Meet the SOA & Connect

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh – Nebraska State Senate:  Senator Cavanaugh represents Legislative District 6, Omaha, in the Nebraska Legislature. She serves on the Health and Human Services Committee, Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and the Performance Audit Committee. She made history in 2019 as the first lawmaker to breastfeed her baby on the floor of the Nebraska Unicameral. Her policy agenda includes funding and services for developmentally disabled individuals and families, enhancements to childcare and child welfare and the advancement of family leave policies. Senator Cavanaugh led the effort to investigate and end the privatization of child welfare in the Eastern service area. Much work remains to be done with regard to child welfare and Senator Cavanaugh is continuing to push for improvements.

Joe Coletti – North Carolina House Oversight Staff Director:  Everybody has answers, recommendations, and solutions for state legislators to turn into policy. Joe Coletti leads the team that helps House Republicans ask the right questions and define the real problems. Joe has helped North Carolina and other states cut taxes by reining in spending since 2005. He led Gov. Pat McCrory’s government efficiency and reform initiative. In his current oversight role, Joe has led investigations into Covid spending, hurricane recovery, and other government functions.

Ken Cooley – Former California State Assemblyman: Ken Cooley was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2012 after 10 years as a founding Councilmember and two-term mayor (2005 and 2010) of Rancho Cordova, a job center city of 82,000 immediately east of California’s capitol city. In the five years after his city’s 2003 founding, Ken was active in the League of California Cities, which is California’s municipal league, and by 2008 had become its statewide 1st Vice President. During his Assembly career, Ken distinguished himself as a collaborative leader.

Sen. Sara Gelser Blouin – Oregon State Senate: Sara Gelser Blouin was sworn into the Oregon House in 2005, and was elected to the Oregon State Senate in 2014. She is Chair of the Senate Human Services Committee and also serves on the Judiciary Committee, the Education Committee, the Mental Health Committee and the Joint Transportation Committee. Prior to joining the Senate, she chaired the House Education Committee for 6 years and served as the National Education Policy Chair for the Council of State Governments. In 2010, President Barack Obama appointed Sara to the National Council on Disability. The nomination was confirmed by a unanimous vote of the US Senate. Sara’s legislative accomplishments include strengthening Oregon’s rape statute, the creation of a charitable pharmacy program, expansion of Oregon’s mandatory child abuse reporting law, the establishment of statewide standards for modified and extended diplomas, strengthening protections for seniors and people with disabilities who are victims of abuse and neglect, strong anti-tobacco initiatives, establishing transparent child welfare fatality reviews known as CIRTs and reducing barriers for access to medical and support services for children with disabilities. In 2007, Sara spearheaded Karly’s Law which improves child abuse investigations across the state. She is currently leading Oregon’s workgroup to implement the national Family First Prevention Services Act. Sara also played a key role in making Oregon one of the very first states in the nation to achieve recognition for full rape kit reform by the Joyful Heart Foundation.

Dan Johnson – Mayor of Lewiston, Idaho: Mayor Johnson is the first Mayor elected by the citizens of the City of Lewiston since 1964. He was elected on November 2, 2021, when the citizens of Lewiston also voted to change the form of the City’s government from a Council-Manager plan to a Mayor-Council plan. Johnson has been a proud resident of Lewiston since 2001. Many know him for his role in the Idaho State Legislature; having served District 6, which includes Nez Perce and Lewis Counties, from 2011 until appointing a substitute to serve the remainder of his term effective January 2022. During his time in the Senate, Johnson took part in several working committees, including serving as the Chair of the Local Government and Taxation Committee; serving as the Co-chair of the Interim Committee on Urban Renewal; serving as the Vice-chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and serving as a member of the Idaho Bond Bank Authority.

Sen. Ed McBroom – Michigan State Senate: State Sen. Ed McBroom serves the people of the 38th Senate District in the Upper Peninsula and is Senate Republicans’ Caucus Dean. McBroom serves on the Oversight Committee, the Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Elections and Ethics Committees. McBroom is a fourth-generation dairy farmer, and operates his family’s 100-year-old farm, which in addition to raising Holsteins, also grows corn, wheat, and hay. He previously served a full three terms in the state House of Representatives from 2011 to 2016. He is active in the community, serving on the U.P. State Fair Authority, as dairy superintendent of the Dickinson County Fair, and director of the Norway City Band. He also directs music at the First Baptist Church of Norway.

