TOS Contributors

Lolita Allgyer is a content strategist at Praxis. She is passionate about self-education and about empowering other young people to carve their own paths in life.

Doug Altner

Doug Altner is an assistant professor of mathematics at the United States Naval Academy. His field of professional expertise is operations research and he holds a PhD in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is developing new courses in mathematical programming for USNA; has published several peer-reviewed articles, including multiple book chapters, in the field of discrete optimization; and has been invited to present his research at many scholarly conferences. The views expressed in his articles are his own and are not representative of those of USNA.

Ari Armstrong

Ari Armstrong blogs at AriArmstrong.com, and he has written for publications including the Denver Post and Complete Colorado. He is the author of Values of Harry Potter: Lessons for Muggles, a book exploring the heroic fight for life-promoting values in the Potter novels.

Kirk Barbera

Kirk Barbera is a purpose coach and podcaster living in Southern California. Kirk works with professionals and small businesses by helping them formulate and coordinate their activities around a central purpose. His podcast is GL^2 Great Living Great Literature.

Carl Barney

Carl Barney is the founder and trustee of the Prometheus Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing the works of Ayn Rand and her philosophy, Objectivism. Mr. Barney is also the chairman of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education and a director on the boards of the Ayn Rand Institute, the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism, and the Cato Institute.

Jawaid Bazyar

Robert Begley

Robert Begley is the Founder and President of the New York Heroes Society. He was the host and producer of the Manhattan cable TV program The Voice of Reason. His own writings and speeches can be found on his website, Robert.Begley.com.

Michael Berliner

Michael Berliner is the founding executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, served as cochairman of ARI’s board of directors, and is currently senior adviser to the Ayn Rand Archives. He is editor of Letters of Ayn Rand and Understanding Objectivism and taught philosophy and philosophy of education for many years at California State University, Northridge.

Andrew Bernstein

Andrew Bernstein holds a PhD in philosophy from the Graduate School of the City University of New York and taught philosophy for many years at SUNY Purchase. He is the author of Capitalism Unbound: The Incontestable Moral Case for Individual Rights (2010), Capitalist Solutions (2011), and, most recently, Heroes, Legends, Champions: Why Heroism Matters (2020).

Darcy Biddle

David Biederman

David Biederman enjoys a career as a production engineer for a independent oil and gas producer. He earned a diploma in petroleum engineering technology in Canada and a petroleum engineering degree in the United States. David is also a researcher and writer for the Center For Industrial Progress.

Harry Binswanger

Dr. Binswanger is a member of the Ayn Rand Institute’s Board of Directors and teaches at ARI’s Objectivist Academic Center. He is the author of How We Know: Epistemology on an Objectivist Foundation and The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts. He was a close associate of Ayn Rand.

Carrie-Ann Biondi

Carrie-Ann Biondi is an associate professor of philosophy at Marymount Manhattan College, where she is also the Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies.

Alex Bleier

Alex Bleier is a website developer, a specialist in search engine optimization, and an editor.

Tore Boeckmann

Tore Boeckmann’s mystery short stories have been published and anthologized in several languages. He is the editor of Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction and has lectured on literary esthetics and current affairs in Europe and America. His recent publications include “The Fountainhead as a Romantic Novel” and “What Might Be and Ought to Be: Aristotle’s Poetics and The Fountainhead” in Essays on Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, as well as “Anthem as a Psychological Fantasy” in Essays on Ayn Rand’s Anthem (both collections edited by Robert Mayhew).

Stephanie Bond

Stephanie Bond is principal at Executive Proofreading, where she provides professional proofreading services. Previously she was a Judicial Assistant at the Superior Court in Toronto for twenty years.

Max Borders

Max Borders is editor of The Freeman, director of content for The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), and author of Superwealth: Why We Should Stop Worrying about the Gap between Rich and Poor.

Stephen Bourque

Thomas A. Bowden

Thomas A. Bowden (JD, University of Maryland, 1987) is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights in Washington, D.C., focusing on legal issues. His op-eds have appeared in The Wall Street Journal and dozens of other publications, and he frequently provides commentary to various media outlets. A former law school instructor, he practiced civil litigation in Baltimore for twenty years. His book, The Enemies of Christopher Columbus, is a critique of multiculturalism. He also contributes regularly to Voices for Reason.

Andrew Brannan

Andrew Brannan earned his bachelor of science in nursing at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, in 2003. He has practiced as frontline nurse in a range of clinical areas—from long-term care to critical care—and acted as a part-time clinical instructor for McMaster University’s undergraduate nursing program. His activism includes writing numerous letters to the editor on environmentalism and socialized medicine that have been published in local and national newspapers.

