Introducing Our New 2023-2024 Chapter Leaders and Fellows

Clark’s research focuses on social movements, election administration, and the U.S. policy process. She has examined the framing strategies of social movements including Black Lives Matter, the nonprofit community in Flint, MI in response to the water crisis and a national coalition in the anti-human trafficking field. After serving at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office in 2020, where she ran early voting, she has begun to focus her research on election administration and the role that public affairs academics play in supporting this essential public service.

Nicholas D. Hartlep is the Robert Charles Billings Endowed Chair in Education at Berea College where he Chairs the Department of Education Studies. Hartlep’s research focuses on the model minority stereotype of Asian/Americans, urban education (and teaching for transformation), and the impact neoliberalism has on public education (and society). Much of his recent work has examined how neoliberal capitalism has come to dominate higher education in the United States. He serves as the lead editor of the book series Urban Education Studies with Information Age Publishing. Hartlep is a former elementary school teacher.

Herrington's research focuses on global environmental history with a focus on land and resource dispossession of the Canadian Mi'kmaq and the Scottish tenant farmers in the Highland Clearances. Overarching themes in Herrington's writing include commons system enclosures and the genocidal consequences of settler colonialism. She has served as a SSN chapter fellow and is a founding member of the Environmental History Working Group, Pteris Scholars Circle, and the Environmental Humanities Initiative at the University of Kentucky.

Yazdiha’s research examines the mechanisms underlying the politics of inclusion and exclusion as they shape intergroup boundaries, ethno-racial identities, and political culture. Her research projects have explored questions about dynamics of belonging, identity, and resistance through a range of cases including Muslim diasporas, immigrant rights movements, Black-Brown coalitions, community policing, and right-wing groups.

Gordon's research focuses on American education policy, with an emphasis on equity and the federal role in elementary and secondary education. She has studied the distributional impacts of Title I, fiscal rules governing federal education grants, state school finance reforms, school desegregation, and school district consolidation. Gordon has testified before Senate and House committees on implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act. She has served on the Institute of Education Sciences Expert Panel on the Study of the Title I Formula and DC's state Title I Committee of Practitioners, and currently serves on the Professional Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Lee’s work examines barriers faced by low-income people within contemporary legal systems, analyzes how systems meant to benefit the poor are frequently subverted or distorted, and proposes ways to combat such subversion.

Rigby's work examines the politics of inequality and redistribution: identifying conditions shaping the public's policy preferences, examining the policymaking process that shapes health, education, and welfare policies, and assessing the consequences of these policy choices on the level of inequality in our society. Rigby has worked at the intersection of politics, inequality, and public policy in a range of roles and organizations including: Senate Finance Committee, Project Vote Smart, Citizens for Missouri's Children, the National Center for Children and Families, and St. Louis Public Schools. 

Hetling’s research agenda focuses on the implementation and efficacy of U.S. social welfare policies. She is particularly interested in the impact of programs and policy on the economic well-being of vulnerable populations. Her projects focus on families and women living in poverty and on survivors of intimate partner violence. Hetling works with a number of civic organizations, sharing her research and expertise and supporting their efforts to improve social service programs. She is a Research Academy member of the National Association of Welfare and Research Statistics and a Research Affiliate of the National Poverty Center.

Smith’s research focuses on gender and politics, ranging from the executive branch to grassroots activist work. As an interdisciplinary feminist scholar, her work explores perceptions of appropriate masculine and feminine leadership in American contexts. Overarching themes in Smith’s writings include the deployment of motherhood, fatherhood, and heterosexuality for political gain. She conducts both quantitative and qualitative analysis of cultural materials to consider larger arguments within popular discourse, from campaign commercials to social media engagements. She is involved in several organizations in the New Orleans community.

Lindsey's research focuses on an array of policy areas relevant to California's decision makers: gender equity, employment, demographics, race and corrections, media, and any policy areas where requests come in. She has methodological expertise using qualitative and quantitative methods to answer many different kinds of research questions. Lindsey's writings include subgroups, aging, and health; subgroups, aging, and economic indicators; women on corporate boards; the gender pay gap across contexts such as media; LGBTQ veterans; unlawful detainer; race in California prisons for men; and media ownership.