Texas Legislative Session
As lawmakers convene to tackle complex issues for the state, experts at The University of Texas at Austin can provide rich commentary and insight based on years of research and work in the field. Journalists covering the Legislature and Texas government can contact the following professors to discuss issues in these areas of concern to the Legislature:
- Criminal Justice
- Budget and Economy
- Education
- Energy and the Environment
- Health Care and COVID-19
- Immigration and Border Security
- NCAA Changes and Collegiate Athletics
- Security and Identity Protection
- Texas Politics
- Transportation
If you are seeking expertise on other subjects, please call University Media Relations at 512-471-3151 or consult our general Media Experts Guide.
Criminal Justice

Jeffrey B Abramson
Professor
, Department of Government
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 232 6224, +1 781 223 8395, jabramson@austin.utexas.edu
Abramson teaches in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties, the jury and political theory. He is the author of "We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy and numerous law review articles. In his book "Minerva's Owl: The Tradition of Western Political Thought" (2009) argues politics with the classic writers, such as Socrates and Plato. Professor Abramson clerked for Rose Bird, the late Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, and served as an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts. He has recently completed an assignment as a court-appointed jury expert for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Massachusetts. Professor Abramson also teaches courses in the Department of Government in political theory.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Michele Y Deitch
Distinguished Senior Lecturer
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 232 2562, +1 512 296 7212, michele.deitch@austin.utexas.edu
Michele Deitch is an attorney with over 30 years of experience working on criminal justice policy issues with state and local government officials, corrections officials, judges, and advocates. She holds a joint appointment as a Senior Lecturer at the LBJ School and at the Law School, where she teaches graduate courses in criminal justice policy, juvenile justice policy, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Deitch was awarded a 2005-06 Soros Senior Justice Fellowship by the Open Society Institute of the Soros Foundation, one of the most prestigious prizes for individuals working on criminal justice policy reform. Her areas of specialty include independent oversight of correctional institutions, institutional reform litigation, prison conditions and management, prison and jail overcrowding, prison privatization, juvenile justice reform, and juveniles in the adult criminal justice system. She holds a J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School, an M.Sc. in psychology (with a specialization in criminology) from Oxford University (Balliol College), and a B.A. with honors from Amherst College. Most of Prof. Deitch's current research focuses on two issues: independent prison oversight, and the management of juvenile offenders. Her work on both subjects has been recognized nationally. The author of numerous articles about correctional oversight, including a 50-state inventory of prison oversight models, she helped coordinate and edit a landmark publication of the Pace Law Review in 2010 called a "Sourcebook on Prison Oversight." She was invited to provide lead testimony on the prison oversight issue before the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission and the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons, and she organized a major international conference entitled "Opening Up a Closed World: What Constitutes Effective Prison Oversight?," held at the LBJ School in April 2006. The Texas Legislature also honored her with a resolution for her research and work on this topic. She currently co-chairs (with Prof. Michael Mushlin from Pace Law School) the American Bar Association?s committee on independent correctional oversight. Previously, she served as Reporter (draftsperson) to the American Bar Association Task Force that wrote recently adopted national standards on the treatment of prisoners.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Jennifer E Laurin
Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 232 3627, jlaurin@law.utexas.edu
Laurin's principal research interests lie in the intersections of criminal and constitutional litigation, and regulation of criminal justice institutions.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798
Budget and Economy

William H Beardall
Clinical Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 784 0683, bbeardall@law.utexas.edu
Bill Beardall directs the Law School's ground-breaking Transnational Worker Rights Clinic. He has practiced as a public interest employment lawyer for low-income working men and women since 1978. Mr. Beardall also serves as Executive Director of the Equal Justice Center, a non-profit employment justice and civil rights organization based in Austin, Texas.
Widely recognized for his experience in reforming public justice systems and private employment practices, Mr. Beardall is a leading expert in low-income employment law and in securing access to the justice system for working people regardless of their income or immigration status. From 1984-2000 he served as Director of the Migrant Worker Division of Texas Rural Legal Aid and from 2000-2001 he was Legal Director for Texas Appleseed. In 1997 he was awarded a Harvard Law School Wasserstein Fellowship which honors outstanding public interest lawyers in the U.S. and in 2000 he received the John Minor Wisdom Award from the American Bar Association's Litigation Section, recognizing his career as a leading advocate for low-income working people.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798

Olivier Coibion
Professor
, Department of Economics
, College of Liberal Arts
, ocoibion@austin.utexas.edu
Olivier Coibion works on macroeconomic topics, including monetary policy, how agents for their expectations, inflation measurement, and commodity prices. Prior to joining UT Austin, Olivier worked at the International Monetary Fund, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Brookings Institution. He is also affiliated with the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Joseph R Fishkin
Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 232 1813, jfishkin@law.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798
Christophe T King
Director
, Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 2186, +1 512 471 7891, ctking@austin.utexas.edu
Dr. Christopher King is a senior research scientist, director of the Ray Marshall Center for the Study of Human Resources and a lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where he currently holds the Mike Hogg Professorship in Urban Management. He is a labor economist with nearly four decades experience at the international, national, state and local level, conducting policy and program analysis, designing innovative programs, evaluating impacts and measuring the benefits and costs of education, employment and training interventions. He has written widely on education, workforce, and social policy. He has received recognition for his teaching, including the prestigious Texas Exes Teaching Award in 2007 and the LBJ School Dean's Excellence Award in 1994, and, for his contributions to workforce policy, the Central Texas Workforce Edge Award in 2008. In early 2012, the Aspen Institute selected him as one of twenty leaders in its inaugural class of Ascend Fellows working on two-generation antipoverty strategies.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054
Education

Jennifer K Adair
Professor
, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
, College of Education
, jadair@austin.utexas.edu
Spanish Speaker
Jennifer Keys Adair, PhD is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and the Director of the Agency and Young Children Research Collective at The University of Texas at Austin. A trained cultural anthropologist and former preschool teacher, Using video-cued ethnography, Dr. Adair works with young children, teachers, parents and administrators to understand how racism and white supremacy impact the learning experiences of young children. Dr. Adair focuses on the importance of agency for childrens capability expansion as well as ways to locate/measure agency to overcome the overly-controlled schooling environments many children of color experience, even in the early years of school. Dr. Adair is a former Young Scholars Fellow with the Foundation for Child Development and recently completed a major Spencer Foundation study on civic agency in preschool classrooms. Dr. Adair is the author of the book, Segregation by Experience: Agency, Racism and Early Learning (The University of Chicago Press, 2021; Awarded the Council on Anthropology and Education 2021 Outstanding Book Award) with Dr. Kiyomi Sánchez-Suzuki Colegrove.
Dr. Adair has published in numerous journals including Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, Race, Ethnicity and Education, Young Children, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, and Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood. She currently serves on multiple, national editorial and advisory boards, and lectures in multiple countries. In addition to academic conferences, Jennifer has spoken at SXSW and Blackademics on why white parents need to talk to their children about racism and white supremacy. Jennifers work and expertise can be found in a variety of media Washington Post, NPR, New America, Code Switch, Huffington Post, Edweek, The Conversation, Chicago Register and the Migration Policy Institute and NAEYCs recent equity statement.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Tricia S Berry
Executive Director WiSTEM
, Women in STEM
, triciaberry@utexas.edu
Tricia Berry leads efforts to close the STEM gender gap by creating an inspired and diverse community of confident STEM leaders as the Executive Director of Women in STEM (WiSTEM) at The University of Texas at Austin. She concurrently serves as Collaborative Lead for the Texas Girls Collaborative Project, leading the dissemination of effective, equitable, and inclusive STEM education practices while fostering networks and collaborations across Texas in coordination with the National Girls Collaborative Project. Through both roles, she connects and supports organizations and individuals working to advance gender equity in STEM fields across Texas and beyond.
Tricia serves in an advisory or leadership capacity for various STEM or equity-focused campus, community and school organizations including the UT Austin K12 STEM Collaborative, Greater Austin STEM Ecosystem, and the DiscoverE Messages Matter Advisory Group. Previously Tricia served for 20 years as Director for the Women in Engineering Program at The University of Texas at Austin, cofounded and led the career consulting company 825 Basics, and worked as a Product Development Engineer at The Dow Chemical Company.
In her outside of STEM work, Tricia is the co-author of You Cant Eat Your Degree: Combine Your Passions and Philosophies to Create the Story of Your Future and Exceeds Expectations: Take Control of Your Performance Review. She is a hobbyist gardener, novice bird watcher, amateur nature photographer, and avid reader. Tricia holds a BS Chemical Engineering degree and an MBA, is the mom of 2 chemical engineering college students, and is the wife of another chemical engineer.