Laura Brent

Yaron Brook

Yaron Brook (PhD, finance, 1994, University of Texas at Austin) is president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. He lectures on Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism, business ethics, and foreign policy at colleges, community groups, and corporations throughout the world. His articles have appeared in academic business journals, popular newspapers, and magazines. His numerous media appearances include interviews on Closing Bell (CNBC), the O’Reilly Factor and Glenn Beck (Fox News Channel), and Front Page with Allen Barton (Pajamas TV). As an entrepreneur, Dr. Brook co-founded the venture-capital consulting firm BH Equity Research in San Jose, California. And as an award-winning professor, he taught finance at Santa Clara University before joining ARI.

Jim Brown

Jim Brown holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and is the CEO of the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, CA.

Daniel Burritt

Mikayla Callen

Mikayla Callen studied chemistry at Carroll University in Wisconsin. She currently lives in Davis, California and works in the lab for Crew Wine Company. She also writes about the philosophy of science on her blog www.mikaylacallen.com.

John Cerasuolo

John Cerasuolo is President of ADS Security in Nashville, Tennessee and serves as Chairman of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a free market think tank. He holds a BS in political science and economics from the United States Naval Academy (1983) and an MBA from Clemson University (1995).

Ira Chaleff

Ira Chaleff is an executive coach, author, and speaker. His books include The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders, and Intelligent Disobedience: Doing Right When What You’re Told To Do Is Wrong. For more information about his work, visit IraChaleff.com.

Cassandra Clark

Cassandra Clark is a multi-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry who is writing under a pen name in order to avoid reprisals from her employer.

Mark Coldren

Mark Coldren is a master’s student in mechanical engineering at Michigan Technological University. He has worked as an intern in the automotive industry in both product development and computer-aided engineering.

Trevor Conn

Mike Cronin

Mike Cronin is a retired Air Force officer. He holds a Masters in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University. He lives with his wife and three children in the Southwestern US.

Michael Dahlen

Michael Dahlen is the author of Ending Big Government: The Essential Case for Capitalism and Freedom. He holds a Master of Science in finance and economics from Walsh College and a Bachelor of Science from Penn State University. His articles have appeared in Skeptic, Liberty, and American Thinker. He is a managed accounts administrator for SEI Investments.

Eric Daniels

Eric Daniels earned his PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin in 2001. He serves as Assistant Director of Clemson University’s Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has lectured internationally and has published work on intellectual, economic, and political history.

Kevin Douglas

Kevin Douglas, a graduate of Stanford Law School, practices transactional law in Dallas, Texas.

Dianne Durante

Dianne Durante (PhD, University of Cincinnati) is the author of Outdoor Monuments of Manhattan: A Historical Guide (New York University Press) and Forgotten Delights: The Producers, A Selection of Manhattan's Outdoor Sculptures , both of which include substantial discussions of the nature of art and of esthetic analysis and evaluation. She is a freelance writer, lecturer, and exhibition designer, and maintains www.ForgottenDelights.com, a website on art.

Thomas J. Eiden

Thomas J. Eiden is a nuclear engineer for Battelle Energy Alliance and currently works at the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory. Eiden has also designed reactor components at Argonne National Laboratory, and he is a contributor to the Center for Industrial Progress.

Ross England

Joseph England

Joseph England is a resident physician in the Department of Radiology at the Los Angeles County Medical Center, Keck School of Medicine of the the University of Southern California. He is a graduate of Temple University School of Medicine, where he earned an MD in 2013.

Alex Epstein

Alex Epstein is founder and president of the Center for Industrial Progress, a for-profit energy think tank. He is the author of Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet and the forthcoming book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. He is a regular columnist at Forbes.com, and his writings have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Investor’s Business Daily, among many other publications. Alex's work has been featured in Rolling Stone, National Review, and Business-Superstar. He been a guest speaker at dozens of universities, including Stanford, Duke, Rice, and UCLA. He has debated Greenpeace, 350.org, and the Sierra Club on energy and environmental issues.

Jeffrey Falk

Jeffrey Falk is a media/entertainment professional and writer in southern California.

Dina Schein Federman

Dina Schein Federman holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught philosophy at Auburn University and currently works for the Ayn Rand Institute’s Archives. She has lectured and written on topics in ethics, literary analysis, and Ayn Rand’s biography, and has translated Ayn Rand’s Russian writings and Rand’s correspondence with her family.

Mitchell Feinberg

Mitchell Feinberg holds a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering, with a focus in cell and tissue engineering, from Columbia University. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is currently pursuing a JD at Harvard Law School.

