Current Board Members
President Tim Higgins
Regent Emeritus Tim Higgins, of Appleton, WI, served on the UW System Board of Regents from 2011 to 2018. During his term he served on the Executive, Education and Business and Finance Committees. He chaired the Research, Economic Development and Innovation Committee and oversaw the development of its initial strategic plan. He also chaired the Regents’ Tuition Setting Policy Task Force. He was a Regent appointee to the UW Health Board of Directors, Regent liaison to the Wisconsin Partnership Program’s Oversight and Advisory Committee, and he also served on the WiSys Technology Foundation Advisory Committee.
Higgins organized an ad hoc group of faculty and regents that drafted a statement on Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression on UW System campuses. The statement was approved by the Board of Regents in December of 2015 and adopted as Regent Policy Document 4-21 in October of 2017. See, https://www.wisconsin.edu/regents/policies/commitment-to-academic-freedom-and-freedom-of-expression/.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from UW-Madison in 1977 and later a Juris Doctorate from IIT Kent College of Law in Chicago, IL. Higgins is the owner and principal of ChiRho Services, a consulting firm focused on health care payment reform issues, value stream management, and the integration of complementary and traditional medicine.
Vice President Edward Perkins
Ed Perkins is a self-made businessman who started, owned and operated RE-Press Corp., which operated in Milwaukee, WI for 37 years. He worked prior in a variety of industries, mostly doing sales in WI. For several years, Perkins worked at the UW-Ext doing research on new cities. He is now happily retired and spends much of his time volunteering.
Perkins was just short 4 credits of a BS degree in Political Science from UW-Milwaukee. He also attended UW-Madison and several tech schools. In 1964, he graduated from the Lutheran Lay Training Institute and served 3 years as a lay assistant in the Lutheran Church in Muskogee, OK. He has remained active in the Lutheran Church.
Secretary Bob Feidler
Bob’s career has focused on various aspects of the law and military. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Dakota. He then began a thirteen-year stint with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee where he served in a variety of senior positions including Chief Counsel of the subcommittee overseeing the Federal Judiciary. He moved from that position to chief of legislative and public affairs for the Federal Judiciary where he served for eight years and worked closely with Chief Justice Rehnquist. He then primarily worked for the next eight years on international projects for the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development with an emphasis on judicial and insolvency systems. He finished his civilian career with a military association as their Director of Strategic Defense Education and Army Director. He is retired from professional life and now serves on the Board of Supervisors of St Croix County as their Vice Chairman.
Bob also had a career in the military serving for nearly thirty years, primarily in the Army Reserve but also with three years of active duty. Highlights included his service as legal officer of the Kuwait Task Force in 1991 during which service he was awarded the Bronze Star and Two Humanitarian Service Medals. He received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal for his service to the Reserve Forces Policy Board, the senior Board in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
He has received numerous awards to include two resolutions recognizing his service from the Judicial Conference of the United States. He served as the elected President of the American Bankruptcy Institute for three years and is a selected Fellow of American College of Bankruptcy.
He and his wife Patricia live in Hudson, Wisconsin.
Treasurer Larry Cole
Larry Cole is a retired businessman, born and raised near Madison, WI. In 2013 he relocated to the Fox Valley. Cole served in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper in the 101st Airborne Division, where he attended Officer Candidate School, and was commissioned an officer. Later, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of WI-Madison. Serving in a variety of management and senior management positions with four different companies, Cole worked outside of WI for much of his career. He completed his professional career as a senior manager for a printing company near Madison. He served on the Board of Directors for the industry association and was its president prior to retiring.
Rep. Dave Murphy
Representative Dave Murphy (R-Greenville) was elected to Wisconsin's 56th Assembly District in November 2012 and is serving his third term. Dave grew up on a dairy farm in the Town of Grand Chute and graduated from Hortonville High School in 1972. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley for two years and then enrolled in the Wisconsin School of Real Estate and received his Real Estate Broker's license.
For two decades, Dave was an agri-business owner working closely with dairy farmers. More recently, he and his wife owned several fitness centers named “Inches-A-Weigh” in the Town of Grand Chute. This session, Dave serves as the Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities. He is also a member of the following Assembly committees: Campaigns and Elections, Workforce Development, Health, Financial Institutions and Housing and Real Estate.
Professor Duke Pesta
Dr. Duke Pesta is the Director of Freedom Project Academy, host of the Dr. Duke Show podcast, and a tenured professor of English at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He received his M.A. in Renaissance literature from John Carroll University and his PhD in Shakespeare and Renaissance literature from Purdue University. He has written books and scholarly articles on a range of topics, including Shakespeare, Renaissance literature and culture, the history of medicine, and the intersection of science and art in the works of Michelangelo. He has also written many cultural and educational essays for a variety of publications and magazines. He serves on the boards of—and acts as advisor to—numerous political and educational groups, including Public School Exit, USPIE, the Heartland Institute, and is a founding member of Free Speech for Campus. Dr. Pesta is dedicated to preserving classical education, reigning in federal intrusion into public and private schools, promoting the freedom to home school, and defending our Constitutional liberties, especially the rights to freedom of speech, religion, due process, and freedom of association.
