Phi Beta Kappa Members in Public Service

Phi Beta Kappa members are part of a diverse network of public servants committed to improving their communities. Why? The arts and sciences are an essential ingredient to a vibrant culture and democracy that benefits all Americans.

Are you interested in policy or leadership development?
 

Lamar Alexander


15th Secretary of Education; Former Governor of Tennessee; and Former U.S. Senator

 

Vanderbilt University

Lonnie Bunch


14th Secretary of the Smithsonian

 

American University

Ralph Bunche


Nobel Peace Prize Winner; Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs

 

University of California, Los Angeles

Ben Bernanke


14th Chairman of the Federal Reserve 2006-2014

 

Harvard College

Rachel Carson


Former U.S. Bureau of Fisheries

 

Chatham University

Ashton Carter


U.S. Secretary of Defense, 2015-2017

 

Yale University

Margaret D. Craighill


Former Women's Consultant to the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army

 

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Elijah Cummings


Former U.S. Representative (MD-07)

 

Howard University

Antonio Delgado


Lieutenant Governor of New York, 2002-

 

Colgate University

Elizabeth Dole


20th U.S. Secretary of Labor; 8th U.S. Secretary of Transportation

 

Duke University

Harold Hongju Koh


Former Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State

 

Harvard University

Barnaby Keeney


First Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, 1966-1970

 

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Juanita Kreps


24th U.S. Secretary of Commerce

 

Duke University

Clarence Lam


Maryland State Senator (12th District) and Physician

 

Case Western Reserve University

Sam Liccardo


U.S. Representative (CA-16); Former Mayor of San Jose, CA

 

Georgetown University

Alondra Nelson


Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy

 

University of California, San Diego

Theodore Olson


42nd Solicitor General of the United States

 

University of the Pacific

Frances Perkins


4th U.S. Secretary of Labor, 1933-1945

 

Mount Holyoke College

Patricia Robert Harris


6th U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, 1979-1981

 

Howard University

Jocelyn Samuels


Former Vice Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 2021 -

 

Middlebury College

David Satcher


U.S. Surgeon General, 1998-2002

 

Morehouse College

Maya Shankar


Senior Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, 2013-2017

 

Yale University

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander


Chair of the White House Conference on Aging, 1978-1981

 

University of Pennsylvania

Pearl Young


First Female Employee at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA - which is now NASA), 1933-1961

 

University of North Dakota