Timothy Naftali (born January 31, 1962) is a Canadian American historian who is clinical associate professor of public service at New York University.

[1] He has written four books, two of them co-authored with Alexander Fursenko on the Cuban Missile Crisis and Nikita Khrushchev.

[5][6] Before becoming director of the Nixon Library in 2007, Naftali had been an associate professor at the University of Virginia, where he directed the Miller Center of Public Affairs' Presidential Recordings Program.

He was appointed when control of the Library was transferred from the Richard Nixon Foundation to the National Archives and Records Administration.

[12][13] His biggest task at the library was to present a more objective and unbiased picture of the Watergate scandal—a task completed in March 2011, when the Library's new Watergate gallery opened and received extensive news coverage.