Robin Field

Robin Field is an entertainer, singer, actor, composer, and lyricist, performing in virtually every form of show business, including recording for RCA Victor; appearing on the ABC, CBS, and NBC television networks; and working for Disney Studios; and much more. In the 1980s and ’90s, Field toured in his philosophical one-man show, Reason in Rhyme. He wrote, directed, and starred in Broadway: A Hundred Years Ago, and served as creator and host of the New York radio series Broadway Time Capsule. He was also editor and publisher of Revival, a magazine devoted to theatrical history.

Roderick Fitts

Roderick Fitts is a U.S. Airman who works in the field of aircraft maintenance. His interests lie in the history of philosophy, Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, and inductive reasoning and theories of induction. He can be found online at Inductive Quest.

Anna Franco

Anna Franco is a freelance writer and copy editor. Her self-published fiction includes Hummingbirds in Winter and The Daring Operation of Dr. McDowell: A Play in Three Acts.

Aaron Fried

Robert Garmong

Michael Garrett

Michael Garrett, MD, practices emergency medicine in central Indiana. He received his BA from Ball State University and his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in Family Medicine at Ball Memorial Hospital.

Sarah Gelberg

Sarah Gelberg holds a BA with honors in English and a Minor in French from the University of Iowa, and an MA in writing from Illinois State University. She has worked as a technical writer in California’s Silicon Valley for more than a decade and has been published in ITS International and Photonics Spectra.

Ted Gray

Ted Gray is a retired mechanical engineer.

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Helen Hamann

Helen has a background in production and marketing for the fashion industry. She’s now working to translate Ayn Rand University courses into Spanish.

Jake Hanley

Jake Hanley holds a B.A. in history and works in the financial industry. He and his family reside in Shelburne, Vermont.

David Harriman

Mr. Harriman is the editor of Journals of Ayn Rand and a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute. He has worked as a physicist for the U.S. Department of Defense and he has taught philosophy at California State University San Bernadino. He has lectured extensively on the history and philosophy of physics. He is currently writing two books: one demonstrating the influence of philosophy on modern physics (The Anti-Copernican Revolution), and another presenting Dr. Leonard Peikoff’s theory of induction (The Inductive Method in Physics).

Stuart K. Hayashi

Stuart K. Hayashi is the author of The Freedom of Peaceful Action: On the Origin of Individual Rights; Life in the Market Ecosystem; and the forthcoming Hunting Down Social Darwinism. He has written articles for Skepti-Forum, Ideas in Action TV, and the Honolulu Advertiser.

Auberon Herbert

Auberon Herbert (1838–1906) was a British political philosopher, writer, and member of Parliament. He recognized and conveyed in many essays, debates, and speeches that each individual has inalienable rights to direct his own mind and body, and to keep and use the product of his own effort. In defense of these rights, Herbert advocated a strictly limited, voluntarily funded, rights-protecting government. This social system, which Herbert called “voluntaryism,” is what is known today as laissez-faire capitalism. For a brief introduction to his work, see “Auberon Herbert: Advocate of Reason, Individual Rights, and Limited Government.”

Stephen R. C. Hicks

Stephen R. C. Hicks is professor of philosophy at Rockford University, senior scholar at The Atlas Society, executive director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship, and the author of two books in philosophy and intellectual history: Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault and Nietzsche and the Nazis.

Laura Hilse

Laura Hilse has a BS in communication studies from Northwestern University and a Masters in Montessori education from Xavier University in Cincinnati. After teaching for many years in Montessori-based classrooms, she now works as a private reading and math tutor.

Audra Hilse

Audra Hilse graduated summa cum laude from Lawrence University in 2008, with a BS in history. She is currently teaching English in Japan, after which she plans to enter a Library Science graduate program. She has previously written for The Undercurrent and is a graduate of the Ayn Rand Institute’s academic program.

Scott Holleran

Scott Holleran is a freelance writer and journalist whose articles have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dallas Morning News, and Los Angeles Times. He has covered news, sports, and the arts, and has interviewed Sen. John McCain and former President George W. Bush. A large selection of his writing can be found at www.scottholleran.com/writings.htm.

Julian Hook

Gus Van Horn

Gus Van Horn is the pen name of C. Steven Miller Jr., a neuroscientist who resides in the Houston area. Dr. Miller received his BA in English literature and BS in mathematics from the University of Dallas, and his PhD in biochemistry and cell biology from Rice University. He regularly comments on political and cultural issues at http://gusvanhorn.blogspot.com.

