Phi Beta Kappa Members in Public Service

Phi Beta Kappa members are part of a diverse network of public servants committed to improving their communities. Why? The arts and sciences are an essential ingredient to a vibrant culture and democracy that benefits all Americans. Hover over each image to see the individual’s name, a public service role they’ve held, and the PBK chapter that inducted them.

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Lamar Alexander


Former Secretary of Education; Former Governor of Tennessee; and Former U.S. Senator

 

Vanderbilt University

Lonnie Bunch


14th Secretary of the Smithsonian

 

American University

Barbara Allen Babcock


Legal Scholar; Named the Public Defender Service

 

University of Pennsylvania

Ralph Bunche


Nobel Peace Prize Winner; Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs

 

University of California, Los Angeles

Ben Bernanke


Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve

 

Harvard College

Rachel Carson


Former U.S. Bureau of Fisheries

 

Chatham University

Ashton Carter


Former U.S. Secretary of Defense

 

Yale University

Margaret D. Craighill


Former Women's Consultant to the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army

 

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Elijah Cummings


Former U.S. Representative (MD-07)

 

Howard University

Antonio Delgado


Lieutenant Governor of New York

 

Colgate University

Elizabeth Dole


Former U.S. Secretary of Labor; Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation

 

Duke University

Harold Hongju Koh


Former Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State

 

Harvard University

Barnaby Keeney


First Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities

 

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Juanita Kreps


Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce

 

Duke University

Clarence Lam


Maryland State Senator (12th District); Physician

 

Case Western Reserve University

Sam Liccardo


U.S. Representative (CA-16); Former Mayor of San Jose, CA

 

Georgetown University

Alondra Nelson


Former Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

 

University of California, San Diego

Theodore Olson


Former Solicitor General of the United States

 

University of the Pacific

Frances Perkins


Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

 

Mount Holyoke College

Patricia Robert Harris


Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

 

Howard University

Jocelyn Samuels


Former Vice Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

 

Middlebury College

David Satcher


Former U.S. Surgeon General

 

Morehouse College

Maya Shankar


Former Senior Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

 

Yale University

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander


Former Chair of the White House Conference on Aging

 

University of Pennsylvania

Pearl Young


First Female Employee at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA - now NASA)

 

University of North Dakota