Washington College’s board has chosen Mitchell B. Reiss, 52, who has served as a U.S. Presidential envoy, ambassador, policymaker, lawyer, author and university professor, to be its next president.
Reiss will assume the 27th presidency of the college on July 1, 2010, succeeding Baird Tipson, who has held the position since 2004.
“I am deeply honored to have been selected as Washington College’s next president,” said Reiss. “This is a remarkable and impressive institution. It does something both rare and important. It provides young men and women with the opportunity to think critically, express themselves persuasively and listen respectfully to the views of others.
“These skills are the very best possible preparation for understanding our world, for contributing to our society and for achieving personal balance and well-being. This is as true in the 21st century as it was when the College was founded in the 18th century. My wife Elisabeth and I are excited to be joining the Washington College family.”
In announcing Reiss’s selection, Albert J.A. Young, an alumnus who chaired the search committee, said, “Mitchell Reiss, with his sterling academic credentials and rich and varied career experiences, is just the person to continue to move us forward.”
Reiss currently serves as diplomat-in-residence at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA, where he has also served as vice provost for international affairs, dean of international affairs, director of the Wendy and Emery Reves Center for International Studies, professor of law at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, and professor of government.
Taylor Reveley, President of William & Mary, saluted Reiss’s appointment. “Washington College has chosen splendidly for its next president,” he said. “Mitchell Reiss’s accomplishments as a diplomat and as a dean, professor and scholar at William & Mary have been extraordinary.”
From 2003 to 2007, Reiss served as President George Bush’s Special Envoy for the Northern Ireland Peace Process, the role in which he attained the rank of ambassador. For his service, the State Department honored him with its Foreign Affairs Award for Public Service.
He has also served the U.S. Department of State as director of policy planning, where he reported to Secretary of State Colin Powell and helped develop U.S. foreign policy, with special emphasis on Iraq, North Korea, China, Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Earlier in his career, Reiss helped managed the start-up and operations of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), a multinational organization designed to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. He was also KEDO’s chief negotiator with the North Koreans.
Reiss was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., where he started the Center’s nonproliferation and counter-proliferation programs.
He practiced corporate and banking law for three years at the firm of Covington & Burling and was Special Assistant to the National Security Advisor as a White House Fellow in 1988-89. He has served as a consultant to the Office of the Legal Advisor at the State Department, the General Counsel’s Office at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the Los Alamos and Livermore National Laboratories.
Reiss has published widely on issues of international trade, security and arms control, has provided expert commentary to national and international media. He is a frequent speaker on these topics at conferences domestically and internationally.
He has authored three books: the forthcoming Negotiating with Evil: Why States Engage with Terrorist Groups; Bridled Ambition: Why Countries Contain Their Nuclear Capabilities and Without The Bomb: The Politics of Nuclear Nonproliferation. He has served as a co-editor and as a contributing author for more than 20 books, and is published frequently in leading academic and foreign policy journals and in the news media.
Reiss is a cum laude graduate of Williams College, where he competed in intercollegiate tennis and squash. He earned a master’s degree from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University, and received a certificate from the Academy of International Law at The Hague, Netherlands. He holds a doctorate of philosophy in international relations from Oxford University and a juris doctorate from Columbia University.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, he grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Reiss is married to the former Elisabeth Anselmi, whom he met when he was studying at Oxford and she was performing as an actress in the West End of London.
Married for 23 years, they have two children, a son Mathew, 19, who is a sophomore at Brown University, and a daughter Michael, 16, who is a high school junior in Williamsburg, Virginia.
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