Kade Minchey – Utah Legislative Auditor General: Kade Minchey is the Utah Legislative Auditor General and director of the Office of the Legislative Auditor General. He has been with the office for 22 years, and in 2018 was appointed by the Speaker, President, and both bodies of the Utah Legislature to be the Auditor General. Kade has degrees from Utah State University and University of Utah. Kade has worked on a broad range of performance audits in his career that include favoritism and nepotism within the Department of Corrections; fraud, waste, and abuse in the state’s Medicaid program, and regulatory and tax concerns on radioactive waste within the Department of Environmental Quality. Kade has a passion for auditing and firmly believes it is one of the most important functions that any entity performs.

John Sylvia – Director, Performance Evaluation & Research Division, West Virginia Office of the Legislative Auditor: John Sylvia is originally from Boston, Massachusetts. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and a master’s degree in economics from Indiana University. John has conducted legislative research and performance auditing for the state Legislatures of Indiana and West Virginia for the past 36 years. Eight of those years were in Indiana where he worked as a budget and tax analyst. As a budget and tax analyst, John assisted several state agencies in developing their budgets, assisted in the revenue forecasting of Indiana’s general fund revenues and other dedicated state revenues, conducted tax analysis and fiscal notes on major state tax and budgetary issues, and conducted performance audits of state agencies. His work in tax analysis contributed to major policy changes in the state of Indiana. He is currently the director of the Performance Evaluation and Research Division within the West Virginia Office of the Legislative Auditor where he has been employed for the past 28 years. John has overseen an extensive number of performance audits of state agencies and legislative research projects for West Virginia’s Legislature. Many of his division’s performance audits and legislative research have led to positive administrative and legislative changes, cost savings, and facilitated effective state policy decision-making for West Virginia.

Lydia York – Delaware State Auditor: Delaware State Auditor Lydia E. York began her term of office on January 3, 2023 as the first African-American woman elected to an executive office in Delaware history. Lydia was born in Southern Pines, North Carolina, but relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her parents when she was six years old. Lydia attended Pittsburgh Public Schools and graduated from Peabody High School where she studied piano and cello, participated in All-City Orchestra, lettered in swimming, volleyball, and basketball. Lydia majored in accounting at Florida A&M University (FAMU) and graduated Magna cum Laude in addition to serving as student government representative, Senior Class President, and becoming a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, a membership she proudly represents to this day. After graduating from FAMU, Lydia returned to Pittsburgh and started her career in public accounting with Coopers & Lybrand (PricewaterhouseCoopers) and became a certified public accountant. She later worked at American Hardware Supply Co. (TruServe) as an accounting supervisor.

Dr. Jordan Butcher – Wichita State University: Dr. Butcher is an Assistant Professor in the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs at Wichita State University. Her teaching focus is on state and local administration and democratic institutions. Dr. Butcher’s current research centers on understanding state legislative careers and women lawmakers. She is the author of Navigating Term Limits: The Career of State Legislators and her research has been published in Legislative Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Legislative Studies, and State Politics and Policy Quarterly. She utilizes a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods in her research and recently released the SEAT (State Exits & Annual Turnover) dataset.

Dr. Jesse Crosson – Purdue University: Jesse Crosson is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, and Fellow at the Center for Effective Lawmaking. He received his Ph.D. in 2019 from the University of Michigan and B.A. in 2013 from Hofstra University. Broadly, his research investigates how party competition has transformed nearly every major facet of American political institutions, with a specific focus on legislatures, parties, and private interests. His work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Science Research and Methods, Legislative Studies Quarterly and other outlets.

Dr. Cody Drolc – University of South Carolina: Cody A. Drolc is an assistant professor of Public Policy and Administration in the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina. His research and teaching interests are at the intersection of public administration, public policy, and American politics. Dr. Drolc’s research focuses on intergovernmental program implementation and oversight with a special emphasis on inspectors general, the Government Accountability Office, and Social Security Disability and Veterans’ health programs. His work has been published in journals such as Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Policy Studies Journal, and Presidential Research Quarterly.

Dr. Christian Grose – University of Southern California: Dr. Christian Grose is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the University of Southern California, and Director of the USC Democracy and Fair Elections Lab. He is a scholar of political representation, legislative politics, elections, race, and the law of democracy in the United States. His research shows that democratic institutions structure political representation: who gets represented and whose voices are heard depend on electoral and governance institutions as well as the preferences of voters and public officials. His work also demonstrates that members of Congress and other public officials respond to many of the same behavioral influences that shape voters’ decisions. Grose pioneered the field experimental study of legislators and public officials and also conducts polls, surveys, and quantitative studies of voters, political elites, elections, and redistricting. He is the author of the award-winning book Congress in Black and White and approximately 70 scholarly articles and research publications, including work in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics. Grose earned his B.A. from Duke University and his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester.

