Kissel, A
CLAREMONSTER
DESANTIS FAIL
HERITAGE THUS 2025 DB?
---}:
an sn 6 25
A few days ago, the University of Florida was all ready to welcome a brand-new president. They’d gotten rid of the useless (yet expensive) Ben Sasse and chosen a single finalist, a scientist called Santa Ono, former head of the University of Michigan.
The trustees liked him; Ron DeSantis liked him, especially since Ono, who was once all-in on diversity at UM, recently pulled a 180, loudly recanting his climate change-admitting, student protest-allowing progressive ways and parroting the governor’s War on Woke nonsense like a DeSantis Bot.
It wasn’t enough: The state university Board of Governors refused to give him the job.
Poor old weathervane Ono fell victim to a nasty social media campaignagainst him, led by such intellectual giants as Don Trump Jr., who squawked “WTF!” on the twixter; New College trustee Christopher “They’re eating the cats!” Rufo; Sen. Rick Scott; and the congenitally absurd Rep. Byron Donalds, who allowed as how while he didn’t know Ono, the man didn’t sound like he “comported with the values of the state of Florida.”
Au contraire, congressman. Given that Ono was prepared to abandon the principles of free speech, inclusion, and academic independence, I’d say he perfectly comports with the values of the state of Florida.
Especially when it comes to higher education.
DeSantis and his UF allies may have lost the Ono battle (more on the politics involved later), but he’s committed to the larger war: Florida may soon be celebrated in the MAGA-sphere as the first state to lay waste to its universities.
New College purge
The full-scale assault started in 2023, when DeSantis wrecked New College and took to installing ideologically aligned hacks as presidents and appointing university boards so bent on destruction they’d shame a Visigoth.
Former politico Richard Corcoran was not educationally, temperamentally, or administratively qualified to be president of the state honors college, yet there he is, DeSantis’ boy, drawing a huge salary and inviting accused rapiststo speak on campus in Sarasota.
FIU and FAU got landed with dead-enders former Lt. Gov. Jeannette Nuñez and Republican state Rep.-turned private prison company vice president Adam Hasner.
Now the governor has turned his lizardy eye upon the universities of West Florida and Florida A&M with a view to undermining academic freedom, student opportunity, and scholarly rigor.
DeSantis, who loves to call Florida “free,” doesn’t want institutions of higher education to be free: He wants them cowed, cramped, and compliant.
In April, DeSantis claimed — with no evidence, mind — UWF was some kind of “indoctrination camp” run by “Marxist professors” and warned those crazy Pensacola lefties to “buckle up.” Big changes were coming.
To that end, he appointed a noisome bouquet of trustees, several proudly hostile to book-learning. Three of them were either rejected by the Florida Senate or else slunk off before they could be officially sent packing.
Adam Kissel, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation and one of the discarded candidates, seemed puzzled by the snub. In an interview with UWF’s newspaper “The Voyager,” he claimed he’d been brought down by a “disinformation narrative” partially based on his comments lamenting the GI Bill’s negative effect on American society.
That would be the GI Bill that has enabled millions of veterans to get a college degree and join the middle class.
‘Cancel culture’
Kissel also complained about the general milieu in blood red Escambia County, claiming, “Cancel culture is still alive in Pensacola.”
After these embarrassing rebuffs, you might think DeSantis might rethink his approach but, of course, you’d be wrong. His newest trustee pick, another Heritage Foundation luminary, pitched a hissy fit about UWF students putting on a Halloween drag show in 2019.
(Halloween — you know, when people dress up in all sorts of outlandish ways?)
Zack Smith, a Pensacola native and former assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Florida, told UWF’s then-president Martha Saunders he had “concerns” (most of which seem to involve gay people asserting equal rights or Black people calling out systemic racism in America), including such outré actions as inviting one of the founders of Black Lives Matter to speak on campus (she’s an “avowed Marxist”!) as well as the UWF librarian suggesting Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist” as a good read for Black History Month.
God forbid students might encounter a critique of capitalism or an important and provocative exploration of race during Black History Month.
