Our Team

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chairman

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of the most recognized individuals on the planet, having led an amazing life and achieving beyond his dreams in Hollywood, fitness, and public service. In an effort to give back to the country that allowed him to accomplish so much, Schwarzenegger ran for public office and was elected California’s 38th Governor.

Called “The People’s Governor,” Schwarzenegger worked with leaders of both major political parties to address the greatest challenges facing the state in a bold and historic manner. His leadership put California at the forefront of the nation in addressing climate change, pushing for the development of renewable energies, rebuilding our critical infrastructure, investing in stem cell research, and putting in place health care and political reforms. Schwarzenegger pushed for historic investment in California’s roads, bridges, water delivery systems, and schools. He proposed a comprehensive health care reform initiative and ensured California was the first state to create a Health Benefits Exchange. He also put politics back in the hands of the people through citizen-based redistricting and primary election reform.

Recognizing that states have the responsibility to provide the best possible education to every child, Schwarzenegger committed himself to offering top-quality early childhood development programs, comprehensive after-school programs for all elementary and middle schools, parental choice through high-performing charter schools, and expanding career technical education programs.

Continuing his commitment to environmental leadership, in 2011 he co-founded R20, a global non-profit of sub-national governments and regional leaders working together to address climate change and build a green economy. In 2012 he partnered with USC to launch the USC Schwarzenegger Institute to continue his work on the many policy initiatives he championed during his two terms as Governor.

Conyers Davis, Global Director

Conyers Davis is an experienced communications advisor, project manager and campaign strategist. He manages communications, special projects and external relations for the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy.

Conyers’ previous work in the public and private sectors has focused on launching and managing large-scale political campaigns, communications strategies and high-visibility events. He has worked in the United States, Europe and Asia on projects that helped drive sales, policy and political platforms. Conyers has worked for British Prime Minister David Cameron, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Simon & Schuster, Lionsgate Films and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Additionally, he managed projects for the 2004 G8 Summit and the 2005 Hurricane Katrina recovery effort.

Christian Grose, Academic Director

Christian Grose is Professor of Public Policy; and Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California. He is the Academic Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy. He served as the Director of the Political Science and International Relations Ph.D. program in USC Dornsife College from 2015-18. He is editor of the journal Research & Politics. In 2020, he led a team that administered the USC Schwarzenegger Institute nonpartisan democracy grants to local election administrators to open new polling places; and he is now conducting research about how best to improve voter access and voting rights based around this community-engaged work.

He is the author of more than 50 articles, chapters, policy reports, and other works about American politics; legislative politics; public administration; public policy; race and ethnicity; voting rights; and political representation; including in the American Political Science Review; the American Journal of Political Science; the Journal of Politics; the British Journal of Political Science; Political Research Quarterly; Legislative Studies Quarterly; and Political Behavior. His book Congress in Black and White (Cambridge University Press) won the best book on race and politics award from the American Political Science Association. His research has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, the MIT Election Data Science Center, and others. In total, he has raised nearly $3 million for research and other activities at USC. Grose’s research has been profiled in the Washington Post, the New York Times, National Public Radio, and other media outlets.

Grose directs the Democracy Lab, where researchers, students, and policy practitioners work together to generate new ideas to reform American democracy. His recent work examines behavioral and social choices made by public officials and public election administrators, and how they are constrained by institutions and law. He is also an expert in political reforms and voting rights, including independent redistricting commissions. His research often uses field and survey experimental techniques to answer questions about public policy, political institutions, and the behavior of public administrators and elected officials. Some of this research involves partnerships with practitioners and the community. Grose has served as an expert consultant and witness in redistricting and voting rights cases, including as the voting rights statistical consultant for 2 of the 10 largest counties in the United States in 2021.

Dr. Grose has been named the Herman Brown Distinguished Scholar, an award given annually to a U.S. political scientist. He also received the 2022 best article published in the Journal of Politics; received the 2020 best article published in Political Research Quarterly; and received the CQ Press award for the best paper on legislative studies presented at the American Political Science Association meeting. He co-chairs the 2023 Midwest Political Science Association meeting.

Grose has experience conducting innovative teaching and scholarship via both virtual online and in-person platforms; and regularly partners with public officials, policy makers, and academic researchers in his teaching, scholarship, and administrative leadership.

