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Mitchell Reiss

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Mitchell Reiss
27th President of Washington College
In office
July 2010 – July 2014
Preceded byBaird Tipson
Succeeded byJack S. Griswold
United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland
In office
August 27, 2003 – January 11, 2007
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byRichard Haass
Succeeded byPaula Dobriansky
22nd Director of Policy Planning
In office
August 27, 2003 – January 20, 2005
PresidentGeorge W. Bush
Preceded byRichard N. Haass
Succeeded byStephen D. Krasner
Personal details
Born (1957-06-12) June 12, 1957 (age 67)
Political partyRepublican
EducationWilliams College (BA)
Tufts University (MA)
Columbia University (JD)
St Antony's College, Oxford (PhD)

Mitchell B. Reiss (born June 12, 1957) is an American diplomat, academic, and business leader who served as the 8th President and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the 27th president of Washington College and in the United States Department of State.[1]

Education

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Reiss earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, a Master of Arts from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School, and a D.Phil. from St Antony's College, Oxford.[2]

Career

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Diplomacy

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Reiss served as Director of Policy Planning at the United States Department of State from 2003 to 2005. He also concurrently served as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland, with the title of Ambassador, from 2003 to 2007. He was also selected to be a White House Fellow and was assigned to the National Security Council, where he worked both as Special Assistant for Brent Scowcroft and Colin Powell.

As a Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, he worked closely with the British and Irish governments to persuade the political parties representing Northern Ireland's two “traditions” to finally end the “Troubles” and restore local government. Reiss was instrumental in the denying of Gerry Adams a visa to the United States, to spur the endorsement of policing and justice in Northern Ireland by Adams and his political party, Sinn Féin.[3]

From 1995 to 1999, he was Chief Negotiator in the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization, an organization established by the United States, South Korea, and Japan to implement the Agreed Framework on preventing nuclear proliferation on the Korean peninsula. He has served on the National Security Council, the Council on Foreign Relations, the State Department, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and has consulted for Los Alamos National Laboratory. Previously, he was Vice-Provost for International Affairs, Professor of Law at the William and Mary Law School, and Professor of Government in the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary.

In 2016, the UK Government appointed Reiss as its representative to the four-person International Reporting Commission to help end paramilitary activities in Northern Ireland.

Career

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Reiss practiced general corporate and banking law at Covington & Burling from 1989 to 1992.

Reiss also served as a national security advisor to then-Governor Mitt Romney during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns.

Reiss was the 27th President of Washington College from 2010 to 2014, where he internationalized the student body, raised SAT scores and lowered the discount rate, created an innovative three-year pathway to graduation to reduce student and family debt, and balanced the budget for four straight years.

Reiss was the 8th President and CEO of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, America's largest living history museum, from October 2014 until October 2019, where he focused on restoring the institution's financial health and fulfilling its educational mission. Reiss managed $1.1 billion of assets, led 2,000 employees and 1,000 volunteers, and stewarded over 100,000 donors. Reiss defunded research and interpreter training and introduced less traditional activities, such as an escape room and a "Halloween zombie pirate adventure".[4] He generated profitable commercial operations for the first time in Foundation history, achieved four straight years of record fund-raising, won reaccreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, and recruited and retained the most diverse leadership team in Foundation history.[5]


Personal life

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Mitchell is married to Elisabeth Reiss. They have two children.[6]

Books

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  • Negotiating with Evil: When to Talk to Terrorists, ASIN B003MZ14OQ (New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2010).
  • Bridled Ambition: Why Countries Constrain Their Nuclear Capabilities, ISBN 0-943875-71-4 (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press/Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995).
  • Without the Bomb: The Politics of Nuclear Non-proliferation, ISBN 0-231-06439-X (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).
  • THE NUCLEAR TIPPING POINT: WHY STATES RECONSIDER THEIR NUCLEAR CHOICES, ISBN 81-7049-227-0 (co-editor with Kurt M. Campbell and Robert J. Einhorn), (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2004).
  • Nuclear Proliferation after the Cold War (co-editor/author with Robert S. Litwak), ISBN 0-943875-64-1 (Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994).
  • THE PRESIDENTS: 250 YEARS OF AMERICAN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP, (chapter on “George Washington,” in Iain Dale, ed.) (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2021).

Recent Congressional Testimony

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  • “Reaffirming the Good Friday Agreement”, testimony before the Subcommittee on Europe, Energy, the Environment and Cyber of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, May 5, 2021.

Select Recent Articles

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References

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  1. ^ "Washington College: Office of the President". 24 March 2011. Retrieved 2011-03-24.
  2. ^ "Mitchell B. Reiss". www.washcoll.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  3. ^ The U.S. State Department awarded him the Foreign Affairs Award for “exceptionally distinguished service” in April 2007. Adams criticises Bush's NI envoy — BBC News article, 16 March 2006
  4. ^ Jedeed, Laura (2024-08-31). "Where MAGA Granddads and Resistance Moms Go to Learn America's Most Painful History Lessons". Politico Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-04.
  5. ^ "Colonial Williamsburg Foundation". Forbes.
  6. ^ Department Of State. The Office of Electronic Information, Bureau of Public Affairs. "Reiss, Mitchell B." 2001-2009.state.gov. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
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Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland
2001–2003 		Succeeded by
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