Newswise — The following are GW experts available to discuss Presidential history, American politics, African-American history, first ladies, international affairs, terrorism, homeland security, and emergency preparedness.Presidential History
Tyler AnbinderChair of the Department of History; Professor of HistoryAnbinder is an expert on Civil War-era politics and immigration. His most recent book, Five Points, traced the history of nineteenth-century America's most infamous immigrant slum, focusing in particular on tenement life, inter-ethnic relations, and ethnic politics.
Edward D. BerkowitzProfessor of History and of Public Policy and Public AdministrationBerkowitz's areas of expertise include U.S. social welfare policy and comparative social policy. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton and his Ph.D. in American history from Northwestern. He is the author of eleven books and over seventy articles including Social Security, social insurance, welfare reform, and the history of health care. His most recent books are Mr. Social Security: The Life of Wilbur J. Cohen (1995), To Improve Human Health: A History of the Institute of Medicine (1998), The Medical Follow-Up Agency, 1946-1996 (1998), Robert Ball and the Politics of Social Security (2003), and Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview of the Seventies (2006).
Leo Ribuffo Professor of History Ribuffo is an expert on 20th-century United States history with a special emphasis on historical perspectives of U.S. presidents. His publications include Right Center Left: Essays in American History (1992) and The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War (1983), which won the Organization of American Historians Merle Curti Prize as the best book in American intellectual history for 1983-84.
American Politics
F. Christopher Arterton Dean of GW's Graduate School of Political Management; Professor of Political ManagementArterton has been actively involved in politics at the national level and is an expert in political institutions and political leadership. He oversees the GW-Battleground Poll. Arterton taught for ten years at Yale University in the Department of Political Science and the School of Organization and Management prior to joining the GW faculty in 1987. He has served as a polling consultant for Newsweek and a consultant on public opinion surveys for the Gallup Organization. He is the author of numerous articles on politics and electoral behavior, and four books, including Media Politics and Teledemocracy.
Steven E. BilletDirector of the GW Legislative Affairs Program; Visiting Associate Professor of Political ManagementBillet can speak on political action committees in the U.S. in the context of campaign finance, elections, and issue management.
Sarah Binder Professor of Political ScienceBinder's research focuses on Congress, congressional development, and political parties. Her work has appeared in American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.
Stephen HessDistinguished Research Professor of Media and Public AffairsHess joined GW's School of Media and Public Affairs in September 2004. Since 1972, Hess has been a senior fellow in the governance studies program of the Brookings Institution. While there, he concurrently served as a fellow in the faculty of government at Harvard University and as a U.S. Representative to the United Nations General Assembly in 1976 and the UNESCO General Conference in 1974. He has served on the White House staffs of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon and has been an advisor to Presidents Ford and Carter. His areas of expertise include elections, media, political parties and campaigns, White House organization and staffing, and foreign media coverage of the United States.
Dennis Johnson Associate Dean of GW's Graduate School of Political Management; Professor of Political ManagementJohnson's current research involves campaigns and elections, the role of interest groups in campaigns, and the profession of campaign management. He authored the book No Place for Amateurs: The Professionalization of Modern Campaigns, and has contributed the chapter "The Cyberspace Election in Your Future" in Bruce I. Newman's book Political Marketing Handbook and "The Business of Political Consulting," in James Thurber's The Role of Political Consultants. Johnson also can speak on campaign advertisements and polling.
Eric LawrenceAssistant Professor of Political ScienceLawrence specializes in American political institutions, legislative politics, public policy, and research methodology. He has taught courses on legislative politics and the presidency and has recently published works on the effects of political parties.
Forrest MaltzmanProfessor of Political Science The institutions of American national government serve as the focus of Maltzman's teaching and research and he is especially interested in the factors that shape decision-making within Congress, the Supreme Court, and the executive branch. His current research centers on the evolving role of congressional committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and the interaction among justices on the Supreme Court.
