Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Matthew Spalding is the Director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at The Heritage Foundation. 

The Center for American Studies sponsors lectures, organizes seminars, crafts publications and supports scholars with the objective of teaching policymakers and political leaders about the basic principles of our political tradition and explaining the continued relevance and application of those principles in 21st century America.

Spalding is a graduate of Claremont McKenna College and has a Ph.D. in government from the Claremont Graduate School, where his work concentrated on government, political philosophy and early American political thought. A Henry Salvatori Dissertation Fellow with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, he has taught American government courses at George Mason University, the Catholic University of America, Claremont McKenna College and Hillsdale College.

Before joining Heritage in 1994, Spalding was a Senior Policy Analyst at the Claremont Institute, a public policy think tank in Southern California, where he is currently an adjunct fellow. He also serves on the Board Academic Advisors at Mount Vernon Estate – George Washington's home.

An expert on political history and constitutionalism, as well as religious liberty and religious life in America, he is the author of A Sacred Union of Citizens: Washington's Farewell Address and the American Character, the co-editor of Patriot Sage: George Washington and the American Political Tradition and the editor of The Founders' Almanac: A Practical Guide to the Notable Events, Greatest Leaders & Most Eloquent Words of the American Founding.

He is the co-editor of the best-selling book, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, a clause-by-clause look at the important document by 109 legal experts. The book went into its fifth printing in 2006 and has proven to be helpful to many lawmakers. In 2005, for example, a Reuters photograph showed The Guide at Sen. Tom Coburn's fingertips during the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearings on then-Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito.

Spalding's work on The Guide earned him the prestigious Drs. W. Glenn and Rita Ricardo Campbell Award in 2006. The award is given to the Heritage employee who has delivered "an outstanding contribution to the analysis and promotion of a Free Society."

Spalding currently lives with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children, Joseph and Catherine, in Arlington, Va.