Mitchell Ferris

Mitchell Ferris was a 23rd century Human man, a high-ranking politician the government of the Federation. 

By the 2250s, Ferris held the title of assistant commissioner of the Federation, during the time of the Four Years War. Ferris's retrospective, On the Brink of Disaster, contained a passage criticizing the Federation Council for failing to use Starfleet protection as an incentive to promote the Federation way of life along borders with hostile powers. He cited the relative indifference of the Council of that early era for the divisiveness that threatened to dissolve the Federation with internal conflict. 

In the 2260s decade, Ferris was a full galactic high commissioner. In this role, he oversaw the obligation of the Federation for valuable assistance to frontier worlds. To this end, Ferris boarded the starship USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) in the year 2267 to supervise the transport of vaccine bound for Makus III. Since the Enterprise was early for a rendezvous, there was time for James T. Kirk to launch a scouting shuttlecraft to probe the edge of the quasar-like Murasaki 312 effect, en route. Ferris formally protested and challenged the authority of the Enterprise captain when a shuttle and several crewpeople were lost. Kirk kept his promise to Ferris and kept the schedule.