John SidesAssistant Professor of Political Science Sides' research centers on political behavior, both American politics and in comparative politics. His current research focuses on candidate strategy in campaigns, the effects of campaigns on the attitudes on voters, the consequences of higher turnout for election outcomes, European attitudes toward immigration, and the nature and meaning of patriotism and nationalism.
Lee SigelmanDistinguished Professor of Political ScienceSigelman is a former editor of both the American Political Science Review and American Politics Quarterly, and is a former director of the political science program at the National Science Foundation. His teaching and research center on public opinion, mass communication, and electoral behavior, but extend in several directions, including American national government, research methods, and comparative political analysis. His books include Attack Politics (University Press of Kansas, 2008), Race and Place (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Black Americans' Views of Racial Inequality (Cambridge University Press, 1991); Nominating the President (University of Tennessee Press, 1991), Political Mythology and Popular Fiction (Greenwood Press, 1988), and he has contributed scores of articles to such journals as American Journal of Political Science and Journal of Politics.
Garry YoungAssociate Director of the Institute of Public Policy; Research ScientistYoung's research centers on the way institutional arrangements interact with interests to yield political and policy outcomes. Currently, he is working on a five-nation study of legislative representation and a study of policy production in the U.S. prior to World War II.
Presidential History
Adele Logan AlexanderAdjunct Professor of HistoryAlexander's research and teaching incorporates the black Atlantic world, African-American history, family history, gender issues, and military and social history. Her first book examined the lives and significance of non-enslaved women of color in the rural antebellum South. Her second explored the Americanization and evolving citizenship of an African (and Anglo-) American family in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 2003, the African American Historical and Genealogical Society recognized her contributions to the study of family history with an award for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution.
James MillerChair of the Department of American Studies; Professor of English and of American Studies; Fulbright ScholarMiller's work focuses on twentieth century African-American cultural politics, including explorations of literature, film, and music. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the works of Richard Wright and, since that time, has a long-standing interest in the relationship between social and political movements and African-American cultural production. Miller has written extensively about individual African-American writers, about film, and about African-American music. Miller's current research examines the interactions between African-American and South African jazz musicians between 1959 and 1965, as the pace of freedom struggles in both countries began to rapidly escalate.
First Ladies
Allida M. BlackResearch Professor of History and International Affairs; Project Director and Editor, The Eleanor Roosevelt PapersBlack's areas of expertise include human rights, Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, and the early United Nations. She is the recipient of GW's Millennium Medal, the 2001 Person of Vision Award from the Arlington County Commission on the Status of Women, and the James A. Jordan Award for Outstanding Dedication and Excellence in Teaching from Penn State University, Harrisburg. She has received the JNG Finley Postdoctoral Fellowship at George Mason University, a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as fellowships from the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Harry Truman Foundation, and the United States Information Agency. Outside the classroom, Black has written teachers' guides for PBS documentaries and served as an advisor to other documentaries prepared for PBS, the History Channel, A&E, and the Discovery Channel. Her museum work includes curating two exhibits detailing Eleanor Roosevelt's role in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the United Nations, an electronic exhibit on Eleanor Roosevelt's political career for the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum, and the permanent exhibit for the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site. She is currently designing a multi-media traveling exhibit on Eleanor Roosevelt politics and policy. Black also is a popular lecturer, delivering at least 20 talks a year before audiences ranging from the Smithsonian Institution to state and local women's commissions to human rights associations to national educational organizations.
International Affairs
Harry HardingUniversity Professor of International AffairsProfessor Harding's areas of expertise include Chinese domestic politics, Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and international relations of the Asia-Pacific region. Before his appointment as University Professor, Harding served as the Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs and as Professor of International Affairs and Political Science (1995-2005). He previously was a member of the faculties of Swarthmore College (1970-71) and Stanford University (1971-83), directed the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1979-80), and was a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution (1983-94). In 2005-07, he served as director of research and analysis at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm headquartered in New York. He remains a counselor to Eurasia Group and chair of its China Task Force, and also holds an appointment as a visiting fellow in the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society. Harding received his B.A. in public and international affairs from Princeton, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford. His major publications include The India-China Relationship: What the United States Needs to Know (co-edited with Francine Frankel, 2004); A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China Since 1972 (1992); Sino-American Relations, 1945-1955: A Joint Reassessment of a Critical Debate (co-edited with Yuan Ming, 1989); China's Second Revolution: Reform After Mao (1987); China's Foreign Relations in the 1980s (editor, 1984); and Organizing China: The Problem of Bureaucracy, 1949-1976 (1981).
