About Advisory Council
The Center for Intellectual Freedom's Advisory Council was approved by the Board of Regents on Sept. 17, 2025, and consists of 13 public servants and notable community members, as well as 13 nationally recognized faculty from institutions and organizations around the country.
Public Servants and Notable Community Members
Terry Branstad
Former Governor of Iowa and Ambassador to China
Christine Hensley
Current Iowa Board of Regents member and former Des Moines City Council member
Liz Mathias
Former Iowa State Senator and broadcast journalist
Reynolds Cramer
CEO and President of Fareway Stores
John Hendrickson
Policy Director at the Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation
Peter Matthes
Senior Advisor to the President & Vice President for External Relations at University of Iowa
Robert Cramer
Current Iowa Board of Regents Member & business leader
Steve Lacy
Former CEO and Executive Chairman of the Meredith Corporation
Mike Richards
Former President of the Iowa Board of Regents
Greg Ganske
Former U.S. Representative from Iowa and surgeon
Jim Lindenmayer
Former Iowa Board of Regents member and President of Indian Hills Community College
Kurt Tjaden
Current Iowa Board of Regents member and business executive
Mike Whalen
President and CEO of Heart of America Group
Nationally Recognized Faculty
Dorian Abbot
Professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago
Mark Bauerlein
Professor Emeritus of English at Emory University and an editor at First Things magazine
Daniel Bonevac
Professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin
Carlos Carvalho
Carlos Carvalho is the president of the University of Austin (UATX), a new university founded to promote open inquiry and free expression
Thomas P. Gallanis
Professor of Law at George Mason University. Expert in trust, succession, property, and fiduciary law.
Joshua Katz
Senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute with a focus on higher education
Sergiu Klainerman
Professor of mathematics at Princeton University and one of the world’s foremost experts on nonlinear partial differential equations and general relativity
Richard Lowery
Associate professor of finance at the University of Texas at Austin advocating for university governance reform and viewpoint diversity
Iván Marinovic
Associate professor of accounting at Stanford Graduate School of Business, known for his research on financial disclosure, incentives, and governance
Wilfred McClay
Historian and author who holds the Victor Davis Hanson Chair in Classical History and Western Civilization at Hillsdale College
Nicola Persico
Professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a leading scholar in political economy and applied microeconomics
Joshua D. Rauh
Professor of finance at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution
Harald Uhlig
Professor of economics at the University of Chicago and former editor of the Journal of Political Economy