President Obama Nominates James Leach Chair of National Endowment for the Humanities
The fifteen-term Congressman from Iowa would head up the national agency.
09 June 2009 | Permalink
President Barack Obama has nominated James Leach, an Iowa Congressman and university professor with a long and distinguished career, as the next chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Oregon Council for the Humanities (OCH), an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the NEH, joins the NEH and the Federation of State Humanities Councils in enthusiastically endorsing the president’s decision.
James Leach has served as Chair of the House Committee on Banking and Financial Services, a senior member of the House Committee on International Relations, and Chair of the Committee’s Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. Since 2007, he has taught at Princeton University and served as the interim director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In choosing Leach to head the NEH, President Obama recognized him as a champion of the activities and endeavors that make human life meaningful. In a congressional environment that was often contentious and partisan, Leach gained an unshakable reputation for integrity, even-handedness, and an independent and thoughtful approach to issues.
In 2004, Leach co-founded, along with Rep. David Price (D-NC), the bipartisan Congressional Humanities Caucus to increase awareness of the importance of the humanities in public life. He received the 2005 Sidney R. Yates Award for Distinguished Public Service to the Humanities from the National Humanities Alliance.
An important component of the agency Leach will be heading are the fifty-six state humanities councils, of which OCH is a member, which were established to extend the reach of the NEH to communities in every state, the five territories and commonwealths, and the District of Columbia. The state humanities councils offer programs that support families and teachers, provide resources for community institutions, and bring citizens together to collectively address issues of importance.
OCH’s statewide programs include summer Teacher Institutes, free weekend institutes for Oregon secondary school teachers; Humanity in Perspective (HIP), a free two-semester, college-level course in the humanities offered to economically and educationally disadvantaged Oregonians; Summer Honors Symposium, which provides bright teens from around the state the opportunity to explore humanities topics; Oregon Chautauqua, a popular statewide speakers bureau that brings scholars and speakers to more than eighty Oregon communities each year; and Public Program Grants and Opportunity Grants, which OCH awards to nonprofit organizations in Oregon that support activities that encourage critical thinking and public engagement with the humanities.
