David R. Gergen GHON'01

Mr. Gergen is a professor of public service and the director of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is also editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and is a Senior Political Analyst for CNN.  Mr. Gergen regularly serves as an analyst on radio shows and is a frequent lecturer at venues around the world.  He is a member of the Washington, D.C., bar.  

Mr. Gergen served in the White House as an adviser to four Presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton.  In the Clinton administration, he served first as Counselor to the President and then as Special Adviser to the President and the Secretary of State.  He returned to private life in January 1995.  From 1984 to 1993, Mr. Gergen worked mostly as a journalist.  For some two-and-a-half years, he was editor of U.S. News.  During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour.  

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Mr. Gergen is a 1963 honors graduate of Yale University and 1967 graduate of Harvard Law School.  In addition, Mr. Gergen served for three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Navy.  He has served Duke in many capacities: as a visiting professor at the Sanford Institute; as a member of both the Kenan Ethics Board of Advisors and the Sanford Institute Board of Visitors; as commencement speaker in 1995; as co-chair of the National Advisory Board of DukeEngage. 

Mr. Gergen is active on many non-profit boards, including the Aspen Institute, the Boston Museum Project, the Campaign Against Teen Pregnancy, the Center for Global Development, the Center for the Study of the Presidency, and City Year.  He also serves on the boards of the Morehouse College Leadership Institute, the Schwab Foundation for Social Enterprise, Teach for America, and the World Resources Institute.  He holds 17 honorary degrees.

Mr. Gergen and his wife, Anne Gergen, live in Cambridge, Mass.  They have two children, Christopher, ‘T 93 and Katherine.  Mr. Gergen's father was a professor of mathematics at Duke for 30 years and was chair of the Mathematics Department from 1937 until his death in 1967. 

Elected to the Board in 2004, Mr. Gergen serves on the Undergraduate Affairs Committee and the Committee on Honorary Degrees, and previously served on the Academic Affairs Committee.

July 2011