Christopher P Brown
Professor
, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
, College of Education
+1 512 232 2288, cpbrown@utexas.edu
Christopher is a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. He also is a Faculty Fellow with The Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis and a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Health and Social Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He is also the Past-Chair for the Early Education/Child Development Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.
As a former preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teacher, his research centers on how early childhood education stakeholders across a range of political and educational contexts make sense of and respond to policymakers reforms. He has looked at this issue across a range of political and educational contexts using multiple theoretical and practitioner-based perspectives that span the fields of early childhood education, curriculum and instruction, teacher education, and policy analysis.
Through this work, his goal is to advocate for early learning environments that foster, sustain, and extend the complex educational, sociocultural, and individual goals and aspirations of school leaders, teachers, children, and their families. To achieve this goal, he has produced empirical, theoretical, and practitioner-oriented publications on such topics as: high-stakes standards-based accountability reform in early childhood, early learning standards, pre-kindergarten (Pre-k) assessment, Pre-k alignment with elementary school, school readiness, culturally relevant and developmentally appropriate teaching, the changed kindergarten, neoliberal reform, teacher education, professional development, and teaching a mandated curriculum. Among his publications, 39 have been co-authored with 16 current and former graduate students at UT-Austin.
His recent publications focus on three issues: 1) Examining how familial, education, research, and political stakeholders make sense of the changed kindergarten; 2) RIGOROUS DAP; 3) Understanding how practicing and pre-service early childhood educators in high-stakes public teaching contexts can engage in practices that support the cultural, individual, and developmental learning needs of children.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Keffrelyn D Brown
Professor
, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
, College of Education
+1 512 232 4257, keffrelyn@austin.utexas.edu
Keffrelyn D. Brown (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the Suzanne B. and John L. Adams Endowed Professor of Education and Distinguished University Teaching Professor of Cultural Studies in Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is the co-founder and co-director (with Dr. Anthony Brown) of the Center for Innovation in Race, Teaching, and Curriculum. She also holds a faculty appointment in the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies and the Center for Women and Gender Studies. Her research and teaching focuses on the sociocultural knowledge of race in teaching and curriculum, critical multicultural teacher education and the educational discourses and intellectual thought related to African Americans and their educational experiences in the U.S.
Keffrelyn has published over 50 books, journal articles, book chapters and other educational texts. She serves on the editorial boards for several well-recognized peer-reviewed journals including Teachers College Record, Race, Ethnicity and Education, Teaching and Teacher Education and Urban Education. Her most recent book, After the "At-Risk" Label: Reorienting Risk in Educational Policy and Practice was published by Teachers College Press. Keffrelyn has received recognition for both her research and teaching. In 2017 she received the Division K Mid-career Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). In 2013 she was awarded the Kappa Delta Pi/Division K Early Career Research Award from AERA. She is also the recipient of numerous fellowships, including the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and the Wisconsin-Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant. In 2012 she received the Regent's Outstanding Teaching award, the highest teaching honor given for excellence in undergraduate teaching across the University of Texas system. She was inducted in the Provost's Teaching Fellows program at UT-Austin in 2017 and in its Academy of Distinguished Teaching in 2019.
Keffrelyn is a sought after presenter in her local, regional and national communities. She is active in the multiple roles she has as a researcher, teacher, teacher educator and critically engaged community member. As a former elementary and middle school teacher, school administrator, and curriculum developer, Keffrelyn is keen to the everyday challenges of schooling.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Elizabeth T Gershoff
Professor
, Department of Human Development and Family Sciences
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 4800, liz.gershoff@austin.utexas.edu
Gershoff explores how neighborhoods, schools, early childhood education settings, and public policies affect children and youths, focusing on how socioeconomic resources and exposure to violence influence them.
More specifically, Gershoffs current research interests center on four topics: (1) how parental discipline affects child and youth development; (2) how contexts of poverty, neighborhoods, schools, and cultures affect children, youth, and families; (3) how exposure to various forms of violence (from parents, communities, and terrorism) affect child and youth development; and (4) how enriched early childhood educational environments can improve the lives of low income children and their families. Dr. Gershoff is committed to using advanced applications of structural equation modeling and hierarchical modeling to understand the dynamic and multilayered contexts of childrens lives.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Joan Hughes
Associate Professor
, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
, College of Education
+1 512 232 4145, joanh@austin.utexas.edu
Dr. Hughes has twenty-four years of teaching and research experience in the K-12 educational technology space. Her research and teaching focuses on teacher learning and technology integration in preservice teacher settings and PK-12 schools. She studies how teachers and K-12 students use technologies in-and-outside the classroom for subject area learning and how school leaders support classroom technology integration. She also explores the preparation of new teachers (in university certification programs) to determine how and what they are being prepared to do with technology in their future teaching positions. Her publications have been cited more than 3400 times. Her twenty-four years working in the educational technology field began as an elementary and middle school computer teacher in Silicon Valley in the early 1990s.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Arthur B Markman
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
, Extended Education Ventures
+1 512 232 4645, markman@austin.utexas.edu
Arthur Markman's research interests include similarity and analogy, categorization, decision making and consumer behavior, and knowledge representation. Dr. Markman is the founding director of Human Dimensions of Organizations (HDO) at the University of Texas at Austin. HDO is a program that aims to provide education in the humanities and the social and behavioral sciences to people in business, nonprofits, government, and the military. The goal of the program is to teach leaders about how people, groups, and cultures influence the workplace. He is also the director of Similarity and Cognition Lab.
He has written numerous articles on his research areas. He was awarded a number of awards including grants to support his research such as the 2007 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to continue this research. He is currently the executive editor of the journal Cognitive Science. The journal is published by the Cognitive Science Society.
Cynthia Osborne
Research Affiliate - Sr Research Fellow
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 9808, cosborne@prc.utexas.edu
Cynthia Osborne joined The University of Texas at Austin in 2005 as an Assistant Professor at the LBJ School and as an affiliate of the UT Austin Population Research Center. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of social policy, poverty and inequality, family and child well-being, family demography, and school entry among disadvantaged children.
Prior to joining the LBJ School faculty, Osborne was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University, where she worked on the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Survey of New Parents. She holds a Ph.D. in demography and public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, a master's in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and a master of arts in education from Claremont Graduate University. Previously, Osborne was a middle school teacher in a low-income community in California.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Sarah R Powell
Associate Professor
, Department of Special Education
, College of Education
+1 512 475 6556, srpowell@utexas.edu
Sarah R. Powell is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at The University of Texas at Austin and Associate Director of the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. Her research, teaching, and service focus on mathematics, particularly for students who experience mathematics differently.
Powell is currently Principal Investigator (PI) of an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) efficacy grant (RAAMPS) related to word-problem solving at Grade 4. Powell is also PI of SPIRAL, an IES grant which works collaboratively with Grade 4 and 5 teachers who provide mathematics instruction to students with mathematics difficulty. Powell is Co-PI of STAIR 2.0 (funded by IES) in which the team works with middle school special education math teachers and SCALE (funded by the US Department of Education) in which the team is replicating a fraction intervention in Grades 4-8. Powell collaborates on TIER, a project funded by the Texas Education Agency, as well as Young Academic Music and Our Mathematical World. Powell was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2019.
Powell understands these efforts are a team effort, and she thanks her project leads, graduate students, research assistants, and research participants.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Victor Saenz
Acting Associate Dean, Equity and Inclusive Excellence
, College of Education
+1 512 232 7519, +1 512 471 7551, vsaenz@austin.utexas.edu
Spanish Speaker
Victor B. Sáenz, Ph.D. currently serves as the acting associate dean, equity and inclusive excellence for the College of Education and as the chair and L. D. Haskew Centennial Professor in Public School Administration of the [link:https://education.utexas.edu/departments/educational-leadership-policy]Department of Educational Leadership and Policy[/link] at the University of Texas at Austin and the. He also holds courtesy appointments with the [link:https://lbj.utexas.edu/]LBJ School of Public Affairs[/link], the [link:https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/cmas/]Center for Mexican American Studies[/link], the [link:https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mals/]Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies[/link], the [link:https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/ppi/]Irma Rangel Public Policy Institute, the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis[/link], and the [link:https://heri.ucla.edu/]UCLA Higher Education Research Institute[/link].
Sáenz's current work advances research-informed best practices and policy solutions that improve educational outcomes for underserved students in education, with a special emphasis on boys and young men of color. In 2010 Sáenz co-founded an award-winning initiative at UT-Austin called [link:http://diversity.utexas.edu/projectmales/]Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success)[/link], a multi-pronged effort focused on advancing educational outcomes for male students of color (based within the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement). Under Project MALES he launched a nationally recognized Student Mentoring Program that partners with local schools to connect undergraduate peer mentors with middle school and high school male students. He also co-created a network of K-12 and higher education institutions called the [link:http://diversity.utexas.edu/txedconsortium/]Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color[/link] that focuses on advancing educational outcomes for this critical student population. Supported by grants from the Greater Texas Foundation (GTF), the Trellis Foundation, and the Kresge Foundation, this statewide collaborative focuses on improving educational outcomes for male students of color across the state of Texas. The Consortium is made up of over thirty institutional partners in K-12 and higher education, and it seeks to align and coordinate existing programs and services that target underrepresented male students across the education continuum.
Over the years, Sáenz has received various research and service recognitions for his support of schools, students, and communities (e.g., Somos Austin, Seedling Mentors, Catch the Next). In 2009 he was named by Diverse Magazine as "One of 25 to Watch" diversity leaders in American higher education. In fall 2010, he was recognized as one of seven "ING Professors of Excellence" among over two thousand faculty members at the University of Texas. In 2018 he received a Research Award from the AERA Hispanic Research Issues SIG. He has also earned several faculty fellowships at UT-Austin and is currently the holder of the W.K. Kellogg Professorship in Community College Leadership.
Sáenz has co-authored three books and has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and his work has been cited in numerous policy reports, scholarly publications, and by local and national media. He has presented his research at countless conferences and meetings across the country, including at the White House, the National Press Club, and on Capitol Hill. Sáenz is a member of two distinguished editorial boards for peer-reviewed journals in his field, and he is an active member of several national associations focused on higher education issues, including ASHE, AERA, AIR, AAHHE, and TACHE. He has also served on the national boards of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, the National Resource Center for the First Year Experience, the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium, and the Texas Puente Project (Catch the Next). Locally he serves on the UT Elementary School Management Board, the Ann Richards School Foundation Board, and the Texas Lyceum Board. He is currently the Board Chair of AAHHE, a national association committed to advancing leadership opportunities for the Latinx community in higher education.
Dr. Sáenz earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change in 2005 from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he also completed a Master's in Education in 2002. He also earned a Master's degree in Public Affairs (1999, LBJ School of Public Affairs) and a Bachelors degree in Mathematics (1996, College of Natural Sciences) from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Sáenz is a fourth-generation Texan and a second-generation Longhorn.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Julie Schell
Assistant Dean, Instructional Continuity and Innovation
, College of Fine Arts
+1 512 232 1772, julie.schell@austin.utexas.edu
Dr. Julie Schell is the [bold] Assistant Dean of Instructional Continuity and Innovation [/bold] at the College of Fine Arts here at The University of Texas at Austin. She led the transition to online learning for over 200 Fine Arts faculty and academic staff during the CoVID-19 pandemic, ensuring academic continuity for our more than 1500 students. She represents the College on a variety of UT Austin's online learning task forces and working groups.
Dr. Schell is an award-winning expert with over 25 years of experience on the topic of college teaching and learning. She is dual appointed as an Assistant Professor of Practice in the School of Design and Creative Technologies Department of Design and the Program in Higher Education Leadership within the College of Education. She teaches graduate courses focused on her areas of expertise, including college teaching and learning, online learning, the science of learning, design education and pedagogy, and technology and innovation in higher education.
Dr. Schell completed her doctorate in higher and postsecondary education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a four-year post-doctoral fellowship focused on the science of teaching and learning in the Mazur Group at Harvard University. Her dissertation, dedicated to improving undergraduate teaching and learning, won the Dissertation of the Year award for the American Educational Research Association's higher education division. In 2021, she was awarded Provost's Teaching Fellowship from The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Schell has held positions at the nation's top research universities, including Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and Harvard. A prominent, sought-after speaker and consultant on teaching and learning, Dr. Schell has worked on pedagogical initiatives with thousands of national and international audiences. She has led design and learning projects on-site in Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Dominican Republic, Germany, and throughout the United States. Dr. Schell has also designed and implemented online learning projects and workshops for universities in Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and South Africa.
Media Contact: Alicia Dietrich, aliciadietrich@utexas.edu, 512-232-3667