Allison Kay

Allison Kay is the Deputy at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute where she helps with the organization’s financial reporting, communications, website maintenance, and event production.

Allison started working at USC in 2015 as a project specialist in the Price School Dean’s Office. Throughout her two and a half years in the dean’s office, Allison worked with various centers, institutes and departments to provide administrative support. She has helped with everything from intimate book talks to Price commencement and the California Gubernatorial Debate. In addition to working at the Price School, Allison is currently pursuing her Master of Public Administration degree at the Price School.

Prior to starting at USC, Allison majored in Chemistry and Education at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. While at Grand Valley, Allison worked as a writing consultant, research assistant, and teaching assistant.

Fran Pavley, Environmental Policy Director

Former State Senator Fran Pavley served 29 years in elected office. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Pavley was elected the first mayor of Agoura Hills in 1982, and served 14 years in the California Assembly and the State Senate. Senator Pavley authored landmark climate policies (AB 1493, AB 32, SB 32, and others) that have created a market for innovation and investment in clean energy and vehicles, which have helped clean up our air, grow the economy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As chair of the Senate’s Natural Resources and Water Committee, she was able to pass California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act(SGMA), promote policies to protect our ocean and watersheds, and adopt measures to create more sustainable local water supplies. During her last year in the legislature, Senator Pavley also authored SB 1425, the Water-Energy Nexus bill.

She is working as the Environmental Policy Director for the USC Schwarzenegger Institute, and serves on several state and local advisory boards and committees.

Francisca Martinez

Francisca Martinez is the Deputy to former State Senator and USC Schwarzenegger Institute Environmental Policy Director, Fran Pavley. Francisca assists Senator Pavley with the planning and implementation of all climate and environment related initiatives at the Schwarzenegger Institute. Francisca also manages the Digital Environmental Legislative Handbook, an easy to use toolkit state legislators can use to replicate successful climate legislation passed in states across the country. In addition to her work with Senator Pavley, Francisca supports the Schwarzenegger’s Institute’s other areas of focus including political reform and education. Francisca earned a B.S in Environmental Science from UCLA.

Antonio Bento, Faculty Fellow

Antonio M. Bento is a Professor, Chair, Department of Public Policy and Real Estate at the Sol Price School of Public Policy and the Department of Economics of the University of Southern California. He is also a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Professor Bento received a BA in Economics from the Nova School of Business and Economics (Portugal) in 1996, and a PhD in Agricultural and Resource Economics (jointly with Economics) from the University of Maryland in 2000. He has previously taught at UCSB(’00-’04), University of Maryland (’04-’07), Cornell University (’07-’15), and has been a visiting professor at Stanford University, and a regular consultant to the World Bank.
Professor Bento is an applied micro-economist with a research program in the areas of environmental, energy, urban, and public economics. For the past few years, he has written on topics related to the design of climate change mitigation policies and the interactions of (new) environmental policies with the broader tax system; the effectiveness of policies that promote the expansion of biofuels, renewable energy, and the diffusion of cleaner technologies; causes and remedies of urban sprawl and urban environmental challenges in developed and developing countries; the benefits of major environmental regulations, such as the Clean Air Act and its Amendments; individual responses to real-time pricing; and the distributional impacts of various environmental policies, including federal gasoline taxes. His work has been published in the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the Journal of Urban Economics, the Energy Journal and other scholarly journals and books. Professor Bento contributed to the New York State Climate Change Action Plan, the New York State Biofuels Roadmap, the U.N. Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Assessment Report on Biofuels, served as a contributing author to the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, and was recently appointed as a lead author to the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP).

Hilda J. Blanco, Faculty Fellow

Dr. Blanco’s research focuses on urban land management, cities and climate change, and urban water policy. In the area of urban land management, Dr. Blanco developed the first versions of New Jersey’s urban growth management plan; collaborated with researchers at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to evaluate China’s 1980s urban land reforms; and most recently chaired international advisory group for the major EU research project on European sprawl (PLUREL 2008-2011). In climate change, Dr. Blanco’s research has centered on cities and urban land policies in both mitigation and adaptation. She was a lead author for the 2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment with a focus on urbanization, infrastructure and the role of spatial planning; and was also lead author for the US National Climate Assessment (2014) focused on US Southwest region. Current research centers on water supply management in Southern California under climate change. She is the North American editor of the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management.

