Anne deHayden Neal is the president of the non-profit organization American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA).
Ms. Neal spent her childhood in Indiana, where her father was the editor of the small-town newspaper, the Noblesville Daily Ledger. She graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College in 1977 with an A.B. magna cum laude in American history and literature and subsequently earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1980. As a practicing attorney, Ms. Neal specialized in First Amendment law at the firm of Rogers & Wells in New York City; she later served as Senior Vice President of the Recording Industry Association of America where she spearheaded the RIAA campaign to oppose mandatory lyrics labeling.
In the early 1990s, Ms. Neal served as general counsel and congressional liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities under Lynne V. Cheney, where she addressed a range of issues including academic freedom, intellectual diversity, and historical literacy. After the founding of ACTA (then known as the National Alumni Forum) by Lynne Cheney, Senator Joe Lieberman, Richard Lamm, Hank Brown and others, Ms. Neal served as vice president and general counsel from 1995–2003; she succeeded Jerry L. Martin as president in 2003.
In addition to her professional work, Ms. Neal serves or has served on the boards of numerous charitable organizations including All Hallows Guild, Washington National Cathedral, National Association for Olmsted Parks, Sabre Foundation, U.S. Capitol Historical Society and the Friends of the U.S. National Arboretum. She is married to Congressman Thomas E. Petri (R-Wisconsin).