Pro tips for Project 2025 zealots:
- Capitalism is not beyond criticism. I refer Heritage True Believers to Mark 10:25 (the camel/rich man/eye-of-needle thing) and Matthew 6:24 (the God and Mammon thing) as well as analyses of our economic system, many written by those embedded in it.
- Marxism is a political philosophy. Like any other philosophy, it should be studied in universities. Merely hearing about it does not rot your very soul.
- Ibram X. Kendi is a distinguished scholar, a graduate of Florida A&M University who has gone on to win a National Book Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. Reading his work will not infect you with the Woke Mind Virus.
But — agree or disagree with what Kendi says — his book might make you think.
Imagine that: college students thinking.
Obeisance
Eye-wateringly stupid as Smith’s complaints were, they had the intended effect: Martha Saunders resigned, allowing DeSantis to put his education commissionerin as interim president.
The irredeemably unimpressive Manny Diaz Jr. has no higher ed experience, no terminal degree, and no business running what was, under presidents such as Judy Bense, a highly regarded archeologist, and Martha Saunders, an expert in communications theory, a university on its way up.
Unfortunately for UWF, odds are Diaz gets the permanent gig: That’s what happened at New College; that’s what happened at FIU.
DeSantis wants university presidents who realize they do not work for the institution, fostering knowledge, encouraging free inquiry, and serving education.
He insists they work for him. They must do his bidding, battling villains such as faculty unions, student journalists, Pride Month celebrations, critical race theory, gender studies, and African American studies.
Which brings us to FAMU.
DeSantis and his higher ed henchpersons have, in the past, tread pretty carefully with Florida’s only public HCBU.
Maybe it’s because FAMU is such a, well, let’s call it a “bargain.”
In 2024-25, FAMU’s enrollment was 9,980. New College’s was 850. FAMU’s appropriation was $50 million. New College got $52 million.
Even those of us who went to school in Florida can do that math.
Not that anyone should be surprised the state spends far more per student at predominantly white New College than at predominantly not-white FAMU.
Can’t be racism. Oh, no. Perish the thought.
Even though on Planet DeSantis, the very existence of a majority-minority student body is DEI gone wild.
At any rate, FAMU’s no longer flying under the governor’s radar. He just got to stick another of his favorites in the top job.
The good part: FAMU’s presidential search was unusually transparent, at least in comparison to the absurdly hermetic process at UF and other state institutions. The four finalists’ names were publicly announced and students, faculty, and community members were invited to meet them.
Three had solid-to-excellent qualifications. Contenders included the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, the senior vice president for administration and finance at the University of Central Florida, and FAMU’s own senior vice president and COO.
The not-so-good part: Candidate Number Four.
Marva Johnson appeared almost out of nowhere, rumored to be a late addition pushed by trustee Deveron Gibbons, a DeSantis appointee.
As you’d expect, she has no higher education experience, but she has far more important qualities: She’s a telecom company executive, a MAGA Republican, and a crony of Ron DeSantis’.
Disquiet at FAMU
FAMU has long been a leader in the fight for civil rights and remains the nation’s top public HCBU, alma mater of politicians like former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and U.S. Rep. Al Green, musicians Common and Cannonball Adderley, satirist Roy Wood Jr., Wimbledon champion Althea Gibson, and art collector Bernard Kinsey.
Rattlers were horrified Johnson made the short list and held rallies protesting her candidacy. Movie producer, FAMU alum and big-time donor Will Packer said she might “do irreparable harm to the university’s relationship with its community and with its donor base.”
Naturally, she got the job.
And, like any self-respecting MAGA grifter, immediately demanded a salary of $750,000, nearly $300,000 a year higher than her predecessor.
Of course, she won’t make as much as the president of New College: He pulls in nearly a $1 million overseeing those 850 students.
Taxpayers might wonder why, when legislators and the governor keep whining about the need to cut budgets and save money, there seems to be no problem paying a gaggle of under-qualified nonentities huge amounts to be university presidents.
But universities in Florida and other MAGA-controlled states are no longer so much about education as they are about propaganda and power.
Republicans want to control curriculum, censoring anything that upsets white folks — topics such as slavery, genocide, colonialism, gender, women’s rights.