Karin Huebner, Faculty Fellow

Karin Huebner received her Ph.D. in history from USC in 2009. Her research interests include Native American history, History of the American West, and Gender and Sexuality. Dr. Huebner’s current book project traces the history of her Euro-American-Indian family from 1735 to 1925, which speaks to an unexpected story of cooperation and community formation between Native peoples and Euro Americans. She received the W. Turrentine Jackson Prize from the Pacific Historical Review for her article, “An Unexpected Alliance: Stella Atwood, the California Clubwomen, John Collier, and the Indians of the Southwest, 1917-1934,” which appeared in the PHR August 2009 issue. In 2012, Dr. Huebner received the USC Remarkable Woman Award, a campus-wide recognition for achievements in scholarship, contributions to USC, commitment to students and women’s issues, community involvement, and professional excellence. Dr. Huebner currently serves as the Academic Director of Programs for the USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study and also holds title of adjunct assistant professor of history. Prior to her career as a historian, Dr. Huebner competed for 10 years on the Women’s World Tennis Tour, including appearances at Wimbledon, the US Open, and French Open.

Lawrence Palinkas, Faculty Fellow

Lawrence Palinkas is the Albert G. and Frances Lomas Feldman Professor of Social Policy and Health; Chair of the Department of Child, Youth and Families; and Director of the Behavior, Health and Society Research Cluster in the USC School of Social Work. Dr. Palinkas received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1974 and an MA and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego in 1975 and 1981, respectively. A medical anthropologist, his primary areas of expertise are mental health services research and behavioral health and prevention science. Dr. Palinkas is particularly interested in the sociocultural and environmental determinants of health and health-related behavior with a focus on disease prevention and health promotion, child welfare and child mental health, translational and implementation science, immigrant and refugee communities, global health and health disparities, and health behavior in extreme environments and disasters

Dan Mazmanian, Faculty Fellow

Daniel A. Mazmanian is a Professor of Public Policy in the Sol Price School of Public Policy and Faculty Fellow of the Schwarzenegger Institute. Author of eight books, numerous articles, and the recipient of National Science Foundation and other research grants, his areas of interest are public policy analysis with special emphasis on environmental and climate change policy. He served as Dean of the Price School from 2000-2005 and Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan from 1996-2000. In 2005-07 he served as a member of the Task Force on Environmental Governance for the Chinese Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Beijing. In 2009-2010 he served as director of the Task Force on California’s Adaptation to Climate change. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation since 1994. He holds a doctorate degree in political science from Washington University, St. Louis, with master and bachelor degrees from San Francisco State University.

Adam Rose, Faculty Fellow

Adam Rose is Research Professor at USC’s Price School of Public Policy, and a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE). Before coming to USC, he served as Professor and Head of the Department of Energy and Environmental Economics at The Pennsylvania State University for fourteen years. He received his PhD in Economics from Cornell University.

Professor Rose’s main area of research is the economics of energy and climate change policy. As a consultant to the UN, he played a major role in the development of the first proposal for a system of globally tradable emission allowances. He has advised government agencies in several U.S. states and regions on the development of cap & trade programs, and agencies in the U.S., Mexico and China on the employment impacts of climate action plans. He has also done pioneering research on resilience to disasters.

Detlof Von Winterfeldt, Faculty Fellow

Detlof von Winterfeldt is a Professor at the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of the Viterbi School of Engineering and a Professor of Public Policy and Management at the Price School of Public Policy at USC. From 2009 to 2012 he was on leave from USC as the Director of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Vienna, Austria. His research interests are in the foundation and practice of decision and risk analysis applied to technology development, environmental risks, natural disasters and terrorism. He is an elected fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) and of the Society of Risk Analysis (SRA). He received several research awards including the Ramsey Medal for lifetime contributions to decision analysis by INFORMS and the distinguished achievement award by SRA.

