Announcing the newest members of the Claremont family

May 10, 2024

Dear Friend,

We are delighted to announce the newest members of the Claremont family: the 2024 Lincoln Fellows.

This year's impressive group represents a mix of patriotic individuals influencing policy and decision-making at the highest levels of government, education, journalism, media, technology, finance, and academia.

During their stay, Lincoln Fellows will meet with the Claremont Institute's Senior Fellows and other distinguished scholars to study American politics and political thought with an emphasis on the statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln.

Please join us in welcoming this year's Lincoln Fellows!

William “Billy” Bailey is responsible for deal sourcing, transaction analysis, due diligence, portfolio company oversight, and fundraising at BP Energy Partners. Prior to joining BPEP, Mr. Bailey founded Saltstone Capital Management in 2016, a hedge fund focused on publicly traded companies operating anywhere along the energy value chain. Mr. Bailey also worked for T. Boone Pickens’s investment management firm, BP Capital. In July 2012, he become one of the youngest to appear in the Bright Spot section of the energy magazine, Oil and Gas Investor. He has periodically been quoted in publications such as Bloomberg and Reuters. Mr. Bailey graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Finance from the Culverhouse College of Business at The University of Alabama.

Duncan Braid is the Coalition Director for American Compass, a policy organization focused on developing an authentically conservative approach to economics. A veteran of the Trump Administration, he has served in the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security. A native of Raleigh, North Carolina, he holds a B.A. in Political Science from UNC Chapel Hill.

Casey Chalk is a contributing editor at New Oxford Review and senior contributor at The Federalist. His writing has appeared in many publications, including the New York Post, First Things, Public Discourse, Law & Liberty, and The Spectator, among others. He is author of The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands (Sophia Institute, 2021) and The Obscurity of Scripture: Disputing Sola Scriptura and the Protestant Notion of Biblical Perspicuity (Emmaus Road, 2023). He has degrees in history and teaching from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in Theology from Christendom College. He and his wife and their five children currently live in Panama.

Gates Garcia manages the overall operations of his family office with a primary focus on his family’s investments. In addition, he serves as Director for the Garcia Family Foundation. Prior to joining his family in business, he spent his career at Raymond James Financial where he served as a vice president. Gates serves on the board for The Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America in addition to other board and leadership positions. Gates holds an MBA from the University of Florida. He earned his Certified Investment Management Analyst designation at the Wharton School and his Certified Private Wealth Advisor designation from the Investments and Wealth Institute at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. He is happily married to his college sweetheart.

Clifford Humphrey is the Executive Vice Chancellor in the Division of Florida Colleges at the Florida Department of Education. In 2020, he received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College. He then helped found Thales College in Raleigh, North Carolina, and also taught moral philosophy and rhetoric at Troy University in Troy, Alabama. He has written on the topics of classical education, higher education, Christian religion, American politics, and philosophy at various publications including American Reformer, First Things, American Greatness, The American Spectator, The Washington Examiner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The North American Anglican, and The Federalist. He is originally from Warm Springs, Georgia.

Justin Lee is Associate Editor of First Things magazine. Previously, he taught in the Composition Program at the University of California, Irvine, where he earned an MFA in Creative Writing. The recipient of an Emerging Writers Grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in ZYZZYVA, Vice, The Saturday Evening Post, The Spectator, Return, The American Mind, Compact, and elsewhere. His collection of short stories, A Prisoner’s Cinema, will be published in May 2024 by Passage Press.

William Martin currently serves as Communications Director for Senator J.D. Vance. Prior to that he served as Deputy Communications Director on the Vance campaign, which was headquartered in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. An avid tennis player, he pursues various other hobbies including cycling and hiking. Will graduated from Indiana University and lives with his fiancé, Sophie, in Northern Virginia.

Emina Melonic is a writer and critic focusing on film, books, and culture. Originally from Bosnia, she immigrated to the U.S. in 1996 and became an American citizen in 2003. She is a regular contributor to Chronicles Online, Splice Today, and Law and Liberty. Her writings have appeared in the Claremont Review of Books, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The New Criterion, Modern Age, The American Mind, City Journal, and American Greatness, among others. She is currently writing a biography of Edward G. Robinson (University Press of Mississippi) and also working on a book about Ronald Reagan’s Hollywood years. She holds a B.A. in English, German, and Art History from Canisius College, M.A.s in Humanities, Theology, and Philosophy, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University at Buffalo. She lives with her husband and son near Buffalo, NY.

Allen Mendenhall is Associate Dean and Grady Rosier Professor in the Sorrell College of Business at Troy University, where he directs the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy. The author or editor of numerous books, his latest is a novel, A Glooming Peace This Morning. He holds a B.A. in English from Furman University, an M.A. in English and a J.D. from West Virginia University, an LL.M. from Temple University, and a Ph.D. in English from Auburn University. He has held various positions in academia, private practice, and government and has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, law reviews, and popular media. His opinions and reviews have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Fox News, Fox Business, The Washington Times, The American Spectator, The Hill, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The American Conservative, The Daily Caller, The Federalist, Public Discourse, Law & Liberty, and The Daily Signal. He lives in Alabama with his wife and children.

Angela Meng is a writer living in Los Angeles. Previously, she worked in Investment Banking at Lazard New York and as a journalist at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong and Reuters in Beijing. She holds a B.A. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is currently working on her first book, Mars in Cerulean.

Justin Ouimette is Vice President of Government Affairs of the State Freedom Caucus Network and President of Conservative Partnership International. He was previously Executive Director of the House Freedom Caucus, a role he had served in since 2016. Prior to that post, he served as Policy Director for the House Freedom Caucus and as Legislative Director. Mr. Ouimette has a B.A. in History from Brown University and an M.A. in International Affairs, specializing in East Asia, from Boston University. Originally from South Carolina, he lives with his wife and children in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Mike Sabo is Assistant Editor of The American Mind, the online journal of the Claremont Institute. He is also a contributing editor at American Reformer and editor of RealClear’s American Civics portal. Mr. Sabo has written for numerous publications, including The American Mind, American Reformer, RealClearPolitics, City Journal, Public Discourse, and The Federalist. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College and Ashland University. He lives near Cincinnati, Ohio, with his wife, son, and baby on the way.

Eric Teetsel is Vice President of Government Relations at The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America. Before joining Heritage, Teetsel was Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. His prior professional experience includes various roles in federal and state public policy, advocacy, and campaigns. Teetsel graduated from Wheaton College (IL) and holds an M.A. in Education from Azusa Pacific University. Though Kansas is home, he and his wife live in Virginia with their four children.

Natalie Winters is the co-host of Steve Bannon’s podcast War Room. She was a senior investigative reporter for The National Pulse and co-host of The National Pulse Podcast with Raheem Kassam. She focuses on Chinese Communist Party infiltration in America and has been credited with breaking dozens of exclusive stories. Her reporting, which includes several stories from Hunter Biden’s hard drive, has also exposed conflicts of interest held by prominent scientists, leading to their removal from COVID-19 origins investigative teams. Her investigations have been cited by groups including the Congressional Republican Study Committee, the National Association of Scholars, and the Committee On the Present Danger China. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Natalie is also the founder of the USA-made lifestyle brand She’s So Right!

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