About
A Distinguished Research Professor at the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government at the University of Notre Dame, Don has written extensively about the intersection of law, religion, and constitutional interpretation. His seven books include The Hollow Core of Constitutional Theory: Why We Need the Framers, and Church, State, and Original Intent, which was named a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title.
His scholarly works have been cited several times by the Supreme Court of the United States and by the Supreme Court of the Philippines. He has taught courses on constitutional topics at Princeton University and Notre Dame Law School, and he is the founding Chairman Emeritus of the Advisory Council of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
Don is also a Fellow in Operations and Technology Management at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, and a Venture Partner with Advent Life Sciences, which he joined after 25 years as an entrepreneur and chief executive in the biotechnology industry. Don has overseen the progression of numerous innovative medical products from research concept to clinical trials. Several of them have now become FDA-approved products, including two Nobel Prize-recognized cancer treatments.
Don received an A.B. from Dartmouth College, a J.D. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University. Don has also been awarded the Diploma in Wines (with merit) from the Wine and Spirits Education Trust. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Burgon Society. He has served as a trustee of Drew University, the University of Charleston, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and as a board member of biotechnology companies in four different countries. Early in his career, he practiced law in New York with the firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.