About the Presenters
Lindsay Chervinsky
Lindsay M. Chervinsky is the new Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library and a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She produces history that speaks to fellow scholars as well as a larger public audience. Dr. Chervinsky has published two books, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard University Press, 2020), and her latest one, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic (Oxford Press, 2024). She also co-edited Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture (University of Virginia Press, 2023). Dr. Chervinsky is the creator of the Audible course: The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History. Her research can be found in publications from op-eds to books, speaking on podcasts and other media, and teaching for every kind of audience.
Gautham Rao
Gautham Rao is an Associate Professor of History at American University and Editor-in-Chief of Law and History Review, the world's leading journal about the history of law. He is a founding member of the Brennan Center for Justice's Historian's Council on the Constitution, which seeks to change the national legal conversation on history and the Constitution. He is currently completing a book entitled White Power: Policing American Slavery and another entitled The West Wing as History: Finding the Past on America's Favorite Political TV Show.
Steve Vladeck
Steve Vladeck is a law professor at Georgetown University Law Center who is nationally recognized for his expertise on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice. In 2023 he published a New York Times bestseller, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. He also works as CNN's Supreme Court analyst. Vladeck graduated from Yale Law School in 2004 with his Juris Doctor degree.