Speaker Biographies

Michael Novak is a theologian, author, and former U.S. ambassador who holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the AEI. He is the 1994 recipient of the million-dollar Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. Mr. Novak has written twenty-six influential books on the philosophy and theology of culture, especially the essential elements of a free society. His writings have appeared in every major Western language, and in Bengali, Korean, and Japanese. His masterpiece, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (Madison, 1982), was published underground in Poland in 1984, and after 1989 in Czechoslovakia, Germany, China, Hungary, Bangladesh, Korea, and many countries in Latin America. His latest book is Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty, and the Father of our Country (Basic Books, 2006). For his work and influence, he has received many international awards.

Jana Novak is a poet and freelance writer who has held editorial positions at Washingtonian and Crisis magazines, and was an assistant editor of Rising Tide magazine, where she was responsible for several departments. She spent a decade working in politics, as a speechwriter, communications director, and senior policy advisor for several prominent national politicians, including members on both the House and Senate sides of Congress. She is also the coauthor of the 1998 book Tell Me Why (Pocket Books, 1998) and the 2006 book Washington’s God (Basic Books, 2006).

Daniel L. Dreisbach is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Thomas Jefferson and the Wall of Separation Between Church and State (New York University Press, 2002) and Real Threat and Mere Shadow: Religious Liberty and the First Amendment (Crossway Books, 1987). He is co-editor of and contributor to The Sacred Rights of Conscience (Liberty Fund, forthcoming), The Founders on God and Government (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), and Religion and Political Culture in Jefferson’s Virginia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), and editor of and contributor to Religion and Politics in the Early Republic (University Press of Kentucky, 1996). He has published numerous book chapters and articles in scholarly journals, including American Journal of Legal History, Baylor Law Review, Constitutional Commentary, Emory Law Journal, Journal of Church and State, North Carolina Law Review, and William and Mary Quarterly.

Matthew Spalding is an expert on American political history, constitutionalism, religious liberty, and civic renewal. Spalding runs the Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. An adjunct fellow with the Claremont Institute, Dr. Spalding is the author of A Sacred Union of Citizens: George Washington’s Farewell Address and the American Character (Rowman and Littlefield, 1998) and the editor of The Founders' Almanac (Heritage Books, 2004).

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