Diana Hsieh

Diana Hsieh received her PhD in philosophy from the University of Colorado in 2009. She is the founder of the Coalition for Secular Government and the creator of Explore Atlas Shrugged. Every Sunday morning, she answers questions on the application of rational philosophic principles to the challenges of living a happy and virtuous life in her Philosophy In Action Webcast. For more of her work, visit DianaHsieh.com.

Paul Hsieh

Paul Hsieh, MD, is a practicing diagnostic radiologist in the south Denver metro area. He received his BS in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MD from the University of Michigan, and has served on the faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Hsieh is also a founding member of Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM). For more information on FIRM, please visit www.WeStandFIRM.org.

Zachary Huffman

Zachary Huffman studied economics and political science at Berry College, then worked as an investigative journalist for The Daily Caller and the Government Accountability Institute in Washington, DC. Currently he works for a nonprofit and writes on policy as a freelancer.

Monica Hughes

Monica Hughes is a mycologist and freelance writer with interests in agriculture. She holds a BS in biology from Houghton College and an MS and PhD in forest pathology and mycology from State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). She is the founder of Free Agriculture – Restore Markets (FA/RM), fa-rm.org.

Anders Ingemarson

Adam Jensen

Grant W. Jones

Grant W. Jones holds an MA military history and is currently pursuing a PhD in American history at Kansas State University. His dissertation will consider the development of the Fifth Air Force in the Southwest Pacific (General MacArthur's Theater) from 1942 to 1944. Several of his review essays have been published in the Michigan War Studies Review.

Elan Journo

Elan Journo is a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute specializing in foreign policy. He is the editor of and main contributor to Winning the Unwinnable War: America's Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism. Mr. Journo has spoken at numerous college campuses, including USC, Georgia Tech, Berkeley, and Stanford. His writing has appeared in, among others, the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Sun-Times, and the Globe and Mail of Canada. He is one of the contributors to the blog of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, Voices For Reason.

John Keats

John Keats (1795-1821) was an English Romantic poet. Keats’s life was cruelly short and marred by tragedy, unrequited love, and ill health. But his frail body held a formidable soul. For more on Keats, see “The Life and Poetry of John Keats” by Lisa VanDamme.

Joseph Kellard

Joseph Kellard is a writer and photographer. View his portfolio and get in touch by visiting www.kellardmedia.com.

Ellen Kenner

Dr. Ellen Kenner is a clinical psychologist and host of the radio talk show The Rational Basis of Happiness®. She and Dr. Edwin A. Locke co-authored The Selfish Path to Romance: How to Love with Passion and Reason, a guide for finding and nurturing romance, inspired by the ideas of Ayn Rand.

David King

David King graduated from Rutgers University in 2006 with degrees in finance and economics. He currently works as a data analyst in Minnesota.

Jules Klapper

Jules Klapper is a businessman based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mark V. Kormes

Karl Kowalski

Karl Kowalski is a principal engineer at RSA, the security division of EMC. He writes software for mobile devices and is the author of several books on programming. He received his BS and MS in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, he delivers podcasts for The Objective Standard.

Loribeth Kowalski

Loribeth Kowalski is a JD candidate at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.

Ryan Krause

Hannah Krening

Hannah Krening is a classical pianist and private piano teacher in Colorado, where she lives with her husband Doug. Together, they recently launched Hungry Minds Speaker Series, presenting public supper talks on culture and politics in the Denver area.

Joe Kroeger

Joe Kroeger holds a BS in physics and English literature from the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. His career has spanned the fields of electronics engineering, computer architecture, semiconductors, and publishing. He has written numerous technical articles for magazines and journals concerning the semiconductor and computer industries. He wrote and published The FileMaker Report newsletter from 1984 to 1995.

Michael A. LaFerrara

Michael A. LaFerrara resides in New Jersey, where he spent his career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries. He writes on a wide variety of topics from an Objectivist perspective at his blog, Principled Perspectives.

Conrad Lagowski

Conrad Lagowski is a full-time professional in the tech industry. He has organized several public talks on the principle of individual rights as related to current events.

Yvonne Laplante

Heike Larson

Heike Larson (MBA, University of Texas at Austin, 1995) is an independent sales and marketing consultant. Prior to her independent work, she was an executive-level sales and marketing representative with an aircraft manufacturer, and an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm. She has written op-eds for the Ayn Rand Institute and articles for The Intellectual Activist.

Burgess Laughlin

Burgess Laughlin holds a BA in cultural history and describes his central purpose in life as “telling success stories from the history of philosophy.” He recently completed The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith. He also manages a weblog, The Main Event.

