Faculty Experts

Cynthia Awadzi

Cynthia Awadzi, visiting professor at the GW School of Nursing, specializes in substance abuse and addiction and can speak to a number of aspects of the national opioid crisis, including treatment options and risk factors. Her research interests also include the integration of medical and psychiatric health in underserved populations.

Steven Balla

Steven Balla is an associate professor of political science, public policy and public administration, and international affairs at George Washington University. He studies government transparency and public participation in policymaking in China and the United States. He is currently working on projects on congressional oversight of regulatory policymaking, polarization in public commenting on proposed rules, transparency and participation in state rulemaking, commenting on midnight regulations, policymaking innovation in China, transparency and participation in policymaking in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and the responsiveness of Chinese government officials to public feedback on draft laws and regulations.

Kelly Bauer

Kelly Bauer specializes in identity and development politics in Latin America. Her research explores how states govern national identity as global trends challenge understandings of state sovereignty; recent work explored Indigenous rights and irregular migration. Her first book, Negotiating Autonomy: Mapuche Territorial Demands and Chilean Land Policy (2021), explored inconsistencies in how Chilean state officials navigated extending elite and neoliberal governance and citizenship through Indigenous land policy.

Domonic Bearfield

Domonic A. Bearfield is a professor of public policy for the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at The George Washington University. A well-known scholar of race, gender, and public sector personnel, his work has appeared in many of the field's leading journals. He is currently an editor at Public Administration Review and previously served as the forum editor at Administrative Theory and Praxis. Bearfield is a lead author on numerous articles that delve into race dynamics within public policy and politics, such as The Disenfranchisement of Voters of Color: Redux and The Myth of Bureaucratic Neutrality: Institutionalized Inequity in Local Government Hiring. 

Todd Belt

Todd Belt is the director of the Political Management Program at the GW Graduate School of Political Management. Belt is an expert on the presidency, campaigns and elections, mass media and politics, public opinion, and political humor. In addition to his expertise, Belt is co-author of four books and helps to run GW’s political poll, which recently shared new findings.

Sarah Binder

Sarah Binder is a professor of political science. Binder's work focuses on the politics of legislative institutions, including their origins, development and impact on policy outcomes. Her areas of expertise include Congress, Legislative politics, American political economy, and political parties.

Casey Burgat

Casey Burgat, Legislative Affairs Program Director and Associate Professor at GW’s School of Political Management is an expert on Congressional capacity and reform. Burgat co-authored Congress Explained: Representation and Lawmaking in the First Branch.

Imani Cheers

Imani M. Cheers is an associate professor of digital storytelling and the Interim Senior Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education Office of the Provost. She is also the Director of Academic Adventures for Planet Forward. Cheers is an award-winning digital storyteller, director, producer, and filmmaker. As a professor of practice, she uses a variety of mediums including video, photography, television, and film to document and discuss issues impacting and involving people of the African Diaspora. She can discuss a variety of topics, including policy coverage related to women and girls as well as media literacy during the election cycle.

Elizabeth Choma

Elizabeth Choma, clinical assistant professor at the George Washington University School of Nursing, is a pediatric nurse practitioner whose work focuses on firearm safety education in families.

Alicia Cooperman

Alicia Cooperman is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. Her expertise includes local and global challenges in water politics and policy, political economy of development, civil society and accountability and climate change. Cooperman’s broader research agenda studies the politics of natural disasters, natural resource management, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Her work has been published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Political Analysis, and Comparative Political Studies, among others.

Matt Dallek

Matt Dallek, a professor at GW’s Graduate School of Political Management, is a political historian with expertise in the intersection of social crises and political transformation, the evolution of the modern conservative movement, and liberalism and its critics. Along with four co-authored books, Dallek is the author of Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right, which explores the history and influence of America’s right-wing activism.

Samuel Goldman

Samuel Goldman is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the George Washington University. He is also executive director of the John L. Loeb, Jr. Institute for Religious Freedom and director of the Politics & Values Program. His first book God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2018. His second book, After Nationalism, was published from the University of Pennsylvania Press in early 2021. In addition to his academic research, Goldman's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. His expertise includes political theory, religion and politics, political theology, and conservative political thought.