Jeff Chidester

Jeff Chidester

Executive Director of External Affairs


Jeff Chidester is the Executive Director of External Affairs, where he oversees recruitment into the Batten School’s academic and lifelong learning programs. From 2003 to 2016, he held various posts at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, most recently as Director of Policy, where he managed the Center’s First Year: POTUS 2017 project, as well as a series of national policy debates which aired on ABC News and PBS. He received a B.A. in Political Science from Grove City College (Pa.), an M.A. in International History from the London School of Economics, an M.A. in Politics from the University of Virginia, and an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He is the co-author of The Reagan Years (2005) and At Reagan’s Side (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), and co-editor of Reagan in a World Transformed, 1981-2014 (Harvard University Press, 2014) and Crucible: The President’s First Year (UVA Press, 2018). He has published numerous articles on the American presidency and public policy.