Dr. Pesta is one of America’s foremost authorities on the dangers of Common Core and the federal takeover of education, having delivered over 1000 talks in 48 states. He has testified before a number of state legislatures. Dr. Pesta hosts his own weekly program about education—The Dr. Duke Show—which covers educational issues from preschool through graduate school. His collective videos and presentations top more than twenty-five million views online, and much of his work is available at FreedomProject.com and FPEUSA.org.
Ruth Elmer
Ruth Elmer worked alongside her late husband for over 25 years, running their family business, a “Mister Donut” franchise that had 6 locations. Her primary responsibilities were accounting, running payroll, hiring, and training new employees. She was also one of the shop managers for over 5 years, where she organized and managed employees’ work schedules and planning productivity. Ruth has also served as an ordained Elder in the Presbyterian church.
Using her years of experience, she serves on the board for Wisconsin Family Council/Action. Some of her other volunteer positions include serving on the leadership team for several political groups. Ruth is the mother of 6 children, grand-mother of 13 grandchildren, and great-grandmother to 11 great-grandchildren. She is committed to being active in persevering our freedoms for future generations.
Professor Joe Heim
Dr. Joseph Heim is emeritus professor of Political Science/Public Administration at UW-La Crosse and Director of the Public Administration Program at the University. Dr. Heim received his BA and MS degrees from Marquette University and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He is a political analyst for WKBT (La Crosse)-TV and occasional guest analyst on WPR. He served in the US Navy from 1964-66, and was a Naval Reserve Officer from 1966-1984. He has served three terms on the UW-La Crosse faculty senate, including two terms as senate chair.
Dr. Heim is a member of the Board of Directors for a number of local and regional organizations. He is a Governor’s appointee to the Wisconsin Educational Approval Board (2003-present). He also serves as a member of the Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee (a State Bar committee) and a member of a number of professional associations, including the American Society of Public Administration and the Wisconsin Political Science Association.
Raymond P. Taffora
Raymond P. Taffora is the Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He retired from a 35 year active law practice in August, 2021. Mr. Taffora served as Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for eight years (2013-2021), where he supervised the University’s Office of Legal Affairs and the Office of Compliance.
Prior to his work for the University, Mr. Taffora has served as the Deputy Attorney General in the Wisconsin Department of Justice (2007-2011), Chief Legal Counsel to the Governor of Wisconsin (1987-1991) and as an attorney in the private practice of law for nearly 20 years.
Mr. Taffora earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983 and his law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1986.
Attorney William McKinley
Will McKinley is a shareholder with the Menn Law Firm, Ltd., and chairs its business practice group. Will’s legal practice focuses primarily on corporate transactional work, assisting businesses of all types in a wide variety of areas. In addition, though, Will serves as an advocate for university professors across the State of Wisconsin in administrative and constitutional proceedings, having a special interest in preserving academic and intellectual freedom in our educational institutions. In his spare time, Will keeps himself busy serving as chauffeur to his 5 children, while also preserving his status as a double-bogey golfer. Though a native of the cornfields of Western Illinois, Will attended Marquette University for undergrad and law school, and has been proud to call Northeast Wisconsin home for the past 15 years.
Professor Ryan Owens
Ryan Owens is a Professor of Political Science and Affiliate Faculty in the Law School. He also is an Honorary Fellow in the Institute for Legal Studies. Owens studies law and courts and American political institutions. His work analyzes the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals, legal institutions, and judicial behavior. Professor Owens’s work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, the Georgetown Law Journal, the William & Mary Law Review, the University of Illinois Law Review, Law & Society Review, and the Journal of Law and Courts.
Owens received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Harvard Provost, the University of Wisconsin Graduate School, the Center for Empirical Research in the Law, and the George H.W. Bush Library Foundation. He also received the first undergraduate mentoring award given by the Office of the Provost.
Between 2008 and 2011, Owens was Assistant Professor of Government at Harvard University, where he taught undergraduates and graduate students and seminars in the law school. From 2003-2008, Owens earned his Ph.D. at Washington University in Saint Louis. Prior to graduate school, Owens practiced law.
Professor Owens grew up in Kronenwetter, Wisconsin. He is co-owner of the Green Bay Packers, along with roughly 360,760 others.
