Edwin Meese III, former U.S. attorney general under President Ronald Reagan, will speak at Berea College on Wednesday, Nov. 7, at 8 p.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

Edwin Meese III

Meese served as 75th U.S. attorney general from 1985 to 1988. Before that, he served as counselor to the president from 1981-85. In this capacity he functioned as the president’s chief policy advisor and had management responsibility for the administration of the cabinet, policy development and planning and evaluation. During the time he held both these positions, Meese was a member of the president’s cabinet and the National Security Council. Earlier, Meese had held several positions on the staff of Governor Ronald Reagan. From 1977-81, he was a professor of law at the University of San Diego, where he also was director of the Center for Criminal Justice Policy and Management. In addition to his background as a lawyer, educator and policy official, Meese has been a business executive in the aerospace and transportation industry.

Meese now is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and holds the Ronald Reagan Chair in Public Policy at the Heritage Foundation. He also is Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute of United States Studies, University of London. His current research focuses on the criminal justice system, federalism, emergency response management and terrorism.

In addition to writing a syndicated newspaper column, Meese is the author of the book "With Reagan: The Inside Story (1992)." He is a 1953 graduate of Yale University and holds a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

The lecture is free and open to the public and is co-sponsored by the College ‘s Convocations Program and the Political Science Department.