Daniel R. Porterfield (born August 19, 1961) is an American nonprofit executive, academic administrator, government official, and author serving as the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, where he was raised by a single mother, Porterfield graduated from Loyola Blakefield, a Jesuit college prep school, in 1979.

He was also instrumental in creating the After School Kids program, which trains college students to tutor at-risk youth in the District of Columbia.

In his inaugural address, titled "Kindle Fire," Porterfield spoke about the core purposes and values of a liberal arts education, the traditions of Franklin & Marshall and the power of ideas and knowledge.

"Liberal arts education is the single finest form of cultivating emerging human talent and character that this world has ever known.

Porterfield and F&M attributed these results to a doubling of need-based financial aid for the first-year class over that time period and to a strategy of targeted outreach to promising students in underserved communities.

In 2011, Porterfield created a highly regarded pre-college summer program, F&M College Prep, to allow more than 70 rising seniors from low-income communities to spend three weeks learning from F&M faculty and current students.

[5] Shortly after Porterfield’s departure from F&M, the college announced that it faced a budget shortfall caused, at least in part, by significantly increased financial aid needed to implement his plan.

In 2024, Porterfield authored Mindset Matters: The Power of College to Activate Lifelong Growth, in which he described the inspiring learning journeys of more than 35 F&M undergraduates that he knew and mentored during his presidency.

[citation needed] In one of his early public appearances as President and CEO, Porterfield described the Aspen Institute as “a force for good in communities near and far; convening thinkers and leaders; bringing into contact the very best ideas; framing and helping to solve the great difficulties of the day; confronting challenges from which others turn away; investing in leaders of every type; and always ensuring that questions of ethics and values and meaning have a prominent place in our conversations and our society.”[15] At the Aspen Institute, Porterfield has led an era of organizational development and growth.

He was named a White House Champion of Change in 2016 and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.