Jessica R Toste
Associate Professor
, Department of Special Education
, College of Education
+1 512 475 6551, jrtoste@austin.utexas.edu
Jessica R. Toste is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin. She holds research affiliations with the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk and Texas Center for Equity Promotion; and is a fellow with the IES-funded Research Institute for Implementation Science in Education (RIISE). Her research is focused on methods for intensifying intervention for students with persistent reading challenges and reading disabilities, and she is principal investigator on research grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Toste was trained in reading intervention research as a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt University and as a Fulbright scholar at the Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University. She has worked as an elementary special education teacher and reading specialist in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Dr. Toste is associate editor for the Journal of Learning Disabilities and a principal member of the reading, writing, and language development grant review panel for the Institute of Education Sciences. She is an award-winning teacher; she was the recipient of a 2023 President's Associates Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, 2022 Dean's Distinguished Teaching Award, and was named one of the 2017 "Texas 10" professors at UT Austin. She is current Chair of the Graduate Assembly and Immediate Past Chair of the Provost's Teaching Fellows Program at UT Austin, as well as current President of CEC's Division for Learning Disabilities, and Vice-President for CEC's Division for Research. Dr. Toste is engaged in advocacy as a member of the Board of Directors for GLSEN, a leading national organization focused on LGBTQ+ issues in K-12 education, and as Past Chair of the Board of Directors for Disability Rights Texas, the federally designated legal protection and advocacy agency for people with disabilities in Texas.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Paul Von hippel
Associate Dean
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 537 8112, paulvonhippel@utexas.edu
Paul von Hippel?s research interests include educational inequality and the relationship between schooling, health, and obesity. He is currently working on a WT Grant-funded study on the growth of achievement gaps, as well as a study, funded by the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, on financial inequality between families and between school districts. He was a co-investigator on a state-funded project that evaluated the teacher preparation programs in Texas, and he now serves as a research advisor to a multisite randomized study evaluating the impact of summer learning programs. He is a three-time winner of best article awards from the education and methodology sections of the American Sociological Association.
Von Hippel is an expert on research design and on statistical methods for missing data. Before his academic career, he was a data scientist who developed fraud-detection scores for banks including JP Morgan Chase and the Bank of America.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

David S Yeager
Associate Professor
, Department of Psychology
, College of Liberal Arts
, dyeager@utexas.edu
Prior to his research career, David Yeager was a middle school teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In his substantive area of research, he studies adolescent development, with a focus on aggression, stress, and academic achievement. His approach is to conduct longitudinal, randomized field experiments at key transitions (e.g., the transition to high school or college) to investigate the role of social cognitive processes in shaping adolescents' developmental trajectories. This is because he believes that one good way to understand a developmental system is to try to change it. In addition, he draws on qualitative and correlational methodologies to examine developmental phenomena. In his current research, he is investigating the psychological causes of A) adolescents' reactions to peer exclusion or victimization, and B) changes in academic performance among racial minority adolescents at the transition to high school or college. This research has appeared or is scheduled to appear in Child Development, Developmental Psychology, JEP:General, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Educational Psychologist, Review of Educational Research, the Journal of Adolescent Research, and other outlets.
In his methodological research, he investigates the psychology of asking and answering questions, so as to optimize the accuracy of self-reports. In addition, he evaluates the accuracy of methods for sampling survey respondents (e.g., random samples and non-probability samples of Internet volunteers). His methodological research has appeared or is scheduled to appear in Public Opinion Quarterly, Developmental Psychology, and Medical Care
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712
Energy and the Environment

John C Butler
Clinical Associate Professor
, Department of Finance
, Red McCombs School of Business
+1 512 232 6821, butlerjc@mccombs.utexas.edu
John Sibley Butler is the director of the Herb Kelleher Entrepreneurship Center, and director of the IC2 Institute, which focuses on technology commercialization and is dedicated to the creation of new ventures throughout the world. He is an author, researcher and lecturer on venture start-up, immigrant and minority entrepreneurship and organizational behavior.
Prof. Butler has consulted for many firms, such as State Farm Insurance Co., as well for the U.S. Military. He is also a member of the Economic Advisory Team of Governor George Bush's 2000 Presidential Campaign.
His books include "Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black America: A Reconsideration of Race and Economics;" "All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way" (with Charles C. Moskos -- Winner of the Washington Monthly Best Book Award); and "Immigrant and Minority Entrepreneurship: The Continuous Rebirth of American Communities" (with George Kozmetsky).
Butler has appeared on over 30 radio and television programs, including Eye On America (CBS Nightly News), The Jim Leher News Hour, CBS Radio Talk Show, The Osgood Report, and Public Radio. His research has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and other newspapers and magazines across America.
Butler received his undergraduate education from Louisiana State University and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Media Contact: Jeremy Simon, jeremy.simon@mccombs.utexas.edu, 512-232-6031

John S Dzienkowski
Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 232 1367, jdzienkowski@law.utexas.edu
Professor Dzienkowski teaches and writes in the areas of professional responsibility of lawyers, real property, international energy transactions, and oil and gas taxation. He is widely regarded as one of the most dynamic and effective speakers on topics of professional responsibility and he has delivered almost one hundred ethics presentations to in-house corporate departments, large and small law firms, state bar continuing legal education programs, and law faculties throughout this country. John is also the co-chair of a bi-annual UT Program on Oil and Gas Taxation co-sponsored with the Internal Revenue Service. Professor Dzienkowski, along with John Steele and Bradley Wendel, have co-founded www.legalethicsforum.com, a leading blog on issues related to legal ethics. In 2004, John received the Texas Exes Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in teaching. He is a two-term member of the drafting committee of the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798

David J Eaton
Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 8959, +1 512 471 8972, eaton@austin.utexas.edu
David J. Eaton received his Ph.D. in environmental engineering and geography from The Johns Hopkins University. Eaton teaches courses on systems analysis, environmental and energy policy, and nonprofit management in the LBJ School. He has lectured in twenty countries and conducted field research in fifteen nations.
Eaton's current research concerns U.S.-Mexico environmental cooperation, new methods for evaluation of air pollution emissions, joint management by Palestinians and Israelis of shared groundwater, and water conservation in Texas. The Texas Department of Insurance used research on tort reform directed by Eaton as evidence to justify rebates of over $1.3 billion for liability insurance in Texas in 1997-1999.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Brian L Evans
Professor
, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
+1 512 232 1457, bevans@ece.utexas.edu

William L Fisher
Professor and Leonidas T. Barrow Centennial Chair Emeritus in Mineral Resources
, Department of Geological Sciences
, Jackson School of Geosciences
, wfisher@jsg.utexas.edu
William L. Fisher is the Leonidas T. Barrow Chair and Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he served as the Inaugural Dean and the first Director of the John A. and Katherine G. Jackson School of Geosciences (2001-2006), a school he was instrumental in founding as well as securing its substantial endowment. He is a former long-time director of the Bureau of Economic Geology (1979-1994, 2000-2001), former chairman of the Department of Geological Sciences (1984-1990) and former director of the Geology Foundation (1984-2006).
Dr. Fisher is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He served as Assistant Secretary of Interior for Energy and Minerals under President Gerald Ford (1975-1977). Fisher has chaired and served on numerous state and federal advisory boards, as well as committees and boards of the National Research Council and professional societies. He has also served on several corporate boards. He served on the White House Science Council under President Ronald Reagan (1988-1989).
Fisher's research has focused in the areas of stratigraphy, sedimentology, and oil and gas assessment. In 1967 he introduced the concept of depositional systems-now a fundamental part of modern stratigraphy and sedimentology. In 1987 he led an assessment team for DOE that turned around the then-prevalent view of natural gas scarcity. He has championed the importance of technology in resource availability and has been a leader in the rethinking of the significance of reserve growth from existing, geologically complex oil and gas fields.
Dr. Fisher is past president of American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Association of American State Geologists, the American Geological Institute, the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, and the Austin Geological Society.
He has received the Powers Medal from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Twenhofel Medal from SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology), the Campbell Medal from the American Geological Institute, the Parker Medal from the American Institute of Professional Geologists, the Boyd Medal from the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies, the Hedberg Medal for Energy from the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, and the Milling Legendary Geoscientist Medal from the American Geological Institute,among numerous other awards.
Fisher holds a B.S. and D.Sc. (Hon.) from Southern Illinois University, a M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Kansas, a D. Eng. (Hon.) from the Colorado School of Mines and D.Sc. (Hon) from Flinders Univeristy; he received the Presidential Citation (equivalent to an honorary doctorate) from The University of Texas at Austin.
Media Contact: Anton Caputo, anton.caputo@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623

Robert E Hebner
Director, Center for Electromechanics
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 232 1628, r.hebner@cem.utexas.edu
Robert Hebner is the Director of the Center for Electromechanics at The University of Texas at Austin. Before joining the University, he had been the acting Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce. He also served as Deputy Director of NIST, the Chief Financial Officer of NIST and the Director of NIST's Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory. He worked in the Office of Management and Budget to help prepare the Administration's 1990 budget, at Sandia to help in accelerator design, and at the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense where he developed programs in technology for semiconductor manufacturing. He has served on government review teams to assess the management of technical programs in other organizations. He was the principal investigator and key witness in a celebrated court case involving an alleged novel approach to the efficient generation of electricity. Dr. Hebner has extensive experience in international technology programs particularly in the modernization of the measurement systems needed for global trade. He is a past president of the Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In addition, he has served on numerous technical committees that develop voluntary standards for the electric utility industry. Dr. Hebner is a fellow of the IEEE and a member of the American Physical Society. The awards that he has received include the 1990 Harry Diamond Memorial Award given annually by the IEEE.
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Zhanfei Liu
Associate Professor
, Department of Marine Science
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 361 749 6772, zhanfei.liu@utexas.edu
Marine organic compounds are produced in the ocean surface through photosynthesis and are modified by bacteria or zooplankton; some are preserved by interaction with minerals. Dr. Lius research investigates the source, distribution, and changes of organic compounds in marine environments. Knowing geochemical behaviors of organic compounds is critical for a better understanding of global carbon cycle and nutrient dynamics. Dr. Liu is also interested in geochemical behaviors of petroleum hydrocarbons in marine environments. More recently, he's turned his attention to nurdles, small bits of plastic that are increasingly appearing in marine environments, to find out what toxins they may be absorbing and passing along to wildlife.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

David R Maidment
Professor
, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 468 1744, +1 512 471 0065, +1 512 471 4620, maidment@utexas.edu
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Sheila M Olmstead
Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 2064, sheila.olmstead@austin.utexas.edu
Sheila Olmstead joined the LBJ School as an Associate Professor of Public Affairs in 2013. Before joining the LBJ School, Olmstead was a Fellow (2010-2013) and Senior Fellow (2013) at Resources for the Future in Washington, DC, as well as Associate Professor (2007-2010) and Assistant Professor (2002-2007) of Environmental Economics at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she was the recipient of three teaching awards. Olmstead is an environmental economist whose current research projects examine the environmental externalities associated with shale gas development in the United States, regulatory avoidance under the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act, the influence of federal fire suppression policy on land development in the American West, and free-riding in dam placement and water withdrawals in transboundary river basins. She has worked extensively on the economics of water resource management, focusing on water demand estimation, water conservation policy, and access to drinking water services among low-income communities. Climate and energy policy are additional topics of her research, especially with regard to the application of market-based environmental policy instruments. Olmstead's research has been published in leading journals such as the Journal of Economic Perspectives, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Urban Economics, and Water Resources Research. With Nathaniel Keohane, she is the author of the 2007 book Markets and the Environment. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of the Interior, World Bank, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Olmstead is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Water Resource Economics Consortium. She holds a PhD from Harvard University?s John F. Kennedy School of Government (2002), a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas, Austin (1996), and a BA from the University of Virginia (1992).
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Jon E Olson
Department Chair, Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 471 3161, +1 512 471 7375, jolson@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Jorge R Pinon
Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy
, Jackson School of Geosciences
+1 305 926 6910, +1 512 232 4988, jrpinon@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Anton Caputo, anton.caputo@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623
Varun Rai
Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 4697, +1 512 471 5057, rai@austin.utexas.edu
Varun Rai earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2008 with specialization in energy systems and technologies. Before joining the University of Texas at Austin in July 2010 he was a research fellow at the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University from 2008-2010. He holds a M.S. from Stanford and a bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
His principal research interests are in technological change, innovation and diffusion; economics of climate change/integrated assessment models; and energy and development. His research combines energy systems modeling with the political economy of energy markets to understand how changes in energy technologies, market conditions, policies and regulation, and environment could impact energy generation. The emphasis of his research is on interdisciplinary and integrative research in engineering and policy to ensure that the insights from his policy research are rooted in the underlying technical realties. His past research has concentrated on three problems in particular: incentive policies and rates of technological diffusion for carbon capture and storage (CCS); performance and behavior of national oil companies; and strategies for engaging developing countries in global climate change policy.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Mukul M Sharma
Professor
, Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
+1 512 471 3161, +1 512 471 3257, msharma@mail.utexas.edu
Dr. Mukul Sharma earned his Ph.D. in petroleum engineering from University of Southern California in 1985. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin that same year.
Dr. Sharma researches natural gas engineering, injection water management, formation damage and petrophysics. He also researches surface and colloid chemistry as well as fluid flow in porous media as it relates to exploration and production of oil and gas. He has researched ways to best inject water into oil wells, a process which forces more oil out of the underground areas where it resides. Sharma has studied methods for combating fractured wells and oily water, both of which result in a decline in injection success. He also aims to improve oil recovery through his study of wetting and spreading (both of which are interactions between a solid and spilled liquid due to surface tension). He is interested in cleaning up damage caused by structural failures including wall-building filter cakes and perforations and preventing such failures by accounting for chemical effects in wellbore stability models.

David B Spence
Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 554 9350, david.spence@mccombs.utexas.edu
David Spence is an expert in public policy, business-government relations and the regulation of business--particularly energy and environmental regulations.
He is co-director of the Energy Management and Innovation Center and he addresses energy topics from a legal and political perspective. Recent commentary includes energy reform, federal budget ramifications on oil and gas, and the financial bailout.
Spence has taught as a visitor at Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell and Harvard. He received his Ph.D in political science from Duke University, and his J.D. from the University of North Carolina.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798

Scott W Tinker
Director
, Bureau of Economic Geology
, Jackson School of Geosciences
+1 512 471 0209, +1 512 471 1534, scott.tinker@beg.utexas.edu
Scott Tinker works to bring industry, government, academia, and nongovernmental organizations together to address major societal challenges in energy, the environment, and the economy. Dr. Tinker is Director of the 250-person Bureau of Economic Geology, the State Geologist of Texas, and a professor holding the Edwin Allday Endowed Chair in the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin. With Director Harry Lynch, Tinker coproduced and is featured in the award-winning energy documentary film "Switch," which has been screened in over 50 countries to more than 15 million viewers and is used on thousands of K-through-12 and college campuses. Dr. Tinker formed the nonprofit Switch Energy Alliance in 2016 and has completed two new films: "Switch On", a feature length documentary addressing global energy poverty, and "Energy Makes our World," a 5 minute, Hollywood-quality film made for global museums and giant screens. He is the voice of "EarthDate", a two-minute weekly program that focuses on remarkable stories of Earth. "EarthDate" is produced by the Bureau of Economic Geology and is featured on over 400 NPR and public radio stations in all 50 United States. Dr. Tinker has served as president of several associations including the American Geosciences Institute (AGI), the Association of American State Geologists (AASG), the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies (GCAGS). Dr. Tinker is an AGI Campbell Medalist, AAPG Halbouty Medalist, GCAGS Boyd Medalist, and a Geological Society of America Fellow. In his visits to some 65 countries, he has given over 850 keynote and invited lectures.
Media Contact: Anton Caputo, anton.caputo@jsg.utexas.edu, 512-232-9623