Jason Letman

Andrew Lewis

Andrew Lewis is the assistant director at VanDamme Academy, where he teaches a three-year history curriculum (Ancient, European, American) to elementary and junior high students. From 1995–1999, he worked with Dr. Leonard Peikoff on The Leonard Peikoff Show; and from 1999–2002, he hosted his own radio show, applying philosophy to current events. Mr. Lewis studied philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Southern California, and he lectures regularly at Objectivist conferences.

John David Lewis

John David Lewis was a contributing editor to TOS from the journal’s second issue, in 2006, until his death, on January 3, 2012. He was a visiting associate professor in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke University. He held a PhD in classics from the University of Cambridge and taught at the University of London. He had also been a senior research scholar in history and classics at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, and a fellow of the Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship. He published in journals such as Journal of Business Ethics, Social Philosophy and Policy, Polis, Dike, and Bryn Mawr Classical Review, and lectured on classics, military history, and contemporary political issues at numerous universities and for private groups. His research interests were in ancient Greek and Roman thought, military history, and their connections to the modern day. His books are Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens (Duckworth, 2006), Early Greek Lawgivers (Bristol Classical Press, August, 2007), and Nothing Less than Victory: Decisive Wars and the Lessons of History (Princeton,2010). Dr. Lewis also wrote for Capitalism Magazine. His website is www.JohnDavidLewis.com.

Owen Lewis

Owen Lewis is a space and science enthusiast who holds degrees in geology and psychology. You can follow him on Twitter at @is_fusion, where he promotes the development and use of nuclear fusion as a source of energy.

Joshua Lipana

Joshua (John M.) Lipana was, until his death in 2013, an assistant editor of The Objective Standard Blog and a freelance writer based in the Philippines. His writings appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Free Enterprise,Capitalism Magazine, NewsReal Blog, and The American Thinker.

David Littel

David Littel holds a BA in philosophy from the College of William and Mary and a JD from the Washington and Lee University School of Law, where he was a contributing member of the Washington and Lee Law Review. He is a partner in the law firm of Taylor and Walker in Norfolk, Virginia. He litigates a variety of civil matters in State and Federal courts including professional malpractice, products liability, defamation and business disputes. Mr. Littel has conducted over one hundred jury trials and has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Virginia. His primary interests are in legal theory and legal history.

Edwin A. Locke

Edwin A. Locke is dean’s professor of leadership and motivation emeritus at the R. H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association, and the Academy of Management. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award (Society for I/O Psychology), the Career Achievement Award from the Academy of Management (OB Division), and the J. M. Cattell Award (APS). He, with Gary Latham, has spent the last forty years developing Goal Setting Theory, recently ranked No. 1 in importance among seventy-three management theories. He is internationally known for his research on motivation, job satisfaction, leadership, and other topics.

Keith Lockitch

Keith Lockitch is a resident fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute, where he writes and edits op-eds and teaches in the Institute’s Objectivist Academic Center. He teaches undergraduate writing and a graduate course on the history of physics. His writings have appeared in publications such as The Intellectual Activist, the Orange County Register and the San Francisco Chronicle. Dr. Lockitch received his undergraduate degree in physics from the University of British Columbia, and his PhD in physics from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Prior to joining ARI in 2003, Dr. Lockitch was a postdoctoral researcher in physics at the University of Illinois and at Pennsylvania State University.

Talbot Manvel

Talbot Manvel is a retired U.S. Navy Captain who served as an engineering officer specializing in aircraft carriers. He served on three, assisted in building two, and ended his career developing the new FORD class of aircraft carriers. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1972, earned a masters in mechanical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1979, a masters in liberal arts from St John’s College in 2008, and graduated from Objectivist Academic Center in 2010. He teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy, consults on naval engineering matters, and supports the Ayn Rand Institute.

Stewart Margolis

Stewart Wade Margolis is a screenwriter and director (aka Stewart Wade). He also works as a development account manager at the Ayn Rand Institute (the views expressed here are entirely his own).

Julian Markowitz

Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, Julian Ross Markowitz moved to the United States in 2013. Today, Markowitz is president and creative director of Maverick Creative LLC, a boutique experiential marketing and public relations firm.

Alexander V. Marriott

Alexander V. Marriott teaches history at Wiley College in Texas and has written for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Capitalism Magazine. He also blogs at The Republican Observer. His PhD dissertation explored how American Republicans proposed to conduct and win wars while also protecting the rights of individuals—and how they actually went about doing so.