Professor Ananth Seshadri
Professor of Economics, Mary Sue and Mike Shannon Distinguished Chair
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Ananth Seshadri is a Professor of Economics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he specializes in macroeconomics and public finance. He has written on the causes and consequences of demographic change and the effects of technological change in accounting for various demographic patterns. His recent work explores the effect of the tax transfer system on the American Dream. His research has appeared in leading economics journals, including The American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and the Journal of Political Economy. He was awarded a research fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 2006. He has received several competitive research grants from the National Science Foundation, and from the National Institute of Aging. He serves as co-director of the Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy.
Seshadri received a B.S in Management Science at BITS, Pilani, India in 1995, M.S in Economics from Arizona State University in 1996, and a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Rochester in 2000.
Professor Brian Volkman
Brian Volkman is a Professor of Biochemistry, Director of the Program in Chemical Biology, and Associate Director of the Mellowes Center for Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Volkman joined the MCW faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2000, where he teaches medical students, mentors PhD students, and conducts laboratory research on protein molecules that orchestrate immune responses. His work has been published in more than 200 peer-reviewed articles in prominent journals including Science and Nature. Volkman co-founded two Milwaukee-based biotechnology companies to commercialize discoveries from his academic research lab as drug candidates and tools for biomedical research.
An Indiana native, Volkman graduated from Butler University in 1989 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and physics, and then earned a PhD in biophysical chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1994. He pursued postdoctoral training in NMR spectroscopy in the UW-Madison Department of Biochemistry and was promoted to Associate Scientist before moving to Milwaukee to join the MCW faculty.
As a member of the National Academy of Scholars and officer of the Wisconsin Association of Scholars (wisnas.org), Volkman works to promote viewpoint diversity and academic freedom for students and faculty. He lives in Muskego with his wife and two children, where he enjoys golfing in the summer, ice fishing in the winter, and brewing beer for his friends.
Professor Donald Downs
Donald Downs is the Alexander Meiklejohn Professor of Political Science Emeritus, and the Affiliate Professor of Law, and Journalism Emeritus at UW-Madison. He is also the Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University. In addition, he was the director and co-founder of the University’s Wisconsin Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy (2007-present). The Center is dedicated to instilling critical knowledge and understanding of the core principles, institutions, and processes of liberal democracies, and to the advancement of genuine intellectual diversity on campus. Downs was also the director of the University’s Legal Studies Program and its Center for the Study of Law, Society, and Justice (2004-7). And he was the president (and former secretary) of the independent and non-partisan faculty group, the Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights, one of the nation’s leading campus academic freedom and free speech groups (secretary 1996-2000, president since 2000-2016).
Downs’ scholarship has dealt with a wide range of issues dealing with such issues as freedom of speech; academic freedom; American politics; political thought; political and legal movements; citizenship; campus politics; domestic violence, psychiatry, and the criminal law; and the relationship among the military, the university, and civic education. His prize winning books include Nazis in Skokie: Freedom, Community and the First Amendment; The New Politics of Pornography; More than Victims: Battered Women, the Syndrome Society, and the Law; Cornell `69: Liberalism and the Crisis of the American University; Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus; and Arms and the University: Military Presence and the Civic Education on Non-Military Students (Cambridge University Press). He is a co-editor with Chris W. Surprenant (Philosophy, University of New Orleans) of The Value and Limits of Academic Speech (Routledge, 2018), and author of the forthcoming book, Free Speech and the Intellectual Polis: Liberal Education and the Prospect of Liberal Democracy.
In addition to winning honors for his research, Downs has also won numerous teaching awards, including the University Teaching Award. He has been interviewed countless times by media and organizations around the world, and has been an active defender of academic freedom on campus (where he serves as the president of the Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights, an independent group) and in the nation.
In 2013, Downs received the national Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Academic Freedom Award for his defense of academic freedom and freedom of thought at UW-Madison and in higher education generally. He is also the faculty founder and advisor to the UW-Madison chapter of the Alexander Hamilton Society, an organization dedicated to thinking about American foreign relations and international politics and the national interest. In 2012, the Madison chapter received the Society’s award as the “Best New Chapter” in the country.
Downs was selected to give the “Charge to the Graduating Class” at the December 2013 graduation ceremony in the Kohl Center. The selection was done by a group of student leaders on campus in consultation with Dean of Students.
Downs won the University’s 2014 Hilldale Award in the Social Studies for ” A Distinguished Career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Research, Teaching, and Service.” The award is given to four faculty members campus-wide each year for outstanding achievement in his or her division of research (Biological Sciences; Physical Sciences; Humanities; Social Studies).
Since retiring, Downs has been the lead faculty advisor to the Free Speech and Open Inquiry Project of the Institute for Humane Studies in Washington, D.C. The project has published long pamphlets/short books on administrative management of campus free speech issues and crises, set up a web page of free speech commentary, and provided advice, financial and program support, and other assistance to faculty members nation-wide who are interested or engaged in promoting and protecting freedom of speech and inquiry on campus.