A nationally recognized elections expert, Tammy Patrick has been working in the election administration space since 2003. Focusing on modern elections, Tammy works to foster a voter-centric elections system and support election officials across the country. In 2013 she was selected by President Obama to serve as a commissioner on the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, which led to a position at the Bipartisan Policy Center to further the work of the PCEA. Prior to that, she was the Federal Compliance Officer for Maricopa County Elections Department for eleven years. She now serves as the Chief Executive Officer for Programs at the National Association of Election Officials, commonly known as Election Center.

She has testified on election administration policies multiple times in the United States Senate and House of Representatives, and in numerous state legislatures on behalf of members of both parties. She has been an active member of the Election Center’s Legislative and Postal Committees, representing the organization to the United States Postal Service’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee for over a decade. She elevates the election official perspective in the media and by serving as a member of numerous boards of advisors and steering committees.

She received her CERA certification in 2007 from Auburn University and the Election Center and was honored to be inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2022. She has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Policy since 2016.

In her free time you can find her in her garden or playing music—she released her fifth album in 2016 and can be found on all major streaming services.

Mitchell Brown, Ph.D., is the Curtis O. Liles III Professor of Political Science at Auburn University and is a founding editor of  the Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice. She is  widely published, and her work as a researcher, evaluator, trainer and consultant focuses on applied projects around the country centering on election administration and community-based problem solving. She serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Election Officials (the Election Center) and has also held board and leadership positions at the university, in state government, and in non-profit organizations.

Paul Gronke is a Professor of Political Science at Reed College who studies American politics, specializing in convenience and early voting, election administration, public opinion, and elections. Additionally, Paul serves as Director for the Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC), co-located at PSU and Reed College, that he founded two decades ago. Under Paul’s leadership, EVIC has become a national center of excellence for policy research and publicly engaged scholarship into election administration, election reform, and electoral integrity. Paul has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles, monographs, and reports on topics ranging from public opinion and trust in government, public opinion about government use of torture, congressional elections, early and no-excuse absentee voting, and automatic voter registration. Paul is regularly featured in national and regional media outlets as a commentator on politics and elections. He also serves on the Advisory Board for the MIT Election Data Science Lab (MEDSL) and the National Vote at Home Institute‘s Circle of Advisors, and he was awarded a Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2020. Paul received his PhD in political science from the University of Michigan and has held academic positions at Duke University and Appalachian State University in addition to Reed College.

Kathleen Hale, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University and Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Hale’s research examines how to improve capacity of government and nonprofit organizations to address public problems. Hale also directs Auburn’s partnership with The Election Center (National Association of Election Officials) to professionalize the public administration of elections through its national certification program. She is widely published, including eight books and various journal articles in Election Law Journal, Publius, Government Information Quarterly, Journal of Information Technology and Politics, Public Administration Review, among others.

Dr. Martha Kropf is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Dr. Kropf is author of two books: Helping America Vote: The Limits of Election Reform (Routledge, with David C. Kimball) and Institutions and the Right to Vote in America (Palgrave). Her third book is currently under review–A Republic if you Can Pay For It: How Much Does It Cost to Administer Elections? (with Zachary Mohr and Mary Jo McGowan). She authored numerous articles and book chapters about election issues, including four studying election costs in North Carolina.

Paul Manson is a Research Assistant Professor with the Center for Public Service at Portland State University (PSU). Paul also serves as Research Director for the Elections & Voting Information Center (EVIC), co-located at PSU and Reed College. Since 2018, Paul has co-led the annual Local Election Official (LEO) Survey conducted by EVIC. His election administration research explores the workforce, budget, and management challenges with which election officials wrestle. Paul has a particular interest in understanding what draws individuals to serve in election administration, and what communities have access to serve in this critical role. In his work, Paul strives to co-produce research efforts with practitioners, allowing research questions to be developed in collaboration with the election community. In addition to survey research and quantitative methods, Paul also applies qualitative tools such as interviews and focus groups to better understand the challenges that face election administrators. As an educator, Paul is fortunate enough to be in the classroom and workshops with mid-career professionals. In these engagements, Paul enjoys sharing the latest in research and academic scholarship. But in reality, these teaching opportunities are a chance for Paul to hear how those on the frontlines are solving emerging and critical problems. Paul graduated from Portland State University with a Master of Public Administration and a PhD in Public Affairs and Policy from the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government. He cast his first and only in person vote at a small church in Alaska, and has been voting by mail ever since moving to Oregon.

Zach Mohr is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at the University of Kansas. He studies and teaches public budgeting, accounting, and financial management. He has produced over thirty peer reviewed articles and books, including Cost Accounting in Government: Theory and Applications. He is currently working on finishing a book on the cost of election administration at the local level entitled A Republic if You Can Afford It: How Much Does it Cost to Administer an Election? He has provided testimony to the Congressional Committee on House Administration and has actively participated in the Election Science Reform and Administration conference. He is also a leader in behavioral public budgeting and financial management. Before he was an academic, he was a city administrator in Kansas.

Rachel Orey is a Senior Associate Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center Elections Project where they are responsible for the organization’s election administration policy development, state and federal advocacy efforts, and the BPC Task Force on Elections. Their research focuses on evidence-based and data-driven reforms that meaningfully improve our elections ecosystem.Orey obtained their Master of Public Policy and Certificate of Data Science from George Washington University.
Orey has served as an expert source for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Politico, VoteBeat, and more. They regularly publish op-eds on state elections issues and have represented BPC in speaking engagements at numerous national conferences. Prior to joining BPC, they supported research efforts at The Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies program on the topics of congressional oversight, election administration, and the Federal Reserve. They also served as a Legislative Intern for former U.S. Senator Kamala Harris.

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT and a Fellow of the American  Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also the co-director of the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project and the Director of the  MIT Election Data and Science Lab. Professor Stewart is an established leader in the analysis of the performance of election systems and the quantitative assessment of election performance. His research and teaching areas include American politics congressional politics, elections, and American political development. He received his undergraduate education at Emory University and his SM and PhD degrees from Stanford University.

Matthew Weil is the Executive Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Democracy Program, where he is responsible for the Elections Project, American Congressional Exchange, Structural Democracy Project, and Presidential Leadership Initiative. He leads the organization’s voting-related policy development efforts at the state and federal level, the Business Alliance for Effective Democracy, and collaborations with social media platforms to provide authoritative election information to voters. Prior to joining BPC in February 2013, he worked at the Department of the Treasury on domestic finance issues in the office of public affairs. He also previously served as a research and policy analyst at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and as a research assistant at the American Enterprise Institute. Weil earned a Master of Science in Government Analytics degree from Johns Hopkins University and a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.