Joseph Anthony is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at State University of New York (SUNY)-Cortland. He regularly teaches courses in American politics, including Introduction to American Government, American political institutions, parties/campaigns, and elections, election policy and election administration, voting behavior, and public opinion. The consistent motivation behind his research is to better understand political participation in American politics. His research focuses on the electoral systems that structure participation, as well as the organizations and institutions that incentivize and mobilize political participation.

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He began his doctoral program after working for many years in political arenas with interest groups and issue-based campaigns. As a scholar, he systematically explores the historical and modern day challenges facing democratic participation in the United States.

Christopher A. Cooper is Robert Lee Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Haire Institute for Public Policy at Western Carolina University. He has received Western Carolina University’s highest awards for research (University Scholar, 2011) and teaching (Board of Governors Teaching Award, 2013) and was named the 2013 North Carolina Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.Cooper’s published academic research features over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on American politics, southern politics, state politics, NC politics, and elections in journals such as American Politics Research, Election Law Journal, Political Research Quarterly, Public Opinion Quarterly, Public Administration Review, and State Politics and Policy Quarterly. He is also co-author of The Resilience of Southern Identity: Why the South Still Matters in the Minds of its People, co-editor of The New Politics of North Carolina, and author of the Anatomy of a Purple State: A North Carolina Politics Primer (all three published by the University of North Carolina Press).

Jon is an Associate Professor within the Division of Public Affairs and Director of the Master of the Public Policy program at the University of Utah. Prior to Utah, he was an Associate Professor of Political Science at Auburn University. He teaches courses in Public Personnel Management, Leadership and Ethics, and Organizational Theory and Administrative Behavior. He is also the Chair of the American Society of Public Administration’s Section on Environment and Natural Resource Administration, the Faculty Advisor to the Auburn University International City and County Management Association (ICMA) Student Chapter, a member of ICMA’s graduate advisory board, and the MPA program’s internship supervisor. Before coming to Auburn, he served as a research associate with the League of Kansas Municipalities and worked with local government leaders across Kansas.

Dr. Malerie Goodman is a graduate of the Auburn University doctoral program in Public Administration and Policy. Her expertise includes child welfare policy, legislative advocacy, food policy and college student hunger, and state-level policymaking.  While a student at Auburn University, Malerie worked for the Hunger Solutions Institute in the College of Human Sciences, leading applied research endeavors and building collaborative networks throughout the state of Alabama. She has previously worked as an elementary educator and school psychologist, conducting data-driven individual interventions and leading program evaluation at the district level.  Malerie currently lives with her family in Washington DC and uses her advocacy skills to influence positive change at the local and federal levels.

Kathleen Hale, JD, PhD, is the Executive Director of the Election Center. She retired as professor emerita of political science from Auburn University, where she directed the graduate program in election administration. Her research examined how intergovernmental relationships improve the capacity of public programs, and she is the author of the award-winning How Information Matters: Networks and Public Policy Innovation (Georgetown University Press 2011). Her research and teaching have been recognized by national academic and professional audiences, and she has appeared in podcasts produced by The Economist, NPR, Canadian Broadcast Company, and the National Leadership Conference, among others. Before joining the Auburn faculty, Dr. Hale advised national, state, and local nonprofit organizations on building capacity for program design, training, technical assistance, evaluation, and governance in their relationships with intergovernmental programs at all levels of government. Beginning in 2011, she directed Auburn University faculty in their partnership with the Election Center to professionalize the field including the CERA program, research projects, and publications with and for election administrators and system stakeholders.

Soren Jordan, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University. Dr. Jordan’s broader research agenda focuses on understanding how increases in party conflict broadly affect governance. In particular, Dr. Jordan wants to understand how and why party conflict has increased over time, how it changes individual approval of governing institutions, and how it affects the public dialogue over novel policy agenda items. He also researches statistical approaches to inference in political science. His current election-related research focuses on a variety of related topics, including trust in elections, threats to elections, and election information and disinformation. Dr. Jordan received his PhD and BA from the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University. He previously served as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Texas A&M University.

Bridgett A. King, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. Current overarching themes in her scholarship include the administrative structure of felony disenfranchisement and its effect on participation and representation, citizen confidence in electoral outcomes, and the consequences of administrative discretion on voter experiences and democratic representation. She also works on interdisciplinary projects that apply systems and architectural engineering approaches to the field of election administration to address challenges associated with administrative decision-making and voter experiences. As an extension of this work, she has an expanding research agenda that considers how citizens engage in and view democratic participation in Liberia. Lastly, she regularly contributes to the broader elections community by speaking to domestic and international audiences about election administration and participating in domestic and international election observation.

Dean Logan is the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for Los Angeles County, California -- the nation's largest, most diverse local election jurisdiction serving more than 5.6 million registered voters. He has served in the position since 2008. In addition to election administration, his office records real property documents; maintains vital records; performs civil marriage ceremonies; and processes business filings serving an estimated 3,500 customers daily. Mr. Logan holds degrees in Organizational Leadership from Azusa Pacific University and a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. He is a past-President and Board Member of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials (CACEO), a member of the Board of Directors for the Election Center (National Association of Election Officials), serves on the advisory board of the Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN), and the Board of Advisors for the United States Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Mr. Logan sits on Advisory Boards for the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Auburn University's Graduate Certificate in Election Administration, University of California Riverside's Design Thinking Executive Program, and the California State University, Northridge Master of Public Administration Program where he teaches courses on Organizational Leadership, Public Sector Management, Strategic Management, and Intergovernmental Relations.

Dr. Christopher Michael McGinn is a distinguished educator, researcher, and administrator with over two decades of expertise in geography, geospatial science, and election administration. He currently serves in two leadership capacities: as a Professor in the Department of Environmental, Earth and Geospatial Science at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and as the Executive Director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials (TACEO).

Professional Profile

Dr. McGinn’s career is defined by the intersection of academic rigor and practical public service. At NCCU, he leads research and instruction in physical, political, and urban geography, as well as environmental policy and geospatial techniques. His scholarly work focuses on critical societal issues, including food security, rural geography, and the geostatistical analysis of voting behavior.

A recognized authority in election administration, Dr. McGinn has spent years bridge-building between geospatial data and electoral processes. He is a Certified Elections Registration Administrator (CERA) and has served on national task forces for the U.S. Election Center regarding benchmarking, education, and voter training. His research into provisional balloting and the impacts of COVID-19 on by-mail voting has provided vital insights for election officials nationwide.

Leadership in Election Administration

In his role as Executive Director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, Dr. McGinn leverages his deep understanding of election data and logistics to support officials across the state of Texas. He is a frequent invited speaker at state associations—including those in Texas, Idaho, Ohio, and Virginia—where he presents on population mobility, budgetary impacts on election results, and the use of GIS techniques in election management.

Education & Research

Dr. McGinn earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, following a B.S. in Geography from East Carolina University. He has been the recipient of numerous "Excellence in Teaching" awards and has served as a Co-Principal Investigator on major grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and the USDA, totaling millions in research funding for geospatial infrastructure and STEM education.

Community Involvement

Beyond his professional and academic pursuits, Dr. McGinn is an active member of his community, having served as a head and assistant coach for various high school and middle school football and basketball programs. He remains dedicated to mentoring the next generation of geoscientists and public servants.

Robert Montjoy, PhD, retired as research professor and Deblois Chair, University of New Orleans (2018) and as professor and Assistant Vice President for University Outreach, Auburn University (2004). He has studied elections since 1967 and has worked directly with elections officials in a variety of capacities. Robert represented AU in the founding of CERA and is its longest serving instructor.  He served 15 years on the Election Center Board of Directors, is a member of the Election Center Hall of Fame, and now serves on the board of the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center.

Hilary Rudy is a part-time Instructor of Political Science in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University.  She also serves as the Deputy Election Director for the state of Colorado, where she supports county election officials in conducting state and federal elections. Hilary received her law degree from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 2006. She has 20 years of experience in election administration.

Ryan Williamson joined the faculty at the University of Wyoming in 2023. He received his doctorate from the University of Georgia and his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Prior to joining UW, he spent time in Washington, D.C. working as a congressional fellow in the United States Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and as a governance fellow at a think tank focused on institutional reforms designed to increase efficiency and effectiveness in Congress and elections.

His primary areas of expertise include electoral politics, electoral institutions, election administration, and legislative procedure. His research on these topics includes published work in the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Studies, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Election Law Journal, and various other outlets. He has also published a book with Oxford University Press entitled Nationalized Politics: Evaluating Electoral Politics Across Time. This book asks, "how has nationalization influenced elections across different political eras?" and looks at variation in nationalization through an analysis of congressional elections from 1840 to 2020.