SOA Symposium 2025
"Legislators and Academics in Collaboration"
June 26, 2025
On Zoom!
Registration now open!
The State Oversight Academy’s 2025 Symposium will be held virtually on June 26, 2025.
*This is now a virtual event*
Like our previous symposia, we asked scholars to submit working papers on state legislative oversight and related topics to be read and reviewed by practitioners. We will also have a roundtable discussion focused on overcoming barriers and leveraging opportunities for collaboration between scholars and practitioners.
We will also recognize our 2025 Oversight Leader at the symposium. The SOA Oversight Leaders designation recognizes individual state legislators and committees whose work contributes to the practice of high-quality oversight and stands as an example for others to follow.
Program
*All times are in EDT*
- 11 – 11:10am: Welcome
- 11:10 -11:40am: Keynote speakers: Assemblymember David Orentlicher (NV) and Megan Rickman Blackwood (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
- 11:40am – 12:25pm: Working paper presentation and review
- 12:25 – 1:55pm: People-centered oversight report presentation and casework panel
- 1:55 – 22:25pm: Lunch break
- 2:25 – 2:45pm: Oversight Leaders presentation
- 2:45 – 4pm: Roundtable
Join the SOA newsletter to stay up-to-date on symposium announcements!
Register Now!
Register by clicking below. Once you fill the Zoom Webinar registration form, you will be sent the dial-in details automatically by Zoom.
Speakers and Papers
How Are Minority Staffers Utilized? Evidence from the California State Assembly
Author:
Michelangelo Landgrave
Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder
Abstract: Legislative staffers are among legislators’ most valuable assets and their appointment by legislators is strategic. Past research has focused on how legislative staffer appointments help legislators meet policy or constituency service goals. In this article I advance the literature by theorizing how minority staffers are utilized. I hypothesize, and show using novel data from the California State Assembly, that state legislators disproportionally place Hispanic and Asian American Pacific Islander staffers in constituency service positions. This may be done as an effort to provide a form of surrogate descriptive representation. Concerningly, because minority staffers are more likely to be placed in constituency service positions, minority staffers are less likely to be placed in policy orientated positions where they might have the most influence over substantive policymaking. This leads to a situation where minority staffers are placed in visible constituency service appointments but continue to be underrepresented in key policy appointments.
Reviewed by:
Ken Cooley
Former California State Assemblymember
Michelangelo Landgrave (he/him/él) is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. At CU he serves as the Director of the Barney Ford Lab for Civic Thought and Engagement.
He is a member of the Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP) research network and co-organizes the Mid-American Conference for Race, Gender, Immigration, and Ethnicity Politics (MARGIE).
Dr. Landgrave has previously held research appointments at Princeton University (Postdoc Fellow), the U.S. Federal Government’s Office of Evaluation Sciences (Associate Fellow), and the University of Missouri (Postdoc Fellow & Assistant Professor). He earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside, and a Master’s degree in Economics from California State University, Long Beach.
He has published 20+ peer reviewed research articles in Political Analysis, Legislative Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Experimental Political Science, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, American Politics Research, Politics, Groups & Identities, PS: Political Science & Politics, the California Journal of Politics & Policy, Political Studies Review, the Journal of Political Science Education, the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, the Journal of Social Equity & Public Administration, the Journal of Economics, Race, & Policy, and the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization among others.
His research has been widely cited in popular media, including John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight.
He can be reached at michelangelo.landgrave@colorado.edu. Follow him on Bluesky.
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 leading the development of the California Assembly’s Oversight Handbook, which is available on the California State Assembly website at 2017 Oversight Handbook | California State Assembly .
Keynote Speakers
Megan Rickman Blackwood
PhD Candidate, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Megan and Rep. Orentlicher connected at last year’s SOA symposium and decided to work together on a proactive oversight study in his district!
Megan Rickman Blackwood, M.A, is a Ph.D. Student at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Prior to returning to pursue her Ph.D. Megan served as a legislative director for State Sen. Mamie E. Locke, Ph.D., in the Virginia State Senate. During this time of service, Megan was inspired to center her research agenda on creating knowledge to inform equitable policy making and representation decisions at the State Level. Megan centers her work on discovering ways for representatives to bridge access-gaps and presents data-driven strategies for creating a more inclusive government.
Nevada State Assemblymember David Orentlicher is the Judge Jack and Lulu Lehman Professor at University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law and director of the UNLV Health Law Program. Widely recognized for his expertise in health law and constitutional law, Dr. Orentlicher has testified before Congress, had his scholarship cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, and has served on national, state, and local commissions. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and Harvard Law school and – we’re not even to the best part yet — Dr. Orentlicher is serving his third term in the Nevada Assembly, and from 2002-2008, he served three terms in the Indiana House of Representatives. He also has served as a health policy adviser to the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Rep. David Orentlicher
Nevada State Assemblymember, Professor of Law at University of Nevada Las Vegas William S. Boyd School of Law
Oversight Leaders
Announcement coming soon!
Roundtable Discussion
Practitioners
TBA
Scholars
Michelangelo Landgrave
Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder
Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson is a Professor of Political Science at Wayne State University. Her research focuses on state legislative term limits and legislative oversight of the executive branch. She was the principal investigator on a major study of term limits in Michigan that involved interviews with 460 state legislators over 10 years as Michigan implemented a state term limits ballot initiative. She participated in two studies of legislative oversight of the executive branch in collaboration with the Levin Center at Wayne State University’s Law School–a 50 state study of oversight and a study of contract monitoring in selected states.
For Michelangelo Landgrave‘s biography, see paper section above.
Dr. Marjorie Sarbaugh-Thompson
Professor, Department of Political Science, Wayne State University, SOA Academic Director
