John R. Kroger

John R. Kroger is President and CEO of the Rodel Institute, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening American democracy, advancing the rule of law, and developing principled public leaders. Working in partnership with the Rodel Foundation, he led the transition of the Rodel Fellowship program at the Aspen Institute into an independent national organization. Since becoming its first CEO, he has led the Institute’s growth from a two-person staff with a single fellowship program into a nationally recognized organization, raising more than $20 million in philanthropic support and expanding its work with elected officials, judges, and public servants across the United States. Rodel alumni include a Vice President of the United States, United States senators, governors, and members of Congress from both major political parties, as well as approximately one in ten active federal judges.

John has devoted his career to public service, higher education, and leadership development. He has served as a United States Marine, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Attorney General of Oregon, President of Reed College, Vice President of the Aspen Institute, and Chief Learning Officer of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. He has taught throughout his career, including appointments at Harvard Law School, Harvard Kennedy School, Yale University, and Lewis & Clark Law School, where he was a tenured professor from 2002 to 2012. During that time, he took leaves of absence to serve as Attorney General of Oregon and as a Trial Attorney on the U.S. Department of Justice Enron Task Force. Earlier in his career, he served as a legislative aide to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Thomas Foley and Representative Charles Schumer and as a campaign aide to President Bill Clinton.

John received his B.A. and M.A. degrees from Yale University, graduating magna cum laude with Distinction in Philosophy. He received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

John writes and speaks frequently on democracy, the rule of law, principled leadership, higher education, national security, and public service. He lectures regularly at universities, conferences, and leadership programs in the United States and abroad. He is the author of Convictions, a memoir of his work as a federal prosecutor published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and winner of the Oregon Book Award. His forthcoming book, Law and Barbarism (Harvard University Press), examines the role of the legal profession in the collapse of German democracy and the Holocaust under National Socialism, and the lessons this history offers for constitutional democracies today.

John’s honors include the Harry S. Truman Scholarship; the Harvard Law School Traphagen Distinguished Alumni Award; the Mark DeWolfe Howe Fellowship in Anglo-American Legal History at Harvard Law School; Harvard University’s Certificate of Distinction in Teaching; the Levenson Award for Teaching Excellence at Lewis & Clark Law School; and the U.S. Department of Justice Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant United States Attorney. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former Fellow at Harvard University’s Safra Center for Ethics.

John can be contacted at johnkroger@rodelinstitute.org.