Category: Media Advisory, Press Materials

Title: 2023 State of the Union Address – Subject Matter Experts

WASHINGTON — Georgetown University professors offer expertise for journalists seeking interviews on a variety of subjects potentially included in the 2023 State of the Union Address by President Joe Biden on Tuesday, February 7.

To request to schedule an interview, please contact Georgetown’s Office of Communications at media@georgetown.edu.

The Politics of the Speech/The Moment We’re In 

The speech against the backdrop of classified document investigations, heightened GOP congressional oversight, politics of the debt ceiling, hyper-partisanship, and racial justice

Nadia E. Brown is a Professor of Government, chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and affiliate in the African American Studies program at Georgetown University. She specializes in Black women’s politics and holds a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. While trained as a political scientist, her scholarship on intersectionality seeks to push beyond disciplinary constraints to think more holistically about the politics of identity.

Expertise: Intersectionality of Race and Gender, Political Behavior, Representation, Race and Ethnicity Politics, and Gender Politics, Race and Ethnicity Politics

Mo Elleithee is the founding Executive Director of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics and Public Service, in the McCourt School of Public Policy, the first institute of its kind in the nation’s capital. Before launching the institute in 2015, Mo spent two decades as one of the top communications strategists in the Democratic Party, most recently as Communications Director and chief spokesman of the Democratic National Committee. A veteran of four presidential campaigns, Mo was Senior Spokesman and Traveling Press Secretary on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign. He served as a senior advisor and strategist for Senator Tim Kaine’s campaigns for Governor and U.S. Senate, and has worked on numerous other statewide and local races in every region of the country.

Expertise: Political Communications, Campaigns, Congressional and Presidential Elections

Jonathan Ladd is an Associate Professor of Public Policy and Government at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. He writes and researches about elections and public opinion, especially trust in institutions and the effects of the mass media.

Expertise: Elections, Public Opinion, or Polling

Hans Noel is an Associate in the Department of Government, teaching on parties, elections, political history and political methodology, and he has lectured around the world on the American political system. Noel’s research is on political coalitions, political parties and ideology, with a focus on the United States. He is the author of Political Ideologies and Political Parties in America, and a co-author of The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform.

Expertise: Political Coalitions, Political Parties and Ideology, Elections, Political History, Political Methodology, Presidential Nominations

Jamil Scott, is an Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University. She studies race and ethnicity politics, gender politics, and political representation. She can speak to how individuals participate in political activities, why individuals seek office and how officeholders understand political representation. 

Expertise: Race and Ethnicity Politics, Gender Politics, Political Representation 

Michele Swers is a Professor of American Government in the Department of Government. Dr. Swers’ research encompasses Congress, Congressional elections, and Women and Politics. She has written two books and numerous articles on women and representation in Congress. Her research addresses party polarization and policymaking on a range of social welfare and women’s rights topics.

Expertise: Congressional Elections, Policymaking in Congress, Women and Gender in Politics, Campaign Fundraising Practices

Gun Violence, Gun Control, Policing

Andrea Headley, is a public management, social equity and criminal justice policy scholar at Georgetown’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on policing to understand how organizational, managerial, and individual level factors affect policing services and outcomes, with a keen focus on inequities and disparities. Specific examples of her past work include assessing police-community relations, analyzing dispositional outcomes in citizen complaints, evaluating the effects of race during use of force encounters, as well as evaluating body-worn cameras. She teaches specialized courses on criminal justice policy and generalist courses on public management.

Expertise: Racial Equity, Community Policing, Civilian Oversight Boards, Body-worn Cameras, National Police Reform Commissions, Hiring Officers of Color, Police Use of Force, and Improving and Understanding Police-Community Relations.

Climate Change

Parrish Bergquist is an Assistant Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy. She studies environmental policy and politics in the United States, with a focus on public opinion and political behavior. Her research examines the development and implications of public attitudes about environmental protection, energy, and climate change; the implications of partisan polarization and nationalization for environmental policy outcomes; and how political actors and members of the public perceive, portray, and evaluate political issues, problems, and proposals. 

Expertise: American Politics, Climate Change, Environmental Studies, Public Opinion Polls, Public Policy

Foreign Policy

Anthony Clark Arend is Professor of Government and Foreign Service and Chair of the Department of Government. His research and teaching is in the fields of international law, national security law, international legal theory, and human rights. He has published seven books, including Legal Rules and International Society, International Law and the Use of Military Force (co-authored), and Human Dignity and the Future of Global Institutions (co-edited).

Expertise: Foreign Policy, Multilateral Institutions (UN, NATO, etc.), International Law, National Security Law (eg, War Powers, FISA, Treaty Powers)

Harry Holzer is the John LaFarge Jr. SJ Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University’ McCourt School of Public Policy, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Brookings, and an Institute Fellow at the American Institute for Research in Washington DC. He is a former Chief Economist for the U.S. Department of Labor and a former Professor of Economics at Michigan State University. He was a founding faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality.

Expertise: Effects of COVID-19 on the U.S. Labor Market and U.S. Economy, Workforce Development, Anti-Poverty Policies, Immigration, Higher Education, Racial Equity

Andreas Kern is a teaching professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. His research concentrates on the political economy of macroeconomic and financial governance with a special focus on central banks, credit market dynamics, and financial crises. Analyzing complex interactions between political and economic dynamics in international financial markets, his research underscores the importance of an interdisciplinary and evidence-based approach to mitigating political and economic risks in achieving sustainable poverty alleviation. His research has been featured in internationally leading scientific journals.

Expertise: Financial Governance, International Political Economy, Monetary Policy

Charles A. Kupchan was the Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European Affairs on the staff of the National Security Council in the Obama administration (2014-2017). He is currently a Professor of International Affairs in the School of Foreign Service and Government Department at Georgetown University, and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. His most recent books are Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World (2020), No One’s World: The West, the Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn (2012), and How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (2010).

Expertise: Foreign Policy, The Domestic Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy, the Russia-Ukraine Conflict, History of Elections and their Impact on U.S. Foreign Policy, U.S. Relations with other major powers (Europe, Russia, China)

Pandemic Preparedness/COVID/Global Health

Jennifer Bouey is an epidemiologist engaged in wide-ranging collaborative research initiatives on the U.S.-China relationship. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bouey has testified multiple times before U.S. Congressional committees on China’s public health, global health, and health care reforms. Bouey is an associate professor and chair of global health at the School of Health, and is the Tang Chair for China Policy Studies at RAND Corporation.

Expertise: Pandemic Preparedness, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Health System Strengthening.

John Monahan, is a global health expert with extensive government and NGO experience. Monahan directed the HHS Office of Global Affairs during the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009-2010 and was responsible for coordinating with WHO leadership. Later, he represented the US on the board of the Global Fund, a key element of the global response to COVID.  More recently, he has advised WHO, Gavi, CEPI and others regarding liability issues relating to COVID vaccines. Monahan is a professor at the School of Medicine and Senior Fellow at McCourt School of Public Policy.

Expertise: Global Health Law, WHO International Health Regulations, Pandemic Preparedness, Equitable Access to Vaccines

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About Georgetown University: 

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