You’ve seen how Trump is going after Harvard and other universities, cutting off funding, trying to control hiring and admissions, denying foreign students visas.
Colleges in Utah, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, and (no surprise) Florida are being told to emphasize Western Civilization, the Constitution, and “Great Books.”
Ono’s crash and burn
MAGAs might not like it if universities really focused on, say, the Constitution. Students might realize that the current regime regularly violates it.
For Ron DeSantis, taming Florida’s universities feeds his desperate need for relevance. Spurned by the voters during his disastrous presidential bid, ridiculed by onetime patron Donald Trump, defied by the Legislature, DeSantis figures at least he can run — or ruin — education.
It’s not quite as smooth a conquest as anticipated.
The crash of Santa Ono’s UF candidacy was about the Right’s fear of DEI. But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye.
The crash of Santa Ono’s UF candidacy was about the Right’s fear of DEI — they truly do want to Make America White (and Christian and male-dominated) Again — and hysteria over hiring someone who, despite his pathetic attempts to demonstrate that he’d drunk the Trumpy Kool-Aid, clearly knew better.
But it was also about giving DeSantis a black eye.
Signs indicate Casey DeSantis will run for governor when her husband terms out.
But she’s got all kinds of political problems, not least an investigation into her dodgy charity, Hope Florida.
Her husband is spewing spittle all over Tallahassee, accusing a “jackass” in the Legislature (the rest of us know him as Rep. Alex Andrade) of taking documents which “he dropped in a prosecutor’s office,” and hollering “that is not an organic investigation” and any accusation of money laundering is just a “smear.”
Then there’s her likely primary opponent, Rep. Byron Donalds. He’s been endorsed by Trump.
It’s no coincidence he led the MAGA campaign against Ono.
Higher education has always been political. Governors and legislators have never approved of professors (liberals, mostly) or students (snotty-nosed kids protesting) or faculty (probably Marxists).
But DeSantis has taken the politicization of universities to a whole new level of venality, pettiness, and dangerous repression.
The “Free State of Florida” isn’t.
As that famous novel(which could soon be on the banned books list) says: “Freedom is slavery” and “Ignorance is strength.”
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE. SUPPORT
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
---
off bs
Kimberly Richey:Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
Effective: Monday, June 19
Adam Kissel:Deputy Assistant Secretary for Higher Education Programs, Office of Postsecondary Education
Effective: Monday, June 19
==
Koch Foundation Officer, a Critic of Title IX Guidance, Will Join Education Dept.
By Sarah Brown JUNE 06, 2017
Adam Kissel, a senior program officer at the Charles Koch Foundation, was tapped on Monday to serve as deputy assistant secretary for higher-education programs at the U.S. Department of Education.
The unit he will lead "administers programs that broaden access to higher education and strengthen the capacity of colleges and universities," according to the department’s website. Among those programs are efforts to support historically black colleges and other minority-serving institutions, students with disabilities, and students who are single parents.
He will also oversee the federal TRIO programs, which aim to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds as they work toward college degrees.
Mr. Kissel’s new job, which starts June 19, was first reported by the subscriber-only Politico Pro. The news site noted that he has frequently criticized guidance from the department’s Office for Civil Rights on how Title IX, the federal gender-equity law, applies to campus sexual violence.
The 2011 "Dear Colleague" Letter, as the guidance is known, told colleges that they should use a standard of "preponderance of the evidence" — or more likely than not — to determine whether a student is responsible for sexual misconduct. That provision and others in the letter have prompted significant change in how colleges respond to and investigate sexual-violence cases.
Since President Trump took office, campus officials and Title IX experts have wondered about what could become of the guidance, which has drawn criticism from Republicans for, in their view, infringing on students’ due-process rights.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos hasn’t commented specifically on her plans for the Dear Colleague letter, beyond saying at her confirmation hearing that it would be "premature" to commit to upholding the Title IX guidance. But the hiring of Mr. Kissel has stoked some debate about whether the department is getting the ball rolling on plans to dismantle it. He did not respond to The Chronicle’s request for comment.
