Louis Caldera

Senior Fellow

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Louis Caldera is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he writes and contributes on higher education, national security, and issues affecting Hispanic Americans. Louis has had a distinguished 30-year public service career serving at the local, state and national levels as a soldier, lawyer, legislator, high-ranking government official, university president and law professor.

Following graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point, Louis served as a U.S. Army officer in both the active and reserve components. After earning law and business degrees at Harvard University, he practiced in the areas of corporate, banking, and public finance law, including with the firm of O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles. He subsequently joined the Office of the County Counsel for County of Los Angeles, handling a variety of civil litigation matters for the county.

In 1992, Louis was elected to the California State Assembly, and for five years represented a highly diverse, downtown Los Angeles-based district. As a legislator, he chaired the Banking, Revenue and Taxation, and Budget Committees and was a leader in promoting education reform and children’s heath and safety measures.

Louis joined the Clinton administration in 1997, where he served in two Senate-confirmed positions. From 1997 to 1998, he was managing director and chief operating officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service, the federal grant-making agency that sponsors the AmeriCorps volunteer service program. From 1998 to 2001, he served in the Department of Defense as the nation’s 17th Secretary of the Army.

Since 2001, Louis has worked in higher education, starting as a vice chancellor for university advancement at the California State University system, then as president and a member of the faculty of the School of Law at the University of New Mexico, where he teaches legislation, election law, and corporate governance. Early in 2009, he served in the Obama administration as director of the White House Military Office.

Louis has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards and commissions, including the Renewing our Schools, Securing our Future National Task Force on Public Education, a joint initiative of the Center for American Progress, and the Institute for America's Future. He also served as a member of the board of trustees of Claremont McKenna College and The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  

Email: lcaldera /@\ americanprogress.org