Michael Webber
Associate Professor
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 475 6867, webber@mail.utexas.edu
Michael Webber is the Deputy Director of the Energy Institute, Josey Centennial Fellow in Energy Resources, Co-Director of the Clean Energy Incubator at the Austin Technology Incubator, and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he trains a new generation of energy leaders through research and education at the intersection of engineering, policy, and commercialization. He has authored more than 200 scientific articles, columns, books, and book chapters, including an op-ed in the New York Times and features in Scientific American. A highly sought public speaker, he has given more than 175 lectures, speeches, and invited talks in the last few years, such as testimony for hearings of U.S. Senate committees, keynotes for business meetings, plenary lectures for scientific conferences, invited speeches at the United Nations and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and executive briefings at some of the nation's leading companies.
As a professor, Dr. Webber has taught undergraduate and graduatecourses at The University of Texas at Austin since 2007 across departments as diverse as mechanicalengineering, chemical engineering, liberal arts, business, geosciences, public affairs, and undergraduate studies. His teaching has been honored three separate times with major awards from the University of Texas System. Dr. Webber's research focuses on the convergence of policy, technology, and resource management related to energy and the environment. Government agencies such as the Department of Energy and non-governmental organizations such as UNESCO have featured Dr. Webber's research in their policy-making decisions. His expertise, opinions, and research have been published, cited or featured in many media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, NPR, PBS, The Daily Telegraph, BBC, ABC, CBS, Discovery, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist, MSNBC, and the History Channel.
Since launching in March 2013, his syndicated television special, Energy at the Movies, has been telecast more than 140 times on more than 75 PBS stations in 25 states as of July 2013. The special bridges the gap between academic discourse and popular culture by synthesizing expert analysis of Hollywood films into digestible lessons on the science and history of energy. Energy at the Movies reaches over 37 million households in the United States, with a follow up series in development.
His capstone class "Energy Technology and Policy" is scheduled for distribution as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled "Energy 101." The course will launch in Fall 2013 through a partnership with edX. More than 5000 students signed up for the course during the first three days of its registration period, and within four months 30,000 students from around the world were registered. The global scope of the Energy 101 MOOC fits in with Webber's motto of Changing the Way America Thinks About Energy. He has also offered the course as part of executive education programs in Austin, Houston, Washington DC, and in Durham, North Carolina.
Dr. Webber received his B.A. with High Honors in Plan II Liberal Arts and his B.S. with High Honors in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He then received both a M.S. and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow. He then served as a senior scientist at Pranalytica, where he invented sensors for homeland security, industrial analysis, and environmental monitoring. He holds four patents as a result of his research. He then transitioned to the RAND Corporation studying energy, innovation, manufacturing, and national security. Dr. Webber is one of the originators of Pecan Street Incorporated, a public-private partnership in Austin, Texas, running the nation's largest smart grid experiment.
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Charles J Werth
Professor
, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 232 1626, werth@utexas.edu
Werths research interests include environmental and water resources engineering; reactive transport and fate of pollutants in water resources, including groundwater and urban lakes; and the development of sustainable technologies for pollution removal from affected waters.
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129
Health Care and COVID-19

Steven Abrams
Professor of Pediatrics
, Department of Pediatrics
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 495 4700, sabrams@austin.utexas.edu
Abrams is a neonatologist and a professor of pediatrics. His research is focused on healthy nutrition for
children, and he is an advocate for healthy feeding practices. He served on the dietary huidelines advisory committee in 2015 and supports balanced sustainable nutrition practices.
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Abigail R Aiken
Associate Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 232 2561, araa2@utexas.edu
Aiken's research focuses on reproductive health and spans several disciplines, combining backgrounds in biomedical sciences, public policy, demography, public health. Her current projects include: examining women's experiences obtaining safe abortion in contexts where legislative barriers prevent access through the healthcare system; evaluating programs and policies designed to increase access to contraception in the postpartum and post-abortion setting; and investigating the determinants and impacts of unintended pregnancies through a health equity and reproductive justice framework.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Jacqueline L Angel
Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 2956, jangel@austin.utexas.edu
Jacqueline L. Angel is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 1989 and post-doctoral training at Rutgers in mental health services research and the Pennsylvania State University Program in Demography of Aging. Her research focuses on issues at the intersection of family, health and aging. She is particularly interested in evaluating the impact of policies on the health and well-being of Latinos, immigrants, and other vulnerable groups, and how cultural heterogeneity among the elderly affects the design of programs for the cost-effective delivery of health services.
Dr. Angel is a co-investigator on an NIH/National Institute on Aging funded benchmark study of the longitudinal health of older Mexican Americans in the Southwestern United States. Since the inception of the project, she has assessed the impact of nativity and the migration process on health outcomes, and examined their implications for family living arrangements and long term care policy.
She is currently developing a research agenda that focuses on the role of civil society and non-governmental organizations on the care of low-income elderly in the United States and Latin America.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Christopher G Beevers
Professor
, Department of Psychology
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 232 3706, +1 512 471 1157, beevers@utexas.edu
Beevers' primary research interest focuses on the cognitive etiology and treatment of major unipolar depression. He believes that understanding normal cognitive processes provides an important foundation for identifying how these processes go awry in clinical depression. Further, he is very interested in using experimental psychopathology methods to understand why treatments work and translating these same methods into effective interventions for depression and related psychopathology (e.g., anhedonia, negative affect). Dr. Beevers is particularly interested in the interplay between biology (e.g., variants of the serotonin transporter gene) and cognitive risk and maintaining factors for depression. Current project utilize behavioral, eye tracking, and EEG methodologies to measure cognitive bias combined with smart phone methods to measure affect in its natural environment. He collaborates with numerous faculty at UT, nationally, and internationally.
As a highly prolific scholar, Dr. Beevers has contributed to 5 books, published more than 100 journal articles, and has been cited over four thousand times.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Jay M Bernhardt
Dean, Moody College of Communication
+1 512 471 5646, +1 512 471 8100, moody.dean@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Joey Williams, joey.williams@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-3716

Kevin Bozic
Professor of Surgery
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 495 5089, kevin.bozic@austin.utexas.edu
Dr. Kevin Bozic is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
He was most recently the William R. Murray Professor, M.D. Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery and Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and a member of the core faculty of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is also a Visiting Scholar in the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at the Harvard Business School.
Dr. Bozic is a graduate of the UCSF School of Medicine and the Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program. Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. Dr. Bozic has fellowship training in Adult Reconstructive Surgery from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
Dr. Bozics clinical interests are in management of patients with arthritis of the hip and knee, with an emphasis on primary and revision hip and knee replacement. His research interests are broadly in the fields of health policy and health care services research, and specifically in the areas of healthcare technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, shared medical decision making, and the implementation and evaluation of value-based payment and delivery models. In addition to his clinical and research activities, Dr. Bozic is actively involved in numerous regional and national health policy initiatives, including the University of California Center for Health Quality and Innovation, the American Joint Replacement Registry, the Integrated Healthcare Associations Episode of Care Payment Program, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and Harvard Business Schools Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness.
Dr. Bozic also holds both regional and national leadership positions, including member of the Board of Trustees of the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundation, Chair of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Council on Research and Quality, and member of the Board of Directors of the American Joint Replacement Registry. He is former Chair of the California Joint Replacement Registry.
Dr. Bozic has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Orthopaedic Research and Education Foundations Clinical Research Award, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Clinician-Scientist Traveling Fellowship Award, the American Orthopaedic Associations American-British-Canadian Traveling Fellowship, the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons James A. Rand Young Investigator Award, and the Orthopaedic Research Societys William Harris Award.
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Darla M Castelli
Professor
, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
, College of Education
+1 512 232 7636, dcastelli@utexas.edu
Darla M. Castelli, Ph.D. is a professor of physical education pedagogy and health behavior health education in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin. She is an active fellow in the National Academy of Kinesiology, who examines the effects of physical activity and metabolic risk factors on cognitive health. Castelli strives to understand how physical activity can reverse the effects of health risk. She has been working with school-age youth in physical activity settings for more than 25 years, leading several physical activity interventions (e.g., Kinetic Kidz, FITKids1,FITKids2, Active + Healthy = Forever Fit, Fitness4Everyone). Castelli has received teaching awards in both the public school (i.e. Maine Physical Education Teacher of the Year) and higher education (i.e., University of Illinois Teaching Excellence Award, University of Texas at Austin, Kinesiology and Health Education Graduate Teaching Award). Recently she was named 2020 Catherine D. Ennis Scholar Award from AERA and the 2020 SHAPE America Scholar. Award. As a fellow in the SHAPE America RC and past Young Scholar award recipient from NAKPEHE and AEISEP, her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Dietetic Foundation, and U.S. Department of Education. She has presented her work at U.S. Congress and Senate Briefings in Washington, DC in support of the FIT Kids Act. Castelli has been a member of two Institute of Medicine committees on Fitness Measures and Health Outcomes in Youth and Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment. She received a B.S. from Plymouth State University, a M.S. from Northern Illinois University, and a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Castelli currently directs the department's Kinetic Kidz Lab, found at https://sites.edb.utexas.edu/kk2.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Namkee Choi
Professor
, School of Social Work
+1 512 232 9590, nchoi@austin.utexas.edu
Namkee Choi, Ph.D., is the Louis and Ann Wolens Centennial Chair in Gerontology at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She is an expert on geriatric mental health. Her current research focuses on depression in late life and the use of technology to bring effective psychosocial interventions for depressive symptoms among older adults.
Media Contact: Cassie Bernhardt, cassiebernhardt@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-8376