Mr. Kissel took a strong stand against the guidance when he was working at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, which advocates for free speech and due-process rights on campuses. FIRE has opposed the guidance in the Dear Colleague letter and is backing a lawsuit against the department to try to overturn it.
In an op-ed essay in 2011, published in the Huffington Post, Mr. Kissel wrote, "How does it make sense to trust campus judiciaries with getting serious crimes right under the lowest standards, when students often are not even allowed to have attorneys or to face their accusers and cross-examine them?"
He also wrote blog posts for FIRE about the Office for Civil Rights and due-process concerns at particular colleges, and commented about such issues in The Chronicle and on Twitter.
Mr. Kissel spent five years with FIRE. Asked to comment on his joining the Education Department, the organization said in a written statement that he "moved on from FIRE in 2012. We wish him the best in his new role."
More recently, Mr. Kissel expressed hope that change may be on the horizon for the civil-rights office and its approach to campus sexual misconduct.
Sen. Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington and a ranking member of the Senate education committee, released a statement on Monday saying, “I am deeply troubled this hire is another concerning sign that President Trump plans to make it more difficult for survivors of campus sexual violence to get justice.”
‘Intolerance of Diverse Ideas’
Beyond his public comments, several Title IX experts and advocates for sexual-assault survivors said they didn’t know much about Mr. Kissel. But S. Daniel Carter, a longtime campus-safety consultant, suggested that his views on Title IX might not have much influence on what the department decides to do about the guidance.
Title IX enforcement has traditionally fallen to the Office for Civil Rights, Mr. Carter said, while the Office of Postsecondary Education, which oversees the unit that Mr. Kissel will lead, has not in the past been involved with Title IX.
The setting of policy related to the Clery Act, the federal campus-safety law, does fall under the postsecondary-education office, Mr. Carter said. But other people in the department — the assistant secretary for postsecondary education and the deputy assistant secretary for policy, planning, and innovation — have typically been in charge of Clery-related matters, he said. Mr. Trump has yet to fill those two positions.
"Certainly Mr. Kissel has been critical of the preponderance standard, among other things, and would likely prefer to eliminate it," Mr. Carter said. "But I do not see his position affording him that authority directly."
What else do we know about Mr. Kissel? At the Charles Koch Foundation, he has served as senior program officer for university investments for nearly five years. His LinkedIn pagedoesn’t offer any details on his work at the foundation, but a job posting for a "program officer, university investments" says the role’s primary duties involve "cultivating and managing relationships with university partners."
The foundation has faced scrutiny in academe for giving millions of dollars to create campus institutes focused on promoting conservative and free-market ideas.
How George Mason Became Koch’s Academic Darling
By Jack Stripling MAY 13, 2016 PREMIUM CONTENT FOR SUBSCRIBERS. SUBSCRIBE TODAY
FAIRFAX, VA.
Through his foundation, the billionaire libertarian Charles G. Koch has given millions to the university. For some faculty members, that raises concerns about his influence.
Mr. Kissel has written a number of op-ed pieces and blog posts over the years commenting on academic culture, and he frequently posts on Twitter about free speech and academic freedom.
In 2015 he wrote a blog post that explored how "American higher education is smothered in intolerance of diverse ideas."
He encouraged faculty members and administrators who shared his concerns to contact him. "We can change the culture of silencing by demonstrating the virtue of tolerant engagement," he wrote.
Sarah Brown writes about a range of higher-education topics, including sexual assault, race on campus, and Greek life. Follow her on Twitter @Brown_e_Points, or email her at sarah.brown@chronicle.com.
Correction (6/6/2017, 5:15 p.m.): This article initially misidentified Adam Kissel as a former officer with the Charles Koch Foundation. He is still with the foundation, and will start his new job at the Education Department on June 19.
==
pope martin ctr
"dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors,” President Trump tweeted on June 5. “They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.”
Fortunately for President Trump, many appointments don’t require Senate approval, and a cabinet member may appoint leaders to certain high-level positions within his or her department.
This week Secretary of Education Betsy Devos named Adam Kissel to the position of deputy assistant secretary for higher education programs, effective June 19.
Kissel is a senior program officer in university investments at the Charles Koch Foundation. Before that, he served as vice president of programs and director of the individual rights defense programs at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-profit organization that defends freedom of speech on college campuses.
