Professor Lynn Vavreck is an expert on campaigns and elections and an innovator in media research.

She has worked at the White House, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and UCLA, where she is Associate Professor of Political Science and Communication Studies.

Her book, The Message Matters, was described by Stanley Greenberg as “required reading” and future presidential candidates were warned to “ignore it at their peril.” She is also a co-author of Campaign Reform: Insights and Evidence and future editions of The Logic of American Politics.

In 2003, Professor Vavreck helped start an online survey research company that became YouGov/America, and in 2010 she co-founded Model Politics, a political blog dedicated to bringing data to bear on contemporary questions.

She holds a B.S. and M.S. from Arizona State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

She rides horses, plays 3 instruments, and speaks fluent Ukrainian.

Professor John Sides is a leading authority on public opinion and voting behavior in the United States and abroad.

He has held faculty appointments the University of Texas at Austin and at George Washington University, where he is Associate Professor of Political Science.

He is co-author of Campaigns and Elections: Rules, Reality, Strategy, Choice and has published scholarly articles on such topics as campaign strategy, voter turnout, new media, and immigration.

Professor Sides is a co-founder of and contributor to The Monkey Cage, an award-winning blog about politics and political science.  He is also an occasional contributor to the 538 blog at the New York Times and Wonkblog at the Washington Post.  His writing has appeared at the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Review, Salon, the New York Daily News, Al Jazeera, the Washington Monthly, the American Prospect, and Bloomberg View.

He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

He runs road races, plays 3 instruments, and does not speak fluent Ukrainian.