Carl Gershman is President of the National Endowment for Democracy, a private, congressionally supported grant-making institution with the mission to strengthen democratic institutions around the world through nongovernmental efforts.

Robert Miller is an attorney who has spent most of his practice dedicated to charitable foundations and devising innovative solutions to the organization and administration of grant functions of foundations. He is currently at Davidson, Dawson & Clark in New York, is Director of the Foreign Policy Association, and the Director of Leaders in Furthering Education. The Hurford Foundation, which is chaired by Miller, was established by the late John B. Hurford, who had been a dedicated member of the NED Board.

Economist Judy Shelton was elected to the NED Board of Directors in September, 2005. Shelton specializes in global finance and monetary issues, and has provided expert testimony on numerous occasions before the Joint Economic Committee, Senate Banking, Senate Foreign Relations, House Banking, and House Foreign Affairs committees. She was named as a staff economist for the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform chaired by Jack Kemp (1995-96).

Richard Gephardt (Chairman), the former Minority Leader of the House of Representatives has been a longtime supporter of the Endowment and its work – meeting many times over the years with NED grantees from all over the world. Gephardt was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1976 and has served as both the Majority and Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives and as one of the nation’s leading Democrats for much of the last two decades.