Full disclosure: I’ve met and corresponded with Kissel, although we’ve never had a formal business relationship. He strikes me as professional and competent, and his experience promoting academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the due process rights of students makes him an interesting choice.
It’s unclear how Kissel will affect department policy. Politicospeculates that his hiring “could be a sign that the department may reverse Obama-era guidance and direct colleges to raise the current standard of proof” in sexual violence and harassment cases on campus.
The current standard of proof for sexual violence and harassment cases, the “preponderance of the evidence” standard, arises out of an Obama-era regulatory guidance letter regarding the implementation of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.
Under this standard, an accuser must, to meet his burden of proof, show merely that his accusation is more likely true than not. This isn’t a high bar, which is why the standard isn’t used in criminal cases in courts of law where judges rather than college administrators oversee the proceedings.
Colleges not in compliance with the DOE “guidance” letter—which operates like a mandate—risk federal civil rights investigations into their policies and procedures.
Even if Kissel has criticized expansive interpretations of Title IX, he’s unlikely to define department policy in this area. Title IX is beyond the scope of his duties. His office, according to the Office of Post Secondary Education, “administers programs that broaden access to higher education and strengthen the capacity of colleges and universities.” Moreover, it “coordinates a number of higher education-related activities with states,” and awards grants “primarily to institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations and agencies, and state agencies.”
Hints about Kissel’s function within the department can be gleaned from the duties of his predecessor, James T. Minor, who was appointed in 2014 and served the Obama administration through August 2016.
If Minor’s tasks at the department are any indication, Kissel will oversee GEAR UP, a program designed to equip low-income students for postsecondary education; Title III, focusing on higher education funding for low-income students; Title V, assisting institutions that serve Hispanic students; the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, promoting innovation and affordability among colleges; and federal TriO training programs for institutions and individuals working with disadvantaged students.
In short, Kissel will be responsible for administering billions of dollars in grant funding for programs involving access to higher education, a role with which he’s familiar, having supervised and effectuated university investment strategies at the Koch Foundation. Some of the department programs—GEAR UP, for instance—face major cuts in Trump’s proposed budget, and Kissel will find himself monitoring their activity and assessing their outcomes for long-term efficiency and effectiveness.
Supporters of Kissel celebrate him as “a civil libertarian activist” whose nomination “might indicate a significant shift in federal priorities for college oversight.” TheCollege Fixcalls him a “First Amendment crusader.”
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), however, reacted fiercely to his appointment. “I am deeply troubled,” she said, “[that] this hire is another concerning sign that President Trump plans to make it more difficult for survivors of campus sexual violence to get justice.”
Remarks like these seem premature, designed more for political points than constructive dialogue. A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Chicago, where he earned a master’s degree from the prestigious Committee on Social Thought, Kissel is a trained scholar who, in my view, carefully analyzes issues and thoughtfully articulates his opinion on them.
It will be interesting to watch Kissel’s transition from private to public employment. The Koch Foundation supports “education and research that…sparks innovation.” In his capacity as senior program officer at the Koch Foundation, Kissel managed private money. But he will control taxpayer money at the department.
Will he use his new position to repurpose current investments and grant awards to support state experimentation in market-based solutions for problems facing low-income students? Or will he seek to restrict federal spending for such purposes on the basis that the free-market principles with which he’s associated ultimately help low-income students in alternative ways?
Whatever the answers, Trump can at least take comfort that another critical position has been filled. And filled well.
Adam Kissel graduated from Harvard University and from the University of Chicago, where he served as Student Liaison to the Board of Trustees and earned a master's degree from the Committee on Social Thought. Over five years at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), he has spoken about free speech, religious liberty, academic freedom, and due process on college campuses in more than 15 states, at CPAC, and for professional and community organizations. His academic interests include the history and theory of liberal education and rhetoric's relationship with philosophy. He also has served as a professional editor for Nobel laureate James Heckman and for faculty in a variety of disciplines. In recent years, Mr. Kissel won a First Prize in education reporting from the National Education Writers Association and was named a “Champion of the First Amendment” at Iowa State University. He now works in higher education philanthropy in the D.C. area.
