Obama Names Former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach To Head the National Endowment for Humanities

Dear Friends,

This week, President Obama nominated former Republican Congressman Jim Leach of Iowa to become the new Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Congressman Leach served 30 years in Congress and was the founder of the Congressional Humanities Caucus which advocates for the humanities in the House of Representatives. He left Congress in 2007.

MAASH thanks President Obama for recognizing the vision, intelligence and passion of Congressman Leach, who has had a distinguished career in Congress as a thoughtful and independent thinker.

In an interview with the New York Times, Leach said, "I've always been on the side of the two endowments. What the arts and humanities are all about is providing perspective, that culture is bigger than politics and that culture is what we ought to be celebrating in the United States, and it ought to be an aspect of human endeavor that brings people together rather than divides."

"America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance, and it certainly does," Leach added. "But society is much bigger than governance, and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena. Our culture is more shaped by the arts and humanities than it often is by politics. And in difficult times the arts, sciences and humanities vastly increase in significance. And this is one of those times."

MAASH welcomes Jim Leach, a long time champion for the arts sciences and humanities, to his new position as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dan Hunter, Executive Director

Hathalee Higgs, Director of Development