines the development of modern economic systems, particularly during periods of instability and volatility. He is the author or coauthor of numerous scholarly papers on economic history, financial crises, and the interplay between societal and economic change. He also has written or cowritten 10 case studies on financial crises and economic development. Miller earned a BA from Vanguard University, an MA in American history from George Mason University, and an MA and PhD in economic history from the University of Virginia.

Alexander Tabarrok is the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center and professor of economics at George Mason University. He has written extensively about health care policy, patent-system reform, the effectiveness of bounty hunters, how judicial elections bias judges, and how local poverty rates impact trial decisions by juries. During the pandemic, Tabarrok was an advisor to the U.S. government on using incentives to accelerate vaccine production. He is the coauthor of Modern Principles of Economics and his popular and scholarly articles have been published widely. He is also the coauthor, with Tyler Cowen, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and cofounder of the online educational platform Marginal Revolution University. He holds a BA from the University of Victoria, Canada, and a PhD from George Mason University.

Sidney M. Milkis is the Miller Center’s White Burkett Miller Professor of Governance and Foreign Affairs and a UVA professor of politics. His research focuses on the American presidency, political parties and elections, social movements, and American political development. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students, he regularly gives public lectures on American politics and participates in programs for international scholars and high school teachers that probe the deep historical roots of contemporary developments in the United States. His many books include the recently published What Happened to the Vital Center?: Presidentialism, Populist Revolt, and the Fracturing of America. He holds a BA from Muhlenberg College and a PhD in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Margaret Foster Riley, the Dorothy Danforth Compton Professor at the Miller Center, is professor of law at the University of Virginia’s School of Law, professor of public health sciences at the UVA School of Medicine, and professor of public policy at the University’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She also directs the Animal Law Program at the law school. Riley has advised numerous state and federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Department of Defense; committees of the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine; the Virginia Department of Health; and the Virginia Bar.