James E. Campbell is a UB Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University at Buffalo, SUNY and will join emeritus ranks at the end of July. He has taught American politics at UB since 1998. He is the author of four books and more than 80 articles and book chapters. His most recent book, Polarized: Making Sense of a Divided America (Princeton University Press, 2016), was selected as one of Choice’s Outstanding Academic Titles. Prior to joining Buffalo’s faculty, he taught at the University of Georgia and Louisiana State University and served as an APSA Congressional Fellow and as a program director at the National Science Foundation.

Michelle A. Amazeen (Ph.D., Temple University) is Director of the Communication Research Center and an Associate Professor in the Department of Mass Communication, Advertising, and Public Relations at Boston University. Amazeen’s research program examines mediated persuasion and misinformation, exploring the nature and persuasive effects of misinformation and efforts to correct misperceptions. She employs a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to yield results with practical applications for journalists, educators, policymakers, and consumers who strive to foster recognition of and resistance to persuasion and misinformation in media.

Dr. Niambi Carter is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Howard University. She is the author of the award-winning book American While Black: African Americans, Immigration, and the Limits on Citizenship (2019, Oxford University Press) which offers a critical examination of African American public opinion on immigration. She is a 2021-2022 Woodrow Wilson Fellow and working on a new project examining U.S. Haitian refugee policy (1973-2021).   She is an expert on African American politics, with an emphasis on public opinion and political behavior.  Her work has appeared in numerous publications such as Journal of Politics, National Review of Black Politics, Political Psychology, The DuBois Review, and The Washington Post.

Nolan McCarty is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs and Interim Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. His research interests include U.S. politics, democratic political institutions, and political game theory. He has authored or co-authored four books: Political Game Theory, Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches, Political Bubbles: Financial Crises and the Failure of American Democracy and Polarization:  What Everyone Needs to Know. In 2010, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He earned his AB from the University of Chicago and his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University.

Mike Smeltzer is Freedom House’s Senior Research Analyst for Europe and Eurasia and the project lead for Nations in Transit, the democracy watchdog’s annual survey of democratic governance from Central Europe to Eurasia. His commentary and writing on Russia’s domestic political developments, rising authoritarianism in Eurasia, and democratic decline in Eastern Europe have appeared in the LA Times, Foreign Policy, US News and World Report, NPR, and Radio Free Europe. He holds a Master’s degree in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies from Harvard University and a BA in Russian language and philosophy from St. Olaf College.

Grant Tudor is a Policy Advocate for Protect Democracy where he develops and advocates for a range of reforms among federal policymakers to shore up our democratic institutions. He was prior a senior manager of political reform at Harvard’s Institute for Strategy & Competitiveness, and also served as a Visiting Fellow with UNRWA, a UN refugee agency, and with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a group that mediates armed conflict. Grant received his MBA from Harvard Business School and MPP from Harvard Kennedy School where he was a Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership.