By GREGORY ZELLER //
Two heavy-hitting political operatives with presidential pedigrees will share their insights and expertise with the Hofstra University community.
Philip Schiliro, director of legislative affairs and special advisor to President Barack Obama, and Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under President George W. Bush, have been appointed Senior Presidential Fellows at Hofstra’s Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency.
The fellows will teach classes, meet privately with students and otherwise participate in events sponsored by the Hempstead-based university – and especially the Kalikow Center, part of the Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs.
Kalikow Center Director Meena Bose lauded the new fellows as a major score for Hofstra, doubling down on the university’s investment in researching and teaching about the American presidency.
“Their extensive, direct expertise in White House governance, combined with their dedication to public service and civil discourse, will be highly instructive for students, scholars of the American presidency and all participants in Kalikow School and Center events,” noted Bose, who is also the Peter S. Kalikow Chair in Presidential Studies and executive dean for the Kalikow School’s Public Policy and Public Service Program.
Hot seat: Philip Schiliro rides with the boss, back in the day.
Schiliro, a Hofstra alumnus, boasts more than 30 years of Congressional and Executive Branch experience. He served as Obama’s director of legislative affairs from 2009 to 2010, as the president’s special advisor in 2011 and as the president’s advisor for the Affordable Care Act and health policy in 2013 and 2014.
As the president’s Congressional liaison, Schiliro played a key role in the passage of the ACA and other reforms enacted during the Obama Administration.
He also logged more than 26 years as a Congressional staffer, serving as chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California); policy director for U.S. Senator Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota), while Daschle was Senate Minority Leader; and the Democratic staff director of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee – positions that put him on the front lines for a wide range of healthcare- and environment-focused legislation.
Since leaving government work, Schiliro – who earned a political science degree from Hofstra in 1978 and an honorary doctorate from the university in 2013 – has co-founded two nonprofit organizations: Co-Equal (focused on removing Congressional roadblocks to health, environmental and consumer protections) and Grow New Mexico (focused on business development in the Land of Enchantment).
On the Ari: Fleischer was a fixture during the 2000 election and the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Fleischer, a 1982 graduate of Vermont’s Middlebury College, was the primary spokesman for Bush between 2001 and 2003, including daily briefings during and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the ensuing anthrax scare and other historical chapters.
A Capitol Hill veteran who served as press secretary to three U.S. representatives and one U.S. senator, Fleischer stepped onto the national stage as communications director for Elizabeth Dole’s 1999 presidential campaign before serving as a front-line spokesman for the 2000 Bush-Cheney ticket. He became a household name during the tense recount of the race between Bush and Democratic Vice President Al Gore, which initially ended in a statistical tie.
The New York native and frequent Fox News contributor – now president of Ari Fleischer Communications, a Pound Ridge-based consultancy offering media management and strategy to high-profile clients – was a guest speaker at Hofstra in 2008, when the university was gearing up to host the third and final presidential debate between Obama and the late Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona).
The new fellows succeed Hofstra’s inaugural Senior Presidential Fellows: major-league Republican strategist Ed Rollins, who directed President Ronald Reagan’s landslide 1984 re-election campaign and was the first non-member of Congress to chair the National Republican Congressional Committee, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman and presidential candidate Howard Dean.