Hope HarrisonAssociate Professor of History and International Affairs; Director, GW's Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian StudiesLanguage(s): German, RussianHarrison's areas of expertise include Russian and German foreign policy, Soviet and U.S. foreign policy and decision-making during the Cold War, former East and West Germany, and the international history of the Cold War. Harrison worked on Russia-Georgia issues in the White House from 2000-01 and has published a prize-winning book in 2003 on the East German and Soviet decision to build the Berlin Wall. She has worked extensively in archives in Moscow and Berlin on this topic. Harrison's broader research interests are Soviet and Russian foreign policy decision making, the two Germanys in the Cold War, how countries deal with difficult aspects of their past (such as through war crimes tribunals, truth commissions, or memorials), and the interaction between history and politics.
James LebovicAssociate Professor of Political Science and International AffairsLebovic's areas of expertise include international relations, national and international security, and methodology. Lebovic teaches courses on international politics theory, international security, and methodology. His research focuses on military spending, deterrence, weapons acquisition, foreign aid, and international conflict.
Marc LynchAssociate Professor of Political Science and International AffairsLynch's expertise includes Arab media and public opinion, Islamist movements, constructivism in international relations, and public diplomacy. He teaches courses on Middle Eastern politics and international relations and is the author of State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan's Identity and Voices of the New Arab Public.
Henry R. NauProfessor of Political Science and International Affairs; Director, U.S-Japan-South Korea Legislative Exchange ProgramNau's areas of expertise include U.S. foreign policy, international politics, U.S. foreign economic policy, and international political economy. From 1975-77, he served as a special assistant to the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Department of State, and from 1981-83, as a senior staff member of the National Security Council in the White House responsible for international economic affairs. Among other duties, he was the White House Sherpa for annual G-7 economic summits at Ottawa, Versailles, and Williamsburg and a special developing country summit at Cancun, Mexico.
David ShinnAdjunct Professor of International AffairsAmbassador Shinn received a bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. from The George Washington University. He has a certificate in African studies from Northwestern University. He served for 37 years in the U.S. Foreign Service with assignments at embassies in Lebanon, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Cameroon, and Sudan and as ambassador to Burkina Faso and Ethiopia. An expert on the Horn of Africa, Shinn speaks at events around the world. He is the co-author of An Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia and has authored numerous articles and book chapters. He is currently working on a book concerning China-Africa relations. His research interests include China-Africa relations, East Africa and the Horn, terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, conflict situations, U.S. policy in Africa, and the African brain drain.
Terrorism
Jerrold PostProfessor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology, and International Affairs; Director, GW's Political Psychology ProgramPost is an expert on terrorism and international affairs psychology. His areas of specialty include antiterrorist policy, the military, terrorist and hostage psychology, crisis decision making, aging and disabled leaders, world leader personality and political behavior, Iraq, Saddam Hussein, political psychology, and psychiatry.
Homeland Security
Sharon CardashAssociate Director, GW's Homeland Security Policy InstituteCardash helps lead the institute's policy, research, and education initiatives. She has served as principal or contributing author of numerous reports, articles, and testimonies on a range of homeland security issues, including counter-radicalization, weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, cybersecurity, emergency preparedness and response, and homeland security curriculum development. Cardash acts as senior advisor to GW's Center for Preparedness and Resilience, and manages the Homeland Security Policy Institute's Senior Fellows Program. Prior to joining the institute in 2005, she served as security policy advisor to Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Frank J. CilluffoDirector, GW's Homeland Security Policy Institute; Associate Vice President for Homeland SecurityThe institute's recent policy and research agenda has spanned topics such as terrorism and radicalization, disaster management and emergency preparedness, pandemic influenza planning and bio-defense, intelligence and information sharing, among others. Prior to joining the institute, Cilluffo served as special assistant to the president for homeland security at the White House. Shortly following 9/11, he was appointed by the president to the newly created Office of Homeland Security, and served as a principal advisor to Governor Tom Ridge (R-Pa.). Prior to his White House appointment, Cilluffo spent eight years in senior positions with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he chaired or directed numerous committees and task forces on homeland defense, counterterrorism, transnational crime, and information warfare. Cilluffo serves on a variety of boards and advisory councils, including the Center for the Study of the Presidency's National Council of Advisors and the University of Virginia's Critical Incident Analysis Group Steering Committee.