Jeff Jenkins, Faculty Fellow

Jeffery A. Jenkins is Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law, Judith & John Bedrosian Chair of Governance and the Public Enterprise, Director of the Bedrosian Center, and Director of the Political Institutions and Political Economy (PIPE) Collaborative. He previously held tenure-stream positions at the University of Virginia, Northwestern University, and Michigan State University.

His research interests include American Political Institutions and Development (with a special emphasis on Congress and political parties), lawmaking, separation-of-powers, and political economy. Much of his work takes a positive political theory (or rational choice) approach, and examines how political actors pursue their interests while being constrained by formal and informal institutional arrangements. His current work involves papers on the ideological content of federal lawmaking in the post-war era and book projects on how civil rights policy has been dealt with in Congress over time and how the Republican Party evolved in the South after the Civil War.

Pamela McCann, Faculty Fellow

Pamela McCann, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Dr. McCann previously served as an assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Washington.

Her research interests include U.S. political institutions, bureaucratic delegation, federalism, intergovernmental politics, legislative behavior, public policy, health policy, policy diffusion, state and local politics. She examines the influence of the states and state-level political institutions on national political maneuvering and policy choices. In particular, Dr. McCann focuses on the influence of policy actors’ intergovernmental context on legislative choices. Her recent work addresses the impact of the interaction of state and national political institutions on political choices and policy outcomes.

Dan Wei, Faculty Fellow

Dan Wei is a Research Associate Professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Her research focuses on economic consequence analysis of natural or man-made hazards, modeling of economic impacts of climate mitigation policies, and analysis of market-based GHG mitigation policy instruments. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Public Policy, Ecological Economics, The Energy Journal, Environment and Planning A, International Regional Science Review, Climate Policy, Energy Policy, Regional Science Policy and Practice, Contemporary Economic Policy, Economics of Energy and Environmental Policy, Economic Systems Research, Earthquake Spectra, Risk Analysis, Natural Hazards Review, and Transport Policy. Dr. Wei’s current projects include development and application of an economic framework to evaluate resilience in recovering from major port disruptions for California Department of Transportation, analysis of economic impacts of the HayWired earthquake scenario for U.S. Geological Survey, and evaluation of alternative modeling approaches for the NY Prize Microgrid projects.

Jonathan Eyer, Faculty Fellow

Jonathan Eyer is a Research Assistant Professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. His research interests include energy and environmental economics, natural disasters, and climate change. His research focuses on how individual and firm responses to environmental shocks can ameliorate or exacerbate future exposure. He has also studied how political efforts to preserve manufacturing jobs will affect climate change and the environment. His work has appeared in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. He received his PhD in economics from North Carolina State University and a BS in economics and mathematics from Arizona State University.

Sara Sadhwani, Faculty Fellow

Sara Sadhwani is a tenure-track assistant professor at Pomona College. She earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Southern California in 2019, and co-authored the USC Schwarzenegger Institute policy report “The Worst U.S. State Legislative Partisan Gerrymanders.” Her article “Structuring Good Representation: Institutional Design and Elections in California,” published in PS: Political Science and Politics, argues that institutional innovations such as the California Citizens Redistricting Commission led to increases in Latino and Asian-American representation in the state legislature and U.S. Congress.

She specializes in American politics and race and ethnic politics. In her dissertation, she identified variations in voting behavior between Asian Americans and Latinos. Her research and teaching interests include voting behavior, elections, public opinion, public policy, and interest groups, with an emphasis on the representation of racial, ethnic and immigrant communities. She has published research on California politics, redistricting, and Latino and Asian-American voting rights in the Journal of Politics; Political Behavior; Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics; and the Washington Post.

Laura Resnick Samotin, Predoctoral Fellow

Laura Resnick Samotin is a PhD Candidate in the political science department at Columbia University. Her dissertation examines how military popularity and the rise of militarism contributes to reduced military effectiveness in democracies. In addition, she conducts research on political psychology, specifically on bias in decision-making processes; military technological innovation; and on various aspects of terrorism.

Ms. Resnick Samotin is a Cordier Fellow in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia, where she instructs masters-level courses in international relations theory. Before starting her PhD, she was a researcher at The Good Judgement Project at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania and an MA and M.Phil from Columbia University. She has been a pre-doctoral fellow at the Schwarzenegger Institute since Fall 2018.