Whitney is also a senior scholar at The Imaginative Conservative in Houston, Texas, the first senior fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, a member of the college of fellows at the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology, Berkeley, a member of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library's Leadership Development Committee, and a scholar with the Wyoming Catholic College committee of advisors.
[3] Prior to his arrival at Grand Valley State University, Whitney worked 11 years in Michigan Governor John Engler's administration, serving seriatim as senior writer, chief speechwriter, and public historian.
In 1993, the governor assigned him to a task force that helped bring sweeping education and school finance reforms to Michigan that The New York Times called "the most dramatic in the nation.
"Gleaves Whitney and his energetic team at the Hauenstein Center have become, in a remarkably short time, a force to reckon with -- and learn from -- in the presidential studies field," said historian Richard Norton Smith.
He has overseen tremendous growth of the Hauenstein Center's website, which has had more than 25 million visitors, and premiered a popular web column called Ask Gleaves—the first presidential Q & A in the nation.
Other books include "American Presidents: Farewell Addresses to the Nation, 1796-2001;" "John Engler: The Man, the Leader & the Legacy;" and 6 volumes of Messages of the Governors of Michigan.