Robert Mayhew

Robert Mayhew (PhD, Georgetown University, 1991) is professor of philosophy at Seton Hall University. He is the author of Aristotle’s Criticism of Plato’s Republic, The Female in Aristotle’s Biology, Ayn Rand and Song of Russia, and, most recently, Plato: Laws 10 (Oxford University Press, 2008). He is the editor of Ayn Rand’s Marginalia, Ayn Rand’s The Art of Nonfiction, Ayn Rand Answers, and of four collections of essays—one on each of Ayn Rand’s novels. He recently finished a book on the Sophist Prodicus of Ceos, and is currently preparing a new edition of the Aristotelian Problemata for the Loeb Classical Library, to be published by Harvard University Press.

Michael Mazzone

John P. McCaskey

John P. McCaskey is a lecturer and researcher at Stanford University. He teaches in the Program in History and Philosophy of Science and in the Program in Ethics and Society. His scholarly research is on the history of induction. Before returning to academia in 2001, he spent twenty years in the computer business, most recently as a founder of Epiphany, Inc. He founded the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship.

Scott McConnell

Kerry McDonald

Kerry McDonald is a senior education fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and author of Unschooled: Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2019).

Slade Mendenhall

Slade Mendenhall holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics.

Michelle Minton

David H. Mirman

David H. Mirman holds a BA in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MS in genetics from UC Davis. He is the Chair of Biological Sciences at Mount San Antonio College where he teaches general biology, genetics, cell and molecular biology, and physiology.

Bob Murphy

Derrick Nantz

William Nauenburg

William Nauenburg works as a freelance writer and blogger. He earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy from San Diego State University and currently resides in San Diego, California.

Raymond C. Niles

Raymond C. Niles is a senior fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research and assistant professor of economics & management at DePauw University. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Mason University and an MBA in Finance & Economics from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. Prior to embarking on his academic career, Niles worked for more than fifteen years on Wall Street as senior equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs, Schroders, and Citigroup, and as managing partner of a hedge fund investing in energy securities. In addition to numerous articles in scholarly and popular publications, Niles has contributed book chapters to The Morality of Finance, and the recently published book, Coronavirus and Economic Crisis, edited by Peter G. Earle, and published by the American Institute for Economic Research.

Dan Norton

Dan Norton is pursuing a PhD in philosophy at the University of California, Davis.

Bruno Turner Oggioni

Natalie Ogle

Varun Parameswaran

Richard G. Parker

Richard G. Parker is a practicing emergency physician, holding a BA from Brown and an MD from Yale University. Dr. Parker’s interests include the history of philosophy and the history and philosophy of medicine. He is an independent scholar who has published in scientific and historical journals and in several national newspapers. Dr. Parker is currently studying the role of induction in the history of medicine.

Earl Parson

Earl Parson is a Los Angeles-based architect. He received his BA in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis (1991) and his Master of Architecture from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (1996) where he was awarded the Best Graduate Thesis prize. His architectural practice, focusing primarily on single-family residences, has seen the completion of successful projects not only in the L.A. area, but also in the Midwest and the South. He teaches drawing in the Architecture Department of Pasadena City College and is currently engaged in research on the theoretical and philosophical origins of modern architecture. His portfolio website can be found at www.earlparson.com, and he maintains a blog on architecture, design, and cultural topics at creaturesofprometheus.blogspot.com/.

Amy Peikoff

Amy Peikoff (JD, UCLA, 1998; PhD, University of Southern California, 2003) is visiting fellow for the study of Objectivism in law and philosophy at Chapman University School of Law. She has published academic articles on the right to privacy, Searle’s theory of rational action, and aspects of Ayn Rand’s novels, as well as several opinion pieces.

J. Brian Phillips

J. Brian Phillips owns a contracting company based in Houston, Texas. He helped defeat zoning ordinances in Houston in 1993 and in Hobbs, New Mexico in 2007, and has actively fought other violations of property rights on the local level. His articles on property rights and related issues have appeared in The Freeman, Kiwanis Magazine, the Houston Chronicle, and the Orange County Register. He blogs on property rights at txpropertyrights.blogspot.com.

Norman Podhoretz

Norman Podhoretz was editor in chief of Commentary from 1960 to 1995 and remains editor at large for the magazine.

Nicholas Provenzo

Nicholas Provenzo is an attorney in private practice in Virginia. His writing has appeared in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and The Washington Times. He has appeared on national TV and syndicated talk radio on shows such as ABC’s Politically Incorrect with Bill Mahr, The Laura Ingram Show, and The Mary Matlin Show.

Ryan Puzycki

Ryan Puzycki is a former Wall Street analyst and private education executive. He holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University. He lives and writes in San Francisco.

