Reforming Congress Interview Series

John A. Lawrence served for 38 years as a senior staff member in the U.S. House of Representatives, the last eight as Chief of Staff to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). He also served as staff director of the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Natural Resources, as well as chief of staff and legislative director to Congressman George Miller (D-Calif.). Upon his retiremen...

Gregory Wawro (Ph. D., Cornell, 1997) specializes in American politics (including Congress, elections, campaign finance, judicial politics, and political economy) and political methodology. He is the author of Legislative Entrepreneurship in the U.S. House of Representatives and co-author (with Eric Schickler) of Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the United States Senate, which is an histor...

Bryan Jones is a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests center in the study of public policy processes, American governing institutions, and the connection between human decision-making and organizational behavior.   With Frank Baumgartner of the University of North Carolina and John Wilkerson of the University of Washington, Jon...

Dr. Geoff Lorenz is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He studies how to make change in Washington. His main line of research examines why Congress addresses some policy issues but not others, and in particular the role of advocacy organizations and special interest groups in shaping Congress’s legislative agenda. In addition, he studies how lawmaker...

Matthew Green is an ordinary professor of politics and an associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies.  He has taught at Catholic University since 2005.  Professor Green teaches a variety of courses in American politics, focusing in particular on political institutions, state and local politics, federalism, and methodology.  He developed a course on re...

Phil Kiko is at home equally in the Legislative and Executive Branches. As Chief Administrative Officer for the U. S. House of Representatives under both House Speakers Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis), Phil managed approximately 800 employees and contractors and a $200 million budget. Previously Phil served as Chief of Staff and General Counsel to both the House Judiciary and House Admin...

Katherine M. Gehl is a business leader, entrepreneur, author, and speaker. Corresponding with the release of her first book, “The Politics Industry,” co-authored with Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter, and in order to make good on the promise of political innovation found in its pages, Gehl founded The Institute for Political Innovation. Gehl is the former president and CEO of Ge...

Tom Wickham, former Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives, serves as senior vice president of State & Local Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Wickham leads the Chamber’s new division that monitors state and local policy developments and coordinates state and local policy advocacy strategies within the existing Chamber framework. As a nonpartisan House official for over 25...

Timothy M. LaPira, PhD, is professor of political science at James Madison University in Virginia and faculty affiliate at the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia. His expertise is on Congress, interest groups, and lobbying. His books include Revolving Door Lobbying: Public Service, Private Influence, and the Unequal Representation of Interests (University Press of Kansas,...

Kenneth Lowande studies American political institutions and policymaking. He has published research on congressional oversight, presidential power, and policy implementation. Lowande previously held research fellowships at Washington University in St. Louis and the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University.

Alexander Furnas is a Research Assistant Professor at the Center for Science of Science and Innovation in the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and Researcher at University of Michigan. He received a Ph. D in Political Science at the University of Michigan in 2020 in American Politics (major subfield) and Quantitative Methods (minor Subfield). Furnas specializes in the role of...

FERGUS M. BORDEWICH is the author of eight non-fiction books: CONGRESS AT WAR: How Republican Reformers Fought The Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, And Remade America, (Alfred A. Knopf, 2020); THE FIRST CONGRESS: How James Madison, George Washington, and a Group of Extraordinary Men Invented the Government (Simon & Schuster, 2016. Winner of the 2019 D.B. Hardeman Prize), AMERICA'S GRE...

Brian Baird, founder and Chair of the NMCFS, served for twelve years in the United States House of Representatives (WA-3, 1999-2011). He holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wyoming, practiced clinically for twenty years, has written three books, served as a university president, and was an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. During his...

Keith Allred became the Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse on January 1, 2019. He was recruited to lead NICD because he had recently launched CommonSense American, a new organization that brings Republicans, Democrats, and Independents together from across the country to find and champion solutions with broad support. Impressed by the successful five-year state pilot,...

Scott Adler came to CU Boulder in the fall of 1996, when he joined the faculty as a professor of political science. He became dean of the Graduate School in June 2019.  Scott served as chair of the Political Science department and was founding director of the department’s American Politics Research Lab. He has also served as director of the Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Socia...

Josh McCrain is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. He holds a Ph. D. in political science from Emory University and an M.A. and B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and was previously a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research at Michigan State University. His research focuses on public policy,...

William Timmons entered Congress in 2019 with a commitment to bring real reform to Washington. His experience as a prosecutor and small business owner inspired him to run for public office. As a state senator, he fought for accountability and transparency in Columbia. In Congress, William is a voice for Upstate residents and South Carolina’s business community as a member of the Financial Services...

Rachel Augustine Potter is an Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the hidden politics of procedure and process in American political institutions, with a particular focus on the bureaucracy and regulation.   Her book Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy (University of Chicago Press, 2019) received two awards from Ameri...

Professor Theriault, who is fascinated by congressional decision-making, is currently researching the effect of interpersonal relationships within the U.S. Congress. He has published five books: Congress: The First Branch (with Mickey Edwards; Oxford University Press, 2020), The Great Broadening (with Bryan Jones and Michelle Whyman; University of Chicago Press, 2019), The Gingrich Senators (Oxfor...

Keith Hall has more than 25 years of public service, most recently as the ninth Director of the Congressional Budget Office. He also served as the Chief Economist and Director of Economics at the International Trade Commission (ITC), a senior research fellow at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, the thirteenth Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Chief Economist for the Whit...

David Price represents North Carolina's Fourth District a rapidly growing, research-and-education-focused district that includes all of Durham, Franklin, Granville and Orange counties as well as parts of Chatham, Wake, and Vance counties. He received his undergraduate degree at UNC-Chapel Hill and went on to Yale University to earn a Bachelor of Divinity as well as a Ph. D. in Political Science. &...

Professor Neblo's research focuses on deliberative democracy and political psychology. His most recent book, Politics with the People: Building a Directly Representative Democracy (with Kevin Esterling and David Lazer; Cambridge University Press, 2018), develops and tests a new model of politics connecting citizens and elected officials to improve representative government. He was invited to testi...

Andy Ballard is an assistant professor in the Department of Government in the School of Public Affairs at American University, where he is affiliated with the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies and the Center for Data Science. He received his Ph. D. from the Department of Political Science at Duke University, where he was also a part of the Political Institutions and Public Choice P...

Matthew Stephenson is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he teaches administrative law, legislation and regulation, anti-corruption law, and political economy of public law. His research focuses on the application of positive political theory to public law, particularly in the areas of administrative procedure, anti-corruption, judicial institutions, and separation of powers. Prior to j...

Sarah Binder is senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and professor of political science at George Washington University, where she specializes in Congress and legislative politics.  Binder’s current research explores the historical and contemporary relationship between Congress and the Federal Reserve, and she is the co-author with Mark Spindel of The Myth of Indep...