Lauren I Ehrlich
Associate Professor
, Department of Molecular Biosciences
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 7080, +1 512 475 7125, lehrlich@austin.utexas.edu
Ehrlich studies the development of immune cells called T cells, which has implications for diseases such as T cell leukemia, autoimmunity, and most recently, COVID-19. Her lab is currently collaborating with investigators and clinicians at Dell Medical School to investigate which immune responses correlate with disease severity in COVID-19 patients across the lifespan. She is also studying links between SARS-CoV-2 infection and autoimmunity.
T cells are master regulators of the adaptive immune system: they are essential for coordinating the appropriate immune response to different pathogens, and they are responsible for immunologic memory, which protects us from recurrent infections. As T cells develop in the thymus, they encounter a wide variety of cells in their microenvironment, collectively referred to as the thymic stroma. Thymocytes and stromal cells are mutually dependant on each other for proper development and maintenance. Deviations in normal thymocyte: stromal interactions are thought to contribute to diseases such as T cell leukemia and autoimmunity.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Ilya J Finkelstein
Associate Professor
, Department of Molecular Biosciences
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 1394, ifinkelstein@cm.utexas.edu
Finkelstein studies how organisms maintain their genomic integrity, which has implications for cancer and how viruses like COVID-19 mutate. For COVID-19, these mutations have implications for severity of disease, speed of transmission and efficacy of vaccines and other therapies.
Genomic DNA acts as the blueprint for life and all organisms have evolved complex protein machines that faithfully maintain our genetic material. Genomic instability, which arises from defects in these proteins, is a defining feature of most cancers. Elucidating the mechanisms of DNA maintenance is therefore fundamental to our understanding of the molecular basis of many cancer types. Our interdisciplinary research program combines aspects of single-molecule biophysics, molecular biology and micro-/nano-scale engineering to understand how organisms are able to maintain their genomic integrity. To increase our understanding of this essential problem, we develop new techniques that allow us to directly observe, in real time, the key biochemical reactions as they occur on DNA.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Richard B Freeman
Professor of Surgery
, Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 495 5044, richard.freeman@austin.utexas.edu
Richard B. Freeman Jr., MD, a veteran transplant surgeon and leading innovator in health care delivery and redesign, is the inaugural Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Freeman comes to the Dell Medical School from Dartmouth Medical School, where he served as Chair of the Department of Surgery. As Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs, he leads the school's pursuit of strategies that seek to redesign health care delivery and create excellence in health care research, transdisciplinary programs and interprofessional education.
Specifically, Dr. Freeman provides strategic leadership, oversight and management in the effort to integrate the local network of physicians and practices with Dell Medical School's efforts to create a model healthy city and community. He is the point of contact with physicians and other care providers, as well as key Dell Medical School partners such as Central Health (Travis Countys health care district) and the Seton Healthcare Family.
As surgery chair at Dartmouth, Dr. Freeman oversaw a department offering training and treatment in 11 surgical specialties and seven graduate medical education training programs. He also led both the Tufts-New England Medical Center transplant fellowship program and the Surgical Research Laboratories at the Tufts University School of Medicine. He has served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for New England Organ Bank, as an associate editor for both the American Journal of Transplantation and Liver Transplantation, and as an editorial board member or reviewer for scholarly journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He graduated from Jefferson Medical College in 1983.
His research has focused on genetic differences in immune response, the immunology of liver regeneration, viral infections in transplantation, long-term outcomes after transplants, and policies on the allocation of donor organs. He is the principal investigator on several projects funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and the New England Organ Bank.
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Michael L Geruso
Associate Professor
, Department of Economics
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 475 8704, mike.geruso@utexas.edu
Michael Gerusos research focuses on developing country health and the regulation of US health insurance markets. In his work on Medicare, he has used publicly available and large-scale administrative datasets to investigate upcoding by physicians and imperfect competition among private Medicare Advantage insurers. His research on sanitation provides the first evidence that that open defecation, practiced by a billion people worldwide, generates large infant mortality externalities. His work has been featured in the New York Times, NPR, and the Economist magazine. His research has been funded by the National Institutes for Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Joydeep Ghosh
Professor
, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
+1 512 471 8980, jghosh@utexas.edu

Barbara L Jones
Associate Dean for Health Affairs
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 475 9367, barbarajones@mail.utexas.edu
Barbara Jones, Ph.D., is assistant dean for health affairs at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and co-directof of the Institute for Collaborative Health Research and Practice. Her research focuses on improving care for children, adolescents and young adults with cancer and their families. Jones clinical experience has been primarily in the fields of pediatric oncology, childrens grief and loss, pediatric palliative and end-of-life care, adolescent and young adult oncology, grief, trauma, and survival.
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Lisa C Kirsch
Senior Policy Director
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 796 3807, lisa.kirsch@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Molly A Lopez
Research Associate Professor
, Office of the Associate Dean for Research
+1 512 232 0614, mlopez@austin.utexas.edu
Molly Lopez, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist, a research associate professor at Steve Hicks School of Social Work, and the director of the Texas Institute for Excellence in Mental Health. Her research interests include mental health services, child and adolescent service systems, the implementation of evidence-based practices, and cognitive behavioral therapies.
Previously, Lopez served in several leadership roles within the Texas public mental health agency, the Texas Department of State Health Services. In these roles, she provided policy and programmatic oversight of childrens mental health services and played a key role in a system redesign aimed at ensuring that evidence-based treatments were widely available and supported by state infrastructure.

Michael S Mackert
Director of the Center for Health Communication
, Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations
, Moody College of Communication
+1 512 348 8490, mackert@utexas.edu
Dr. Mackert's primary research interest is telemedicine, the provision of healthcare from a distance via telecommunication technology. He is also interested in health communication, with a particular focus on how trust plays a role in the communication process. Other interests include health literacy and online communities.
Media Contact: Mary Huber, mary.huber@austin.utexas.edu, 409-790-6902

Octavio N Martinez
Senior Associate Vice President and Executive Director for the Hogg Foundation
, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health
, Office of the Vice President for Diversity and Community Engagement
+1 512 471 5041, +1 512 471 7625, octavio.martinez@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Jessica Sinn, sinnjessica@austin.utexas.edu, 512-350-4291

Jason McLellan
Professor
, Department of Molecular Biosciences
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 232 1906, jmclellan@austin.utexas.edu
Jason S. McLellan specializes in understanding the structure and function of viral proteins, including those of coronaviruses. His research focuses on applying structural information to the rational design of vaccines and other therapies for viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. McLellan and his team collaborated with researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center to design a stabilized version of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which is a key element in at least four COVID-19 vaccines to have either reached Phase 3 clinical trials or been approved for emergency use (those from Pfizer and BioNTech; Moderna; Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceutica; and Novavax). McLellan also co-developed a vaccine candidate for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) that is currently in human trials.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Lauren A Meyers
Professor
, Department of Integrative Biology
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 4950, utpandemics@austin.utexas.edu
Lauren received her B.A. degree in Mathematics and Philosophy in 1996 from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in 2000 from the department of Biological Sciences at Stanford University. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation, she joined the faculty of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin in 2003. Using a combination of mathematical modeling and experiments, Lauren's research lies at the interface of evolutionary biology and epidemiology. She studies the interplay between disease transmission dynamics and the evolution of pathogens including those responsible for epidemic meningitis, influenza, walking pneumonia, and SARS. In collaboration with public health officials in the US and Canada, Lauren has developed powerful mathematical methods for forecasting the spread of respiratory diseases and designing effective disease control strategies for hospitals and metropolitan areas. Based on this research, the MIT Technology Review named Lauren as one of the top 100 global innovators under age 35.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Kristin E Mondy
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
, Department of Medicine
, kristin.mondy@austin.utexas.edu