Gideon Reich

Gideon Reich works as a computer professional in Orange County, California. He comments on political and cultural issues at http://armchairintellectual.blogspot.com.

Jared M. Rhoads

Jared Rhoads is a health-policy instructor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and a visiting research fellow in health policy with the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

John Ridpath

John Ridpath is former Associate Professor of economics and intellectual history at York University, Toronto. His research interests included the ideas influencing the Founding Fathers and early American history, and the philosophy and influence of Friedrich Nietzsche. For many years, Dr. Ridpath served on the board of directors of the Ayn Rand Institute.

Howard Roerig

Veronica Ryan

Veronica Ryan (a pen name) earned her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Virginia. She received her BS in psychology and philosophy from Tufts University, and subsequently worked for two years as a clinical interviewer and research assistant in the Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatry department. She has served as a contributor and editor for The Undercurrent, a national campus publication. She is a two-time winner of the Ayn Rand Institute's Fountainhead Essay Contest and a graduate of the Institute's four-year academic program.

Richard M. Salsman

Richard M. Salsman is president of InterMarket Forecasting, Inc., a visiting assistant professor of political economy at Duke University, and a senior fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. Previously he was an economist at Wainwright Economics, Inc. and a banker at the Bank of New York and Citibank. Dr. Salsman has authored the books Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (1990), Gold and Liberty (1995), and The Political Economy of Public Debt: Three Centuries of Theory and Evidence (2017). He is also author of six chapters and scores of articles. His work has appeared in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, Reason Papers, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, the Economist, the Financial Post, the Intellectual Activist, and The Objective Standard. From 2010 to 2013 he authored seventy-eight op-eds as a regular essayist at Forbes.com. Dr. Salsman earned a B.A. in economics from Bowdoin College (1981), an M.A. in economics from New York University (1988), and a Ph.D. in political economy from Duke University (2012).

Larry Salzman

Larry Salzman is an attorney with the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia. He litigates cutting-edge constitutional cases protecting individual rights, including property rights and economic liberty, in federal and state courts. He was previously an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, litigating property rights cases in federal and state courts, and served as a judicial clerk to Judge Bohdan A. Futey on the United States Court of Federal Claims. Larry received his law degree in 2002 from the University of San Diego, where he was Assistant Editor of the San Diego Law Review. Larry also cofounded an e-commerce company, where he served as CEO from 2007 to 2011.

Timothy Sandefur

Timothy Sandefur holds the Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute and is a contributing editor of The Objective Standard.

Christina Sandefur

Christina Sandefur is executive vice president of the Goldwater Institute and coauthor of the Right to Try model legislation upon which the state and federal legislation is based.

Keith Sanders

Keith Sanders is an accountant and singer/songwriter living in New England.

Lee Sandstead

Lee Sandstead is an art historian who travels the world looking for, experiencing, and documenting great art.

Roberto Sarrionandia

Roberto Sarrionandia is a student of computer science at Aberystwyth University. He is the founder and director of The Prometheus Initiative, promoting Ayn Rand in the United Kingdom.

Peter Seferian

Peter Seferian is an undergraduate student at St. Edwards University, where he studies philosophy. His primary interests are foreign policy and economics. He cites Ayn Rand as one of his main intellectual influences.

Frederick Seiler

Frederick Seiler holds an MA in the history of science from Indiana University and degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Carnegie Mellon University. He currently works as an engineer in northern Virginia, and is writing a book about the conflict between science and religion. His website is www.FredSeiler.com.

Richard Shedenhelm

Richard Shedenhelm studied at the University of Georgia, receiving undergraduate degrees in economics and philosophy, and a master’s degree in philosophy. He tutors high school and college students in mathematics and symbolic logic.

Joshua Shnayer

Brian P. Simpson

Brian P. Simpson earned his PhD in economics from George Mason University. He is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Management and Marketing in the School of Business and Management at National University. Mr. Simpson has been published in peer-reviewed journals (including in the Journal of Business and Behavioral Sciences), made presentations at scholarly conferences (including the annual meeting of the Association of Private Enterprise Education), and created a minor in economics with a focus on free-market economics and Objectivist philosophy. He is the author of Markets Don’t Fail!.

Steve Simpson

Steve Simpson is a writer for the Ayn Rand Institute and a former senior attorney at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia. He litigated campaign finance and other First Amendment cases nationwide. He was lead counsel in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, a challenge to federal campaign finance laws, and Sampson v. Buescher, a challenge to Colorado's ballot issue campaign finance laws. Mr. Simpson has authored numerous Supreme Court amicus briefs in a wide variety of cases and has spoken and written widely on campaign finance and other issues. Before joining the Institute for Justice, he spent five years as a litigator with the international law firm Shearman & Sterling and two years clerking in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Mr. Simpson is a graduate of New York Law School and a member of the bars of New York, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia.

