Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center

Topic:

The Future of Conservatism
Peter Wehner, former Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, is a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He writes widely on political, cultural, religious, and national-security issues, and is undertaking a project to explore the future of conservatism.

Mr. Wehner served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations prior to becoming deputy director of speechwriting for President George W. Bush in 2001. In 2002, he was asked to head the Office of Strategic Initiatives, where he generated policy ideas, reached out to public intellectuals, published op-eds and essays, and provided counsel on a range of domestic and international issues.

Prior to joining the Bush Administration, Wehner was executive director for policy for Empower America, a conservative public-policy organization headed by William J. Bennett, Jack Kemp, and Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. Mr. Wehner also served as a special assistant to the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and, before that, as a speechwriter for then-Secretary of Education Bill Bennett.

A native of Dallas, Texas, Mr. Wehner grew up in Richland, Washington and is a graduate of the University of Washington. He and his wife Cindy have three children and live in McLean, Virginia.