Christopher P Moriates
Assistant Dean of Healthcare Value, Associate Chair of Quality, Safety, and Value
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 495 5168, cmoriates@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Jewel Mullen
Associate Dean for Health Equity
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 495 5110, jewel.mullen@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062
Todd A Olmstead
Associate Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 8456, tolmstead@austin.utexas.edu
Todd Olmstead is an Associate Professor of Public Affairs and a James and Claudia Richter Chair Fellow at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Research Scholar at the Seton/UTSW Clinical Research Institute of Austin. Prior to his appointment on August 1, 2013, he was an Associate Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University's School of Public Policy, where he was the recipient of the 2011 Teaching Award. Olmstead uses statistics, economics, and operations research to design, implement, and evaluate a wide variety of health care interventions and evidence-based practices. He is the health economist on several large NIH-funded grants in the area of behavioral health. Current research projects include estimating the cost-effectiveness of (a) integrating substance abuse treatment services directly into hospital inpatient units, (b) computer- vs. clinician-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy for patients with substance use disorder, and (c) providing mental health services to low-income pregnant and parenting women living in public housing systems. Other projects include estimating the impact of gambling treatment on the utilization of health care services, estimating the price elasticities of demand for illicit drugs, and the design, implementation and evaluation of mobile stroke units. In addition to his work in health care, Olmstead has published in the areas of intelligent transportation systems, highway safety, and administrative rulemaking. He holds degrees in public policy (PhD, Harvard University), operations research (MS, UNC-Chapel Hill), and industrial engineering (MS, BS, SUNY-Buffalo).
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Joseph E Potter
Other University Affiliate
, Population Research Center
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 689 7211, joe@prc.utexas.edu
Joseph Potter's interests lie in the areas of reproductive health, population and development, and demographic estimation. Together with Carl Schmertmann, Renato Assun??o, and Suzana Cavenaghi, he has been involved in analyzing the fertility transition in Brazil using microdata from the censuses from 1960 to 2000 and spatial statistics. He is also using census data to study the rise of Protestantism, and its impact in Brazil and Mexico.
Potter is Principal Investigator of the Border Contraceptive Access Study (BCAS), a project on oral contraceptive use along the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas. BCAS is a six-year collaborative investigation with the University of Texas at El Paso and Ibis Reproductive Health funded by NICHD (R01HD047816). Data were collected between September 2006 and December 2008, and will soon be available for distribution. Potter and colleagues have also received an award from the Society of Family Planning to investigate frustrated demand for female sterilization in the BCAS study population.
Since 2008, Potter?s publications have appeared in Population and Development Review, Demography, the American Journal of Public Health, Contraception, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Population Studies, Population Research and Policy Review, Birth, the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Estudios Demogr?ficos y Urbanos, Redes, and the Revista Brasileira de Estudos de Popula??o.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

William M Sage
Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 232 7806, bsage@law.utexas.edu
Professor Sage's current areas of teaching are health law, regulatory theory, antitrust, and professional responsibility.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798

Sahotra Sarkar
Professor
, Department of Philosophy
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 232 3800, +1 512 232 7122, sarkar@austin.utexas.edu
Sahotra Sarkar is a philosopher of science and conservation biologist. He is one of the founders of systematic conservation planning within conservation biology, promoting the use of multi-criteria decision analysis. His laboratory also works on a suite of neglected tropical diseases (or diseases of poverty) including Chagas disease, dengue, leishmaniasis, tick-borne diseases, and Zika.In the philosophy of biology Sarkar is known for his work on reductionism, criticism of hereditarian thinking and the use of informational concepts in molecular biology.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Michael J Telch
Professor
, Department of Psychology
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 471 3393, +1 512 475 8488, +1 512 560 4100, telch@austin.utexas.edu
Michael Telch joined the clinical psychology faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1986 where he is currently Professor and founding director of the Laboratory for the Study of Anxiety Disorders and former Director of Clinical Training. He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the Association for the Advancement of Preventative Psychology.
Dr. Telch is internationally recognized for his scientific research on the nature and treatment of panic, phobias and anxiety-related disorders. He has served as a scientific advisor to the National Institute of Mental Healths Anxiety Disorders Education Program and the National Institute of Mental Healths Panic Disorder Program. His published work has tackled a broad range of questions related to the nature and treatment of pathological fear across the full spectrum of anxiety disorders, and have utilized multiple research strategies including clinical trials, prospective longitudinal risk studies, experimental psychopathology, and controlled laboratory manipulations of cognitive, behavioral, and pharmacological strategies during exposure therapy.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Bill Tierney
Professor of Medicine (Clinical Educator)
, Department of Population Health
, Dell Medical School
, tierney@utexas.edu
Dr. William Tierney is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Population Health, and a professor of Population Health, at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a general internist and medical informaticist who came to the Dell Medical School after serving as President and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute, Inc., the countrys oldest research institution dedicated to improving health systems. The Regenstrief Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that supports the research and service missions of the Indiana University School of Medicine where Dr. Tierney was Associate Dean for Clinical Effectiveness Research and practiced general internal medicine at Eskenazi Health in Indianapolis where he was Chief of Internal Medicine from 2009 to 2014.
Dr. Tierneys research focuses on improving health care delivery and its outcomes through developing and implementing electronic health record systems (EHRs) in hospital and outpatient venues in Indiana and in East Africa. His team of developers implemented sub-Saharan Africas first ambulatory EHR in 2000 which has grown and evolved into OpenMRS, the worlds most widely used open-source EHR system thats been implemented in more than 40 countries and nationally in all Ministry of Health sites in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Mozambique, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.
Dr. Tierney is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the Association of American Physicians and is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics and Master of the American College of Physicians. He has received the lifetime achievement award from the nations leading organizations in three disciplines: academic general internal medicine (from the Society of General Internal Medicine), biomedical informatics (from the American College of Medical Informatics), and translational science (from the Society for Clinical and Translational Science).
He is the former Co-Editor of the Journal of General Internal Medicine and Medical Care. Hes received more than $30 million in grants and contracts and has published 290 peer-reviewed medical journal articles. His publications have been cited by others more than 20,000 times.
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Scott Wallace
Managing Director, Value Institute for Health and Care
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 495 5127, +1 708 267 6564, scott.wallace@austin.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Kari L White
Principal Investigator
, Texas Policy Evaluation Project
+1 512 232 1791, klwhite@prc.utexas.edu
Kari White is an associate professor in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and a faculty research associate at the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on evaluating the interrelationship between peoples reproductive health behaviors and outcomes and the health services and policies that shape their access to care. Her recent projects include the Texas Policy Evaluation Project a collaborative evaluation of legislation affecting family planning funding and abortion restrictions in Texas, and studies that assess factors influencing vasectomy use and womens access to abortion and post-abortion contraception in the Southeast.

Thomas Yankeelov
Director of Cancer Imaging Research
, LIVESTRONG Cancer Institutes
, Dell Medical School
+1 512 417 1733, thomas.yankeelov@utexas.edu
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062

Amy Young
Chief Clinical Officer, Vice Dean of Professional Practice
, Dell Medical School
, amyyoung@austin.utexas.edu
Spanish Speaker
Dr. Amy Young is the inaugural Chair of the Department of Women's Health, and a professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, at the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin.
A nationally known educator, Dr. Young is the immediate past president of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics. She has served Texas as Vice-Chair and Chair of District XI of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In addition to educational research, Dr. Young has a wide range of clinical research experiences. She has been funded to explore Uterine Artery Embolization as an alternative to hysterectomy and most recently served as co-principal investigator on work exploring Group B strep colonization and its effects on the neonate. She has also performed language validation work with regard to the Pelvic Floor Network patient instruments. Recent publications include quality and hysterectomy, ambulatory gynecologic surgery, and surgical efficiency.
Media Contact: Shahreen Abedin, shahreen.abedin@austin.utexas.edu, 512-495-5062
Immigration and Border Security

Ricardo C Ainslie
M. K. Hage Centennial Professor in Education
, Counseling Psychology
, Department of Educational Psychology
, College of Education
+1 512 471 0364, +1 512 471 4407, rainslie@austin.utexas.edu
Ricardo Ainslie explores the intersection of psychology and culture through such topics as the psychological experience of immigration, ethnic conflicts within communities, and the relationship between individual and collective identity. He pursues these topics primarily through the descriptive methodology of qualitative inquiry. Additionally, Ainslie examines these matters through books, documentary films, and photographic exhibits. Drawing from the fields of anthropology, creative non-fiction, and the liberal arts, Ainslie has generated a hybrid methodology of psychoanalytic ethnography based on in-depth interviews of profoundly psychological character. His extensive work in Texas and Mexico propelled his inquiry into how communities function and transform in response to significant conflict. Ainslie is particularly interested in investigating how individuals and broader cultural groups experience life within these affected communities.
Ainslies multidisciplinary and integrative sensibility is evident in his extensive involvement throughout the University of Texas at Austin, where he is professionally affiliated with the American Studies Program, the Center for Mexican American Studies, and the Lozano-Long Institute for Latin American Studies. He is the M. K. Hage Centennial Professor in Education, was recently a Fellow in the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and taught at Houston's Center for Psychoanalytic Studies for seven years.
[italic]Note: Dr. Ainslie will not be taking new students for the 2023 academic year.[/italic]
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Noel B Busch-Armendariz
Professor
, School of Social Work
+1 512 232 6388, +1 512 471 3470, nbusch@austin.utexas.edu
Noel Busch-Armendariz, Ph.D., is a professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and director of the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, a collaboration between the Schools of Social Work, Nursing and Law. Her research focuses on interpersonal violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, refugees, and international social work. She has over two decades of experience in working to end violence against women and their children, and has worked as a battered women's advocate, support group leader, program director, and registered lobbyist. She has served as an expert witness in nearly four dozen criminal, civil, and immigration cases involving domestic violence and sexual assault, and co-directs a national training on how to be an ethical and effective expert witness.
Media Contact: Cassie Bernhardt, cassiebernhardt@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-8376

