Mitch McConnell Chair in Leadership
Office of the Provost
Gary L. Gregg, Ph.D. directs the McConnell Center for Political Leadership, a non-partisan program at the University of Louisville that attracts the best and brightest students from around Kentucky and grooms them for careers in effective leadership.
An award-winning political science teacher and expert on the U.S. presidency, Gregg has written several books, including “Securing Democracy: Why We Have an Electoral College.” That book was reviewed in the National Journal and Washington Post and led to many national television and radio appearances for Gregg. His most recent scholarly work, "Thinking about the Presidency" was published in 2005. He is also author of the recently published young adult novel, "The Sporran."
Gregg has organized dozens of educational events on campus for students and the community since he assumed the McConnell chair. Among them were Colin Powell's first major foreign policy address after becoming U.S. Secretary of State in 2001. That address, which became known as “the Louisville address” in diplomatic circles, garnered worldwide attention for the university and the state.
A Pennsylvania native, Gregg earned his bachelor's degree from Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia and received his master's and doctoral degrees in political science from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Before joining U of L, Gregg was national director of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that seeks to convey to college youth a better understanding of values and institutions that sustain a free society. He was assistant professor of political science at Clarion University in Pennsylvania from 1994-96 and a teaching fellow at Miami University from 1992-94.