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Jennifer Marshall
As director of domestic policy studies at The Heritage Foundation, Jennifer A. Marshall oversees research in areas that determine the character of our culture: education, marriage, family, religion and civil society.
Marshall heads the think tank’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, where researchers examine the role that religion, family and community play in society and public policy. She also oversees FamilyFacts.org, an online source of easy-to-share charts, briefs, videos and reports on the latest social science research on family and religious practice.
In 2010, National Journal named Marshall one of 12 “power players” in Washington for her work on school choice and other education reforms.
Before joining Heritage in 2003, Marshall worked on cultural policy issues at Empower America, a free-market think tank. Before that, she was senior director of family studies at the Family Research Council and taught at an American school in Lyon, France.
Marshall collaborates with Heritage colleagues to explore how moral values and civil society relate to issues such as limited government, a strong national economy and foreign policy. One recent hallmark of her team’s efforts is “Indivisible,” a 2010 collection of essays in which prominent fiscal conservatives write on issues normally associated with social conservatives, and vice versa.
Marshall contributes a regular column on issues of faith and family to the McClatchy-Tribune news wire, placing her perspective in dozens of the nation’s best newspapers and affiliated websites. She has spoken at national and international forums, testified before Congress and appeared on numerous radio and television shows, among them C-SPAN’s premier talk show, “Washington Journal,” and PBS’ “To the Contrary.”
She is the author of “Now and Not Yet: Making Sense of Single Life in the Twenty-First Century” (Multnomah Publishers, 2007). The book evaluates the cultural, practical and spiritual issues that marriage-minded young women confront as the age of first marriage continues to rise in America.
Marshall holds a master’s degree in statecraft and world politics from the Washington-based Institute of World Politics and a bachelor’s degree in French from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., where she also earned teacher’s certification. She currently resides in Arlington, Va....
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Ryan Messmore, D.Phil.
Ryan Messmore is the William E. Simon fellow in religion and a free society at The Heritage Foundation. His research and writing examines how religious commitments are brought to bear on political life to improve public discourse and strengthen civil society.
Messmore’s commentary and analysis have appeared in major newspapers such as The Washington Times and The Raleigh News and Observer, and in national magazines such as First Things, Comment, and World. He served as lead writer of a six-part, DVD-based curriculum designed for small groups, “Seek Social Justice: Transforming Lives in Need.”
Before joining Heritage in 2006, Messmore was founding director of Trinity Forum Academy in Royal Oak, Md. The program, which he designed and had overseen since 2001, offers recent college graduates a nine-month residential program of advanced course work in theology and cultural engagement.
Messmore received his bachelor’s degree in public policy and religion from Duke University. He holds master’s degrees in theology and Christian ethics from Duke Divinity School and Cambridge University. He received his doctorate in political theology in 2011 from Oxford University.
Messmore currently resides with his wife, Karin, and three children in Maryland....
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Chuck Donovan
Charles A. "Chuck" Donovan brings more than three decades at the forefront of national debates on strengthening families and protecting life to a new role as Senior Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.
Donovan focuses on policy research, writing and issue development to advance the fundamental institutions of family and religion.
He arrived at Heritage in August 2009 as a 20-year veteran of leadership and policy roles at the Family Research Council, most recently serving nearly five years as executive vice president. As a principal architect of FRC, Donovan was instrumental in its rise as a leading U.S. research and policy organization for family issues. He served as acting chief executive officer from 1999 to 2001, before starting the policy consulting firm Donovan and Associates. Over the years, his policy work has ranged from the right to life and welfare reform to bioethics and human trafficking.
Donovan has drafted, advocated or testified in favor of landmark pro-family legislation such as family choice in child care, the $500-per-child tax credit, the Defense of Marriage Act, marriage tax penalty relief and anti-pornography measures, including online protections for children. He founded the Coalition for Family-Friendly Media, a network of national groups that campaigned for "cable choice" and enforcement of broadcast decency laws.
Donovan first joined FRC after eight years of putting his research and communication skills to work for President Ronald Reagan, originally as a writer at the White House and eventually moving up to deputy director of presidential correspondence. He prepared and edited letters, proclamations, policy papers and commentaries for President Reagan.
From 1978 to 1981, Donovan was legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.
Donovan is the author or co-author of several books and a host of monographs on family topics. Appearances on national radio and television include CNN's Inside Politics and ABC's Nightline as well as programs on FOX, BBC, NPR and CBN. His articles and commentaries, both under his own name and those of public figures, have been published in newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Cincinnati Enquirer, San Diego Union and National Catholic Register, and in magazines such as Reader's Digest, Weekly Standard, American Legion, World Magazine, American Library Journal and Focus on the Family's Citizen.
A native of Louisville, Ky., Donovan grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English at the University of Notre Dame.
He and his wife, Meg, reside in Manassas, Va. They have two daughters and two sons. ...