Pepperdine School of Public Policy Receives $10 Million Endowment to Launch New Edwin Meese III Institute for Liberty and the American Project

MALIBU, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Pepperdine School of Public Policy (SPP) has announced the launch of the Edwin Meese III Institute for Liberty and the American Project.

Endowed with a $10 million gift from Pepperdine alumni Chandra (’99, JD ’02) and Adam (’99) Melton, the Meese Institute will be led by a leading scholar in American history and politics who will assume the Melton Chair at the helm. A member of the School of Public Policy Board of Advisors, Chandra is dedicated to preparing students for leadership opportunities in government agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. The Melton Chair will teach the school's graduate public policy students, organize events, and engage through the media on current political and policy debates from the school’s unique perspective. The University anticipates a highly competitive national search for this position.

“With its longstanding commitment to grounding public leadership education in civic virtue and America’s founding principles, the School of Public Policy is the perfect home for this new institute. We all must act to protect the constitutional rights that have made America what it is today and the Meese legacy acts as a compass, a true north for all of us,” states Adam and Chandra Melton. “Ed Meese is a man of faith, grounded in absolute truth that is unwavering, steadfast, and full of glorious hope in alignment with our intentions for this institute. It is our calling to give freely, ‘for such a time as this,’ and affirm that these principles will endure for generations to come.”

Meese is best known as United States attorney general from 1985 to 1988 during president Ronald Reagan’s second term. He served the conservative icon from the California governor’s mansion in 1966 to the White House in 1981 before he went to the Department of Justice four years later. Pepperdine is privileged to honor an institute with the values and beliefs of Meese. Meese received an honorary doctorate from the School of Public Policy in 2007 and has made numerous trips to campus for lectures and events over the years.

“I’m extremely pleased to have my name adorn this new institute at Pepperdine's School of Public Policy, which is committed to making relevant the nation's founding principles to today's public policy challenges,” noted Meese. “We know, as President Reagan once said, that 'freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction', and so I'm excited by the opportunity created by the Meese Institute to engage not only current policy debates, but also to prepare our next generation of public policy leaders.”

The first program of its kind at a major graduate policy school, the new Edwin Meese III Institute for Liberty and the American Project serves as the new academic home for scholarship, teaching, and events focused on connecting America’s founding principles to today’s national policy challenges. Organizationally, the new institute stands as the foundation of the school’s American Policy and Politics curriculum track, formed to prepare public leaders in domestic policy for careers in Washington, DC, and America’s top policy research institutions.

The institute builds upon the work of the school’s “American Project,” which launched in 2017 to explore the future of a more communitarian approach to national politics and policy. Through events and commissioned essays, and advised by a network of leading academics and policymakers, the project has made a compelling case for a flourishing American political culture based on economic opportunity, religious liberty, self-governance, and devolved governance. These programs will continue in the new Meese Institute.

“The launch of the new Meese Institute marks a major milestone in the policy school’s 25th anniversary year and is grounded in both America’s founding principles and our own,” said Pete Peterson, dean and Braun Family Dean’s Chair of the School of Public Policy. “The institute will be a vibrant home for our distinctive approach to American policy education, and furthers our plans to grow our program both here in California and in Washington, DC.”

The School of Public Policy (SPP) is built on a distinctive philosophy of preparing public leaders to use tools of analysis combined with their moral sense to affect successful implementation and real change. Through a curriculum grounded in understanding policy’s inherent philosophical and historical dimensions, SPP prepares cross-sector leaders for careers that strengthen the institutions of the private, nonprofit, and government sectors.