Organizers

Bernard L. Fraga is a political scientist who studies American elections, focusing on racial/ethnic politics, voter turnout, and the impact of election laws on voters and politicians. He is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Emory University, and received his B.A. in Political Science and Linguistics from Stanford University and Ph.D. in Government and Social Policy from Harvard University.

LaFleur Stephens-Dougan received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester (2002) and her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (2013). Her research examines public opinion, campaigns and elections, and racial attitudes. Prior to joining the Politics Department at Princeton, she was a visiting scholar in the Political Science Department at MIT.

Jamil Scott is an assistant professor at Georgetown University in the Government Department. She is also an instructor for the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods where she co-teaches Race and Ethnicity Quantitative Methods. She studies political behavior among political elites and the mass public in the United States context. 

Yamil Velez is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. He completed his Ph.D. in Political Science at Stony Brook University and holds B.A.s in Political Science and Psychology from Florida State University. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection between racial and ethnic politics, political psychology, and political geography, with a focus on immigration. Prior to coming to Columbia, he was an Assistant Professor at George Washington University and Wesleyan University.

Daniel Gillion received his BA and MA from Florida State University  (2002 and 2004) and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester (2009).  In his research, Gillion studies the power of minority protest  responses from political institutions and changes in public policy. He  was  a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar at Harvard  University from 2012-2014 as well as  Ford Foundation Fellow at Harvard. He is an original Co-founder of SPIRE. 

Sophia Jordán Wallace received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego (2002) and her Ph.D. from Cornell University (2010). Her research  examines Latino representation,  immigration politics, and immigrant rights activism. She is  an original Co-founder of SPIRE. 

Vesla M. Weaver received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of Virginia (2001) and her Ph.D. from Harvard University (2007). Her research focuses on race and politics, American political development, and social policy. Her third book project examines how the carceral state has altered citizens’ experience of government, and  the consequences of these developments for the health and future of American democracy. She is an original Co-founder of SPIRE. 

Dan Butler received his B.A. in political science from Brigham Young University (2003) and his Ph.D. from Stanford University (2007).  In his research Butler studies the behavior of public officials, both through observational and experimental work, to better understand issues of representation in terms of race, ethnicity, partisanship and socioeconomic factors. He is an original Co-founder of SPIRE.