Charles Bancroft Cushman, Jr. Associate Dean, Graduate School of Political Management; Associate Professor of Political ManagementCushman's work focuses on defense and foreign policy, particularly military force structure, doctrine, organization, and Congress's role in making defense policy. He received a Ph.D. in American politics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to his current position at GW, Cushman was a consultant to the U.S. Department of Defense and to the Space Commission.
Jan LaneDeputy Director, GW's Homeland Security Policy InstituteAs deputy director of GW's Homeland Security Policy Institute, Lane helps lead the institute's major policy initiatives in the areas of global counter terrorism, radicalization, the evolution of homeland security as a discipline, and preparedness issues. She oversees the institute's Ambassador's Roundtable Series, strategic planning and grant-funded training initiatives. Currently she is directing the Presidential Transition Task Force. From 1990 - 2005, Lane served as government relations lead for the American Red Cross during some of the organization's most challenging times, including the response to 9/11; the 2005 tsunami, hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the interaction with FDA and Congress regarding blood safety issues.
Emergency Preparedness
Brandon W. GrahamAssociate Director, Office of Homeland SecurityGraham served in the District of Columbia Fire and EMS Department (DCFEMS) in Washington, D.C., as a paramedic, continuous quality improvement officer (EMS Sergeant), and EMS field supervisor (EMS Lieutenant). During his tenure at DCFEMS, Graham was also a special operations EMS supervisor and special investigations officer. He also served the District of Columbia as a reserve police officer for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), where he was a patrolman first class and tactical medical officer on the Emergency Response Team. As the tactical medical officer he provided operational and medical planning and response support for high-risk incidents, including hostage situations, warrant service, barricade subjects, and civil disturbances. Additionally, he served as a tactical flight officer in the MPD Air Support Unit. During his tenure in Washington, D.C., Brandon had the responsibility of responding to and supervising events ranging from routine medical, fire, and criminal emergencies, to mass casualty incidents, mass transit emergencies, civil disturbances, and acts of terrorism. He also planned for, responded to, and supervised special events such as presidential and other VIP gatherings, high-profile summits and conventions, inaugurations, and a wide variety of mass public gatherings in the nation's capital.
Daniel KaniewskiCounselor, GW's Homeland Security Policy InstituteKaniewski served as special assistant to the president for homeland security and senior director for response policy from July 2005 to August 2008. One month after joining the White House, he witnessed firsthand the response to Hurricane Katrina. He then served as a co-author and editor of the White House report "The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned." He chaired the Domestic Readiness Group at the White House, managed the Presidential Disaster Declaration process, and oversaw the development and approval of the "National Response Framework" and "National Incident Management System." Kaniewski previously served as the deputy director of GW's Homeland Security Policy Institute from 2002 to 2005.