Dr. Mary Kroeger – University of North Carolina: Mary Kroeger is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She received her Ph.D. in Politics and Social Policy from Princeton University, and holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her research interests are in U.S. state politics, American political institutions, bureaucratic-legislative interactions, policy diffusion, and quantitative methods. Her book project, entitled Outsourcing Legislation: How Non-Legislators Write U.S. State Law, studies the origins of laws that govern citizens, businesses, and bureaucrats within the U.S. states. Further, it asks under what conditions do non-legislative actors play a role in crafting statutory law? This work finds that interest groups, companies, think tanks, and unelected bureaucrats play a huge role in crafting the exact parameters and specific wording of the laws that govern their behaviors.

Dr. Kenneth Lowande – Rice University: Kenneth Lowande studies American political institutions and policymaking. He has published research on congressional oversight, presidential power, and policy implementation. Lowande previously held research fellowships at Washington University in St. Louis and the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University.

Dr. Keesha Middlemass -Howard University: Dr. Keesha Middlemass is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Howard University and a former Fellow of the Brookings Institution. Her research focuses on public policies, race, and the impact policies have on marginalized communities. Relying on mixed methods and an interdisciplinary framework, she combines first person narratives and Census data with analyses of politics and policies to demonstrate the benefits and burdens of policies. The analyses are used to develop policy alternatives to reduce harms and increase benefits. In one line of research, Dr. Middlemass explores prisoner reentry. Her award-winning book, Convicted & Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Prisoner Reentry, is a significant interdisciplinary contribution to better understand prisoner reentry, politics, policies, and race. In a second line of research, Dr. Middlemass and a team of interdisciplinary scholars examines food insecurity in diverse communities.

Dr. Sara Sadhwani – Pomona College: Sara Sadhwani is an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College and serves as a commissioner on the 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission, tasked with redrawing congressional and state legislative districts. Her research examines elections, representation, and public opinion with a focus on Asian American and Latino voting behavior. She has published widely in academic journals and her analysis of elections has been featured in The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Time, and many others. She cohosts Inside the Issues: The Podcast with journalist Alex Cohen for Spectrum News Los Angeles. Sara earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of philosophy from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to academia she worked for nearly a decade advocating for the rights of immigrants at social justice organizations in Los Angeles. She serves on the executive board of the Western Political Science Association, as a senior researcher for AAPI Data and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

Dr. James Strickland – Florida State University: James Strickland is an associate professor of political science and the head of the Constitutional Liberty branch at the Institute for Government and Civics. His areas of research include interest groups, legislatures and state politics in the United States. In his research, Prof. Strickland examines the effects of institutions or laws on lobbyists. These include term limits, regulations on lobbying, and campaign finance laws. Prof. Strickland grew up in a small town and was the first person in his family to attend college. He became interested in politics, policy, and lobbying after meeting his senator and working as a page in the state senate. He seeks to create a classroom environment where learners of all backgrounds and ability levels can succeed.

Dr. Neal Woods -University of South Carolina: Neal Woods is a professor in the Department of Political Science. His areas of specialization are bureaucracy, federalism, state politics, and public policy, especially in the substantive areas of environmental policy, energy policy, and regulation. He has published over forty articles and chapters on these topics. His scholarship has won best dissertation, best conference paper, and best journal article awards from the American Political Science Association and its organized sections. His research appears in a variety of scholarly journals; since 2015 these include American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Political Research Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Regulation and Governance, Review of Policy Research, and State Politics and Policy Quarterly. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Council of Publius: The Journal of Federalism, the Editorial Board of State and Local Government Review, and the National Center for Interstate Compacts Advisory Committee.

Dr. Adam Zelizer – University of Chicago: Adam Zelizer studies legislative politics, with a focus on causal inference. His research examines how legislators make decisions – for example, how they acquire expertise from policy research and influence one another through deliberation – and the effects of individual decision-making processes on policy outcomes. One goal of this research is to figure out which legislative processes work, in the sense of leading to more informed, effective, and broadly-supported public policies, and which don’t. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University in 2018. He also holds a BA in Political Economy from Columbia University. He joins Harris as an Assistant Professor after spending a year as a postdoctoral researcher and instructor at Harris, during which he taught Analytical Politics II and Field Experiments for Public Policy. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, Cato Institute, Open Society Foundations, and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab.