Senior Presidential Fellows

As former White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer was the primary spokesperson for President George W. Bush and delivered the daily White House briefings from 2001 to 2003. He previously served as the spokesperson for the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign. In his almost four years working for President Bush, he served as spokesperson during the historic presidential recount, September 11th, two wars, and the anthrax attack. His best-selling book, Taking Heat, details his years in the White House and reached #7 on The New York Times Best Sellers list.

Prior to joining the Bush campaign, Fleischer was the national spokesperson and communications director for Elizabeth Dole's presidential campaign. He has also worked on Capitol Hill as a press secretary to three Congressmen and one U.S. Senator.

Fleischer is a native of Pound Ridge, New York and a 1982 graduate of Vermont's Middlebury College.  Now president of his own firm, Ari Fleischer Communications Inc., he offers advice to clients in the corporate and sports worlds on how to handle the press. He is also a Fox News contributor.

Philip M. Schiliro has more than 30 years of experience in Congress and the Executive Branch.  He served as President Obama’s Director of Legislative Affairs from 2009 to 2010, Special Advisor to the President in 2011, and the President’s Advisor for the Affordable Care Act and Health Policy in 2013 and 2014. As President Obama’s liaison to Congress, Schiliro played a key role in the passage of the Affordable Care Act and other historic laws and reforms during the first two years of the Obama Administration.

Schiliro also worked in Congress for over 26 years, serving as Rep. Henry Waxman’s Chief of Staff, the Democratic Staff Director of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Policy Director for Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, and the Staff Director for the Senate Democratic Leadership Committees. While on Capitol Hill, Schiliro was deeply involved in a broad range of health and environmental legislation (including the 1990 Clean Air Act) and a series of high-profile investigations.

Since leaving government, Schiliro has co-founded two non-profits, Co-Equal and Grow New Mexico.  Schiliro graduated from Hofstra University with a political science major in 1978 and from Lewis and Clark Law School in 1981.