Thad Kousser, who studies American state and national politics, government reform, direct democracy, interest group influence, and how politicians use social media, joined the department in 2003 and has served as chair since 2016. He has authored or edited the books Politics in the American States, 11th Edition (CQ/Sage, 2018), The Power of American Governors (Cambridge University Press, 2012), The New Political Geography of California (Berkeley Public Policy Press, 2008), and Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism (Cambridge University Press, 2005), among others.

Professor Hill studies political participation and vote choice. He is interested in American elections, representation, and citizen learning about politics. His teaching interests include American politics, voting behavior, and political methodology. His published work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, World Politics, among others.

Denise Moreno Ducheny served in the California State Senate from 2002 to 2010, representing the 40th District. Prior to her election, she served in the California State Assembly from 1994 to 2000 and on the San Diego Community College Board from 1990 to 1994. While a member of the state Assembly, Ducheny launched a series of binational meetings among state legislators of the 10 U.S.-Mexico border states that eventually became known as the Border Legislative Conference. During her years in the state Senate, she also led the effort to convene regular meetings of state legislators from California and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur. Denise currently is a co-chair of the Border Innovation Awards Project and a member of the North American Research Partnership advisory board.

Nathan Fletcher is a Marine Corps combat veteran, former California State Assemblymember and is currently a Professor of Practice in Political Science at the University of California. As an elected member of the California State Assembly Fletcher served as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Jobs in the New Economy and is the author of the landmark public safety legislation “Chelsea’s Law”. In his time in office, he passed and had signed into law more than 30 bills, addressing issues including tax reform, healthcare, homelessness, veterans, job creation, public safety and more. Fletcher currently serves as a County Supervisor for San Diego County.

Cheryl Boudreau is an associate professor in the political science department at the University of California, Davis. Boudreau's research examines whether and when different types of political information help uninformed voters to make political decisions that improve their welfare. This information may come from trusted endorsers, encouraging citizens to vote for a particular candidate or initiative, or from politicians competing in a debate. Citizens may also rely on the statements their peers make during discussions, the opinions of the masses (as reflected in public opinion polls), or the detailed policy information contained in voter guides.

Ben Highton is a professor of political science at UC Davis. He is an expert in the study of American public opinion and voting behavior. Highton has published a wide range of articles on voter registration and turnout including “Voter Identification and Turnout in the United States” (Annual Review of Political Science, 2017) and “Voter Registration and Turnout in the United States” (Perspectives on Politics, 2004).

Professor Citrin teaches in the field of political behavior and his research interests include political trust, the foundations of policy preferences, direct democracy, national identity, and ethnic politics, including immigration and language politics. Among his books and edited volumes are American Identity and the Politics of Multiculturalism (2014), Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy (2009), Tax Revolt, Something for Nothing in California (1982,1985), After the Tax Revolt: Proposition 13 Turns 30 (2009), and Nominating the President: Evolution and Revolution in 2008 and Beyond (2009).

Gabriel Lenz's research focuses on voters’ ability to control their elected officials. His aim is to further our understanding of when voters succeed in holding politicians accountable, when they fail, and how to help them avoid failures. He has a recently published book with the University of Chicago Press and his articles appear or are forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, and Political Psychology. His work draws on insights from social psychology and economics, and his research and teaching interests are in the areas of elections, public opinion, political psychology, and political economy.

Jennifer L. Merolla is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on how the political environment shapes individual attitudes and behavior across many domains such as candidate evaluations during elections, immigration policy attitudes, foreign policy attitudes, and support for democratic values and institutions. She is co-author of Democracy at Risk: How Terrorist Threats Affect the Public, published with the University of Chicago Press (2009). Her work has appeared in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, Electoral Studies, the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, Political Psychology, and Women, Politics, and Policy.

Dr. Biggers has broad research interests in American politics that include political behavior, voting and participation, state politics, direct democracy, and election reform. His current work focuses on the relationship between political behavior and state-level institutions, the causes and consequences of political behavior for those underrepresented in the electorate, and the role of citizen self-interest in shaping political attitudes. His research has appeared or is forthcoming in the American Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, American Politics Research, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Electoral Studies, and the Journal of Experimental Political Science.

Professor Trounstine studies American politics with a focus on sub-national politics, primarily concentrating on large cities. Her work studies the process and quality of representation. She is particularly interested in how political institutions enhance or limit the ability of residents to achieve responsive government. Trounstine takes a mixed method approach to her scholarship including using historical analysis, qualitative data and quantitative methods.

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

Eric McGhee is a research fellow at PPIC, where he focuses on elections, legislative behavior, political reform, and surveys and polling. His research on elections and electoral reform has appeared in numerous academic journals, and his work has been profiled on National Public Radio, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Economist. He is the creator of the “efficiency gap”—a widely used measure of gerrymandering—and coauthor of a legal test based on the measure that has been presented before the US Supreme Court in recent high-profile litigation. He is an occasional contributor to the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage blog on politics. Before joining PPIC, he was assistant professor of political science at the University of Oregon and served as a congressional fellow through the American Political Science Association. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.