John J. Lombardi, MBA, COL (Ret), U.S. ArmyDirector of Grants and Training, GW's Office of Homeland Security Lombardi served for 28 years with the United States Army, the last five years at the Pentagon, most recently as director of domestic emergency preparedness - medical programs. Lombardi was also the Department of Defense project manager for and a representative to the Gilmore National Terrorism Commission. He participated in the development of contingency and remediation plans for a biological attack on the Pentagon and the National Capital Region after 9/11. As the Defense Department's representative to the Department of Health and Human Services Interagency Contingency Operations Planning Committee, Lombardi established policy for the use of the Department of Defense medical assets in response to the activation of Emergency Support Function #8, Health and Medical Services, of the Federal Response Plan. He served as subject matter expert for RAND and the Department of Defense in the conduct of numerous emergency operations tabletop exercises. At the Pentagon, Lombardi served as deputy division chief and was responsible for the training portion of the President's Budget as well as a member of the Army's Crisis Action Team (CAT) at the Army Operations Center. Lombardi was commissioned Infantry and then served most of his 28 years as a medical service corps officer. As the director of medical operations (332d Medical Brigade), he was responsible for planning, organizing, and coordinating all operations for a medical headquarters (comprised of almost 60 medical units and 5,000 personnel) for the preparation of wartime missions in both the Korean and Southwest Asian theaters of operation as well as for ongoing military operations. Lombardi had direct supervision in the areas of medical operations, communications, medical regulating of patients, aviation and ground evacuation assets, and the nuclear, biological, and chemical resources. As a medical logistician, he devised programs for the Army medical system that were instrumental in forging improvements in overall medical logistics system.
Chief Gregg C. Lord (ret.) Associate Director, National EMS Preparedness Initiative, GW's Homeland Security Policy Institute; Senior Policy Advisor on Emergency Response and Homeland Security. In 2006, Lord hosted the first ever metropolitan EMS chief's summit, which brought together the EMS chiefs and directors of the 50 largest city EMS systems in America to discuss salient issues in large scale EMS response. As part of the summits, he has completed a detailed operational survey of the large city EMS system's capabilities. Lord currently serves as vice president of the International Association of Emergency Medical Service Chiefs, a newly formed professional organization, which seeks to address the unique issues facing the contemporary EMS chiefs around the world. He was also recently appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the National Commission on Children and Disasters as promulgated in the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2007. In addition he holds an appointment to the U.S. Department of Defense's Inter Agency Board. Lord's career in public safety spans nearly 30 years and has embraced progressive roles in both rural and urban jurisdictions. He became an EMT and paramedic in 1980 and was promoted through the ranks to become EMS operations chief of the second largest EMS system in New England at Worcester Emergency Medical Services until his retirement in 2001.
Paul ManiscalcoSenior Research Scientist, GW's Homeland Security Policy InstituteManiscalco serves as the president of the International Association of EMS Chiefs and is a former president of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, and a former deputy chief and paramedic for New York City. Maniscalco has over 30 years of public safety response, supervisory, and management experience while planning for, responding to, and managing a wide variety of emergencies and significant events, including aviation and rapid transit emergencies, natural and technological disasters, civil disturbances, and acts of terrorism. Maniscalco has been engaged in command roles for planning and managing large high-profile events such as dignitary visits, national and political conventions, sports championships, and a wide variety of mass gatherings. Maniscalco has participated in capacity building projects for public safety, domestic security, and disaster response in China, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Turkey.
Rick TappanTraining Coordinator, Response to Emergencies and Disaster InstituteTappan started his career in 1979 in the U.S. Army as a 91B medic and he served in a variety of units, including hospital operations, cavalry, and as a flight medic. Upon discharge he was hired as an EMT by the District of Columbia Fire Department (DCFD), and was chosen to attend paramedic school at The George Washington University. While at DCFD, Tappan served on the busiest unit in the country as well as one of the busiest medic units. He concurrently was a member of the Prince Georges County Fire Department in the Fifth Battalion where he was firefighting rookie of the year in 1985. He served in Prince Georges County until 1992 where he obtained the rank of lieutenant at one of the busiest truck companies in the metro area. While there, he worked on countless fire grounds as first due truck and engine as well as multiple hazmat events. After leaving the fire service, Tappan started at The George Washington University Hospital serving as a senior trauma technologist and utilized advanced wound and orthopedic skills to treat patients. He also served at GW in the capacity of educational coordinator and EMS coordinator for the department of emergency medicine in the Ronald Regan Institute of Emergency Medicine. While there, he attended school studying EMS management. While at The George Washington University he received his faculty appointment through the School of Medicine and Health Science and continues to teach in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Emergency Health Services Program.
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