Cost: $1,000 negotiable; prefers to make own travel arrangements
Invite Adam to your campus!
Topics: Academic Freedom Constitution Education Free Speech Religious Liberty
==
LI
Adam Kissel
Senior Program Officer, University Investments, at Charles Koch Foundation
Arlington, VirginiaPhilanthropy
Current
Charles Koch Foundation
Previous
Institute for Humane Studies, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), Jack Miller Center/Lehrman American Studies Center
Education
Harvard University
Websites
Company Website
329
connections
Join LinkedIn and access Adam’s full profile. It’s free!
As a LinkedIn member, you’ll join 400 million other professionals who are sharing connections, ideas, and opportunities.
See who you know in common
Get introduced
Contact Adam directly
View Adam's Full Profile
Experience
Program Officer, Higher Education
Charles Koch Foundation
July 2012 – Present (3 years 6 months)
Visiting Fellow
Institute for Humane Studies
2015 – 2015 (less than a year)
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Vice President of Programs
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
September 2010 – July 2012 (1 year 11 months)
FIRE's mission is is to defend and sustain individual rights at America's colleges and universities. These rights include freedom of speech, legal equality, due process, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience—the essential qualities of individual liberty and dignity. FIRE's programs protect the unprotected and educate the public and communities of concerned Americans about the threats to these rights on our campuses and about the means to preserve them.
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
Director, Individual Rights Defense Program
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)
September 2007 – September 2010 (3 years 1 month)
Director of Faculty and Program Development/Director of Curriculum Development
Jack Miller Center/Lehrman American Studies Center
2006 – 2007 (1 year)
Programs of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute designed to develop new academic centers and provide resources for developing the next generation of college professors dedicated to teaching about America's history, institutions, and founding principles.
--
scrape:
Derek Johnson
Director of Educational Development at the Charles Koch Institute
Molly Hurt
Peter Brasdovich
Senior Program Coordinator at Charles Koch Foundation
Ryan Stowers
Director, Higher Education at Charles Koch Foundation
Brian Hooks
President, Charles Koch Foundation & Charles Koch Institute
Brennan Brown
Higher Education, Adjunct Professor of Economics
Debi Ghate
Director, Academic Investments at Charles Koch Foundation
John Hardin
Director, University Relations at the Charles Koch Foundation
Matt OBrien
Senior Student Relations Coordinator, Charles Koch Foundation | Supporting scholarship focused on improving well-being
==
==
Enstrom's situation has received **national attention** as well as **statements of concern** from state legislators. The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) also took up Enstrom's case and is representing Enstrom in a **lawsuit** filed late yesterday in Los Angeles federal court against UCLA officials and the University of California Regents. Enstrom is seeking a declaration that UCLA violated Enstrom's free speech and due process rights, as well as an injunction requiring UCLA to rehire him.
"Because of Enstrom's research and his whistleblowing against prominent advocates of environmental regulation in California, UCLA seemingly has decided to silence him any way it can," said FIRE Vice President of Programs Adam Kissel. "If there is anywhere we need honest scientists who aren't on a mission to exclude whistleblowers and skeptics, it is the American university."
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation's colleges and universities. FIRE's efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America are described at thefire.org.
CONTACT:Adam Kissel, Vice President of Programs, FIRE: 215-717-3473; adam@thefire.org
Adam Kissel is Vice President of Programs at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. He graduated from Harvard University and from the University of Chicago, where he served as Student Liaison to the Board of Trustees and earned a master's degree from the Committee on Social Thought. His academic interests include the history and theory of liberal education, the history and theory of rhetoric, and rhetoric's relationship with philosophy. He also has served as a professional editor for faculty in a variety of disciplines. Before joining FIRE, Adam was a director of theIntercollegiate HIand the Jack Miller Center for the Teaching of America's Founding Principles. With Sharon Browne he wrote a Faculty Rights Handbook in 2007.
Since joining FIRE, he has spoken about individual rights on college campuses in 12 states and the District of Columbia. In 2009, he won a First Prize in education reporting from the National Education Writers Association.