Academic Advisory Board

Christian Grose

Christian Grose is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Southern California. Christian is the author of the award-winning Congress in Black and White: Race and Representation in Washington and at Home (Cambridge University Press, 2011). In addition, he has published articles in scholarly journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Annual Review of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and Legislative Studies Quarterly. Christian's research interests include political institutions and political representation. Current and recent research is on U.S. legislatures, the presidency, race and ethnicity, the financial interests and stock market investments of legislators, and field experiments. He has also studied electoral reform, redistricting, and primaries in California and in the U.S. He received a B.A. from Duke University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

Jack H. Knott

Jack H. Knott is the Dean and the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair and Professor of the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California. He has led the school in this role since 2005.

Dean Knott is a leading scholar in the fields of political institutions and public policy, and is a past president of NASPAA, the international association of schools of public affairs. He has published three books, including Reforming Bureaucracy: The Politics of Institutional Choice, and numerous journal articles and book chapters. In addition, he earned fellowships from the Russell Sage Foundation, the International Institute of Management in Berlin, and he served as a consultant to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.Scholar.

Mindy Romero

Mindy Romero is a Research Assistant Professor and the founder and director of the California Civic Engagement Project (CCEP) at the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy in Sacramento. Romero is a political sociologist and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on political behavior and race/ethnicity, and seeks to explain patterns of voting and political underrepresentation, particularly among youth and communities of color in California and the U.S.

Romero has been invited to speak about civic engagement and political rights in numerous venues, testifying before the National Commission on Voting Rights and the California Legislature, among others. Her research has been cited in major news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Politico and the Huffington Post. She has also been a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Capital Public Radio, and several other NPR-affiliated stations in California. She is a regular op-ed contributor to the Sacramento Bee.

Romero works with a wide array of policymakers, elected officials, voter education groups and community advocates to strengthen political participation and representation. She is currently a member of the Public Policy Institute Statewide Survey Advisory Committee, President of the Board of California Common Cause, and former Vice-Chair of the Social Services Commission for the City of Davis.

Daniel Mazmanian

Daniel A. Mazmanian is a professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. He served as the school’s Ione L. Piper Dean and Professor from 2000-2005. Before coming to USC, he served as dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation since 1994.

Professor Mazmanian is a widely published scholar in the field of policy implementation and environmental policy. His current research focuses on climate change policy. He is recipient of the Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Contribution Award from the American Political Science Association and the Thomas R. Dye Service Award from the Policy Studies Organization.

Pamela McCann

Pamela McCann, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Dr. McCann previously served as an assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Washington.

Her research interests include U.S. political institutions, bureaucratic delegation, federalism, intergovernmental politics, legislative behavior, public policy, health policy, policy diffusion, state and local politics. She examines the influence of the states and state-level political institutions on national political maneuvering and policy choices. In particular, Dr. McCann focuses on the influence of policy actors’ intergovernmental context on legislative choices. Her recent work addresses the impact of the interaction of state and national political institutions on political choices and policy outcomes.

Nancy Staudt

Dean and Howard & Caroline Cayne Distinguished Professor, Washington University School of Law

R. Michael Alvarez

Professor of Social Science, California Institute of Technology

Gail McElroy

Head of School of Social Sciences, Trinity College, Dublin

Matthew Mendez

Assistant Professor of Political Science, California State University Channel Islands

Betsy Sinclair

Professor of Political Science, Washington University, St. Louis

Charles Stewart

Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Director of Election Data and Science Lab

J. Andrew Sinclair

Assistant Professor of Political Science, Claremont McKenna College