Tara Smith

Tara Smith is professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where she holds the BB&T Chair for the Study of Objectivism and is the Anthem Foundation Fellow. She is the author of Ayn Rand’s Normative Ethics: The Virtuous Egoist (2006),Viable Values: A Study of Life as the Root and Reward of Morality (2000),and Moral Rights and Political Freedom (1995),as well as numerous articles spanning such subjects as rights “conflicts,” everyday justice, forgiveness, friendship, pride, moral perfection, the nature of objectivity, and legal Originalism. Her current research centers around issues in the philosophy of law.

Betsy Speicher

Betsy Speicher is the author of The WHYS Way to Success and Happiness, which presents philosophy in the form of a practical how-to book. Her articles on philosophy, psychology, and education have appeared in popular magazines and professional journals. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in philosophy and a Wharton School minor in finance, she became a software designer and project manager building custom computer systems for dozens of large corporations.

Grace Steele

Grace is a literature teacher at VanDamme Academy, where she shares classic literature with students from second to sixth grade. She writes about her experience in the classroom and posts occasional pieces on her website, gracesteele.net.

Brian Tebbitt

Brian Tebbitt holds a BA in philosophy and works as an independent consultant. He also blogs at makingwijgets.com.

Gretchen Thomas

Gretchen Thomas is a pharmacy technician by day and an aspiring children's writer by night, writing mysteries and adventures featuring kids who think in principles and are hero-worshipers. She has studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Texas at Austin and will be completing her bachelor's degree in 2012.

C. Bradley Thompson

C. Bradley Thompson is the BB&T research professor at Clemson University and the executive director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He has also been a visiting fellow at Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of London. Professor Thompson is the author of the prize-winning book John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty. He has also edited The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Antislavery Political Writings, 1833–1860: A Reader and was an associate editor of the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. His current book project is on “The Ideological Origins of American Constitutionalism.”

Jonathan Townley

Jonathan Townley is an aerospace engineer working in the defense industry.

James Valliant

James S. Valliant is the author of The Passion of Ayn Rand Critics (2005, Durban House), and he is currently working on a book that explores the origins of Christianity, Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity.

Lisa VanDamme

Lisa VanDamme is the founder of VanDamme Academy, a private K-8 school where she teaches literature to junior high students. After decades inspiring children with a love of reading, she recently embarked on a project to do the same for adults, creating a book club app called “Read With Me” that is dedicated to helping readers connect emotionally with the classics.

David Veksler

David Veksler is webmaster at The Objective Standard and the former director of technology at the Foundation for Economic Education. He is an expert in content management, marketing automation and applied cryptography, as well as managing partner of Vellum Capital, a blockchain hedge fund management firm that specializes in blockchain technology and crypto-assets such as Bitcoin.

Anoop Verma

Arie Vilner

Arie Vilner is a day trader in New York. He has taught economics and finance at New York University and Brooklyn College.

Daniel Wahl

Daniel Wahl is assistant editor at The Objective Standard.

Don Watkins

Don Watkins is a writer and research specialist at the Ayn Rand Institute, and an editor of Impact, the Institute's donor newsletter. His op-eds have appeared in newspapers across the country. Mr. Watkins holds a BA in business administration from Strayer University.

Connor Watts

Connor Watts is a doctoral candidate researching the philosophy of totalitarianism in 20th-century dystopian fiction at Swansea University. He currently teaches courses on philosophy and film at Swansea University, modern history at Cardiff University, and English literature through The Brilliant Club.

Ella Wilson

Ella Wilson is the pen name for a teenager who loves reading and writing fiction.

C. A. Wolski

C. A. Wolski is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and cohost (as “Mr. Film”) of the Movie Film Show (www.moviefilmshow.com).

Stella Daily Zawistowski

Stella Daily Zawistowski is a copywriter at a pharmaceutical advertising agency, where she specializes in oncology drugs. She is also a prolific crossword constructor, with published puzzles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and many other major markets. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Princeton University, and she writes about healthcare issues at her blog, ReasonPharm.

Lin Zinser

Lin Zinser, JD, was a civil litigator in Colorado for nineteen years. She founded Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM), an organization dedicated to education about and promotion of free market health care. Currently, she is vice president of public outreach for the Ayn Rand Institute, and oversees the operations of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights located in Washington, D.C.