The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation is pleased to announce Gerald L. Curtis as the next Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors.
Dr. Curtis will began his Chairmanship on March 1, with outgoing chair L. Desaix Anderson continuing to serve on the Board of Directors. Mr. Anderson’s Chairmanship began in 2014, and the Foundation is grateful for his continued service on the Board following five years of exemplary leadership.
Dr. Curtis is Burgess Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Columbia University, former Director of Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, and Distinguished Research Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation. He is the author of numerous books and articles written in both English and Japanese, including The Logic of Japanese Politics and Seiji to Sanma-Nihon to Kurashite 45 nen (Politics and Saury: 45 Years Living with Japan). Professor Curtis is the recipient of numerous prizes and honors including the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, one of the highest honors bestowed by the Japanese government. He was named to the Mansfield Foundation Board of Directors in 2016.
Dr. Curtis brings more than fifty years of leadership in U.S.-Japan relations, including experience as director of the U.S.-Japan Parliamentary Exchange Program and acting as an advisor to Newsweek Japan, Japan Foundation, U.S.-Japan Foundation, American Academy of Political Science, Asahi Shimbun, and others. His expertise will be shared across the Mansfield Foundation’s exchanges, dialogues, and publications, including the Thomas S. Foley Legislative Exchange Program, U.S.-Japan Network for the Future, and the Mike Mansfield Fellowship Program.
Mansfield Foundation President and CEO Frank Jannuzi hailed the appointment, which comes as the Mansfield Foundation prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its flagship Mansfield Fellowship Program. “Dr. Curtis is a most worthy successor in a string of extraordinary leaders that has included not only distinguished career diplomats like Desaix Anderson, but also renowned public servants such as Howard Baker and Walter Mondale. Maureen and Mike Mansfield would be very pleased.”