MADISON – The Center for the Study of Liberal Democracy (CSLD) is pleased to welcome new Assistant Director Donald Hempson.
Hempson brings decades of higher education leadership, at both Virginia Tech and the Ohio State University, where he led the development and implementation of strategic plans for global engagement, built innovative institutional partnerships and advanced new research initiatives.
CSLD was founded in 1996 by Emeritus Professor Donald Downs; its primary mission is to probe the nature and prospects of liberal democracy and its core principles, practices and institutions. In 2024, the center moved its administrative home from UW’s political science department in the College of Letters & Science (L&S) to the University of Wisconsin Law School when Professor Cecelia Klingele ‘05 became the director. The Center continues to collaborate across schools and colleges, maintaining an especially strong connection to L&S.
“The CSLD has been growing, and we are thrilled to welcome Don to assist us in our next phase of education and outreach,” Klingele said. “He comes to us with a rich appreciation of the importance of education as preparation for engaged citizenship. He has deep experience connecting the university with the broader community, and he is a strong role model for students in how to engage in respectful collaboration and dialogue across difference.”
Hempson said he is a steadfast believer in the unique and indispensable service land-grant universities provide our communities. He is excited to be here in Wisconsin, a place he has long considered his home-away-from-home.
“I’m thrilled and humbled to be joining the CSLD at this pivotal moment in the Center’s evolution,” Hempson said. “These are challenging times for higher education and sincere public discourse, but I fervently believe U.S. universities are citadels of intellectual diversity, respectful debate and forthright collaboration.”
Hempson has experience working across departments, colleges, divisions and centers to develop and implement inventive student programming and faculty research collaborations, advocate for targeted resource investments, and secure extramural funding for teaching and engaged scholarship. He has published and presented on topics related to state-building in emerging democracies, cultural diplomacy, foreign and economic policymaking, and curriculum enhancements to undergraduate education.
Hempson -- who holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech, a master’s degree in modern history from DePaul University and a Ph.D. in international and business affairs from The Ohio State University – said he looks forward to “courageously advance programs that invite informed and thoughtful consideration of the complexity of societal, political and historical issues defining our present and shaping our future.”
Submitted by Law School News on February 27, 2026
This article appears in the categories: Features
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