Denise L Gilman
Clinical Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 232 7796, dgilman@law.utexas.edu
Gilman can address immigration law, immigrant rights and family detention.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798

David L Leal
Professor
, Department of Government
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 471 1343, dleal@austin.utexas.edu
David Leal's primary academic interests are Latino politics and policy. His Latino politics research spans the fields of political behavior, public policy, and public opinion. His work also work incorporates insights from disciplines such as sociology, economics, ethnic studies, and religious studies. His research has also focused on how religion shapes political engagement, the political participation of non-citizens, the complexities of ethnic identity, and how veterans engage in politics. He continues to work on questions involving Latino political behavior and opinion, the politics of migration, religion and politics, and the military and society.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Luis H Zayas
Professor
, School of Social Work
+1 512 471 1937, lzayas@austin.utexas.edu
Spanish Speaker
Luis H. Zayas, Ph.D., is dean and Robert Lee Sutherland Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work.
Zayas has devoted his career as a clinician, teacher, and researcher to child and adolescent development and family functioning. Under the overarching framework of Hispanic mental health, he focuses on two areas of research. One area is on the suicide attempts of young Latinas, a group that has the highest rates of suicidal behavior of any youth group in the United States. The other area of focus is the development and mental health of U.S. citizen-children of undocumented Latin American parents.
Media Contact: Cassie Bernhardt, cassiebernhardt@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-8376
NCAA Changes and Collegiate Athletics

Thomas M Hunt
Associate Professor
, Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
, College of Education
+1 512 471 1540, tmhunt@austin.utexas.edu
Thomas M. Hunt, J.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin. With research interests that include sport law, history, and international relations, Hunt has published articles in, among others, the [italic]Journal of Sport History[/italic], the [italic]International Journal of the History of Sport[/italic], and the [italic]International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics[/italic]. His book [italic]Drug Games: The International Olympic Committee and the Politics of Doping, 1960-2008[/italic] is considered a critical text on the topic.
Media Contact: Amanda Karr, amanda.karr@austin.utexas.edu, 323-422-1739

Daron K Roberts
Founding Director, Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation
, Center for Sports of Leadership and Innovation
+1 512 471 2320, daronroberts@utexas.edu
Daron K. Roberts is a former NFL coach and author of, Call an Audible: Let My Pivot from Harvard Law to NFL Coach Inspire Your Transition (Greenleaf 2017).
Call an Audible was named a #1 New Release and Best Seller by Amazon and Sports Illustrated selected the book as one of its Best Sports Business Books of 2017.
Roberts serves as founding director of the Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation (CSLi) at the University of Texas. He created CSLi in the fall of 2014. The Center is the first university-based institute dedicated to developing leadership and character curricula for high school, collegiate and professional athletes. Roberts is also a lecturer in the Liberal Arts Honors Program and he focuses on issues of leadership and innovation in the sports arena.
He also developed a course A Gameplan for Winning at Life that he teaches to incoming freshmen student-athletes at the University of Texas. During the course of each academic year, Roberts teaches nearly 300 students.
After graduating from Harvard Law School (2007), Roberts served coaching stints with the Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions, West Virginia Mountaineers and Cleveland Browns. He holds a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government from the University of Texas (2001) and an M.P.P. from Harvards Kennedy School (2004).
Roberts served as Student Body President during his tenure at the University of Texas. Before entering graduate school, Roberts worked as an aide to Senator Joe Lieberman.
In 2010, Daron launched a nonprofit football camp 4th and 1, Inc. 4th and 1 provides free SAT prep, life skills development and football training to at-risk youth in Michigan, Texas and Florida. The camp has served nearly 500 student-athletes since 2010.
The Presidential Leadership Foundation a joint venture between Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush tabbed Roberts as a Presidential Leadership Scholar for 2015. He was one of 60 members in the inaugural class.
Roberts has been featured in ESPN the Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek and Sports Illustrated and is a contributor to Forbes.com. His articles have appeared in The Dallas Morning News, Fortune, Houston Chronicle, and Time.
Roberts is the host of an industry-leading podcast A Tribe Called Yes (available on iTunes and Stitcher).
Security and Identity Protection

Dawna Ballard
Associate Professor
, Department of Communication Studies
, Moody College of Communication
+1 512 471 5251, diballard@utexas.edu
Dr. Ballard studies how our working lives shape our experience of time in multiple ways, both personally and professionally. As examples, she has studied the relationship between working time (including fast-paced work environments, multi-tasking, long-term planning, and time-management issues) and related outcomes (including job satisfaction, relational quality, communication in meetings, and information overload).
Her interests are reflected in two related lines of research: one focused on differences in time across varied occupational groups, the other centered on the role of technology in shaping the pace and timing of our work. Most recently, she has studied the way that members of different occupational groups manage multiple aspects of time in their day-to-day and long-term activities. Her latest project on this issue examines time in the athletic career. Additionally, she is interested in issues of time and space associated with new communication technologies and related work practices (such as virtual teams and bloggers) and recently completed a study on early adopters of Twitter.
Media Contact: Mary Huber, mary.huber@austin.utexas.edu, 409-790-6902

Suzanne Barber
Professor
, Chandra Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
+1 512 656 6152, sbarber@identity.utexas.edu
Dr. Suzanne Barber is the AT&T Endowed Professor in Engineering and Director of The Center for Identity at The University of Texas. The mission of the Center is to deliver high-quality discoveries, applications, education and outreach in identity management, privacy and security. Formerly, Dr. Barber served as Director of Software Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. She is published in over 300 peer-reviewed journals in the areas of cyber-trust, cyber-security, agent-based systems, and software engineering. Her research has been supported by the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, National Cancer Institute, U.S. Congress, the State of Texas, and numerous corporate organizations. Dr. Barber has invented and commercialized core technologies that deliver new levels of visibility, knowledge discovery and collaboration among distributed stakeholders, as well as trusted online transactions.
Dr. Barber currently serves as a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee, appointed by Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano, offering guidance to the DHS Chief Privacy Officer.

William Inboden
Associate Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 2411, +1 512 471 2601, inboden@austin.utexas.edu
William Inboden is Executive Director of the William P. Clements, Jr. Center for National Security. He serves as associate professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and distinguished scholar at the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. Inboden's other current roles include non-resident Fellow with the German Marshall Fund of the United States, senior advisor with Avascent International, and associate scholar with Georgetown University's Religious Freedom Project.
Previously he served as senior director for strategic planning on the National Security Council at the White House, where he worked on a range of foreign policy issues including the National Security Strategy, strategic forecasting, democracy and governance, contingency planning, counter-radicalization, and multilateral institutions and initiatives. Inboden also worked at the Department of State as a member of the policy planning staff and a special advisor in the Office of International Religious Freedom, and has worked as a staff member in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives.
Inboden has also served as senior vice president of the London-based Legatum Institute, and as a civitas fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a contributing editor to Foreign Policy magazine, and his commentary has appeared in numerous outlets including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Sky News, and BBC. He has lectured widely in academic and policy settings, and received numerous research and professional development fellowships. He is the author of Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945-1960: The Soul of Containment (Cambridge University Press) as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Inboden received his Ph.D. and M.A. degrees in history from Yale University, and his A.B. from Stanford University.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Matthew S McGlone
Professor
, Department of Communication Studies
, Moody College of Communication
+1 512 471 1920, matthew_mcglone@austin.utexas.edu
Dr. McGlone (Ph.D., Princeton University, 1994) investigates the cognitive, cultural and psychological foundations of interpersonal communication and persuasion. He has two principal research programs. One explores the linguistic devices people use to overcome communication challenges ? i.e., how people talk about things that are difficult to talk about. He has studied how people use metaphors to describe abstract concepts (time, intelligence, justice, etc.), use euphemisms to describe embarrassing topics (bodily functions, prejudice, death, etc.), and resort to "contextomy" (selective quotation) to discuss complicated sociopolitical issues in self-serving ways. A second program explores the role of social stereotypes in interpersonal interaction. In particular, he is interested in how people's awareness of self-relevant stereotypes can impair their communication with others, a phenomenon known as "stereotype threat."
Media Contact: Mary Huber, mary.huber@austin.utexas.edu, 409-790-6902

Stephen Slick
Director of the Intelligence Studies Project
, Intelligence Studies Project
+1 512 471 0814, sbslick@austin.utexas.edu
Stephen Slick was appointed in January 2015 as Director of UT-Austins Intelligence Studies Project and Clinical Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Before moving to Austin, he served 28 years in CIA's clandestine service including five assignments abroad. Between 2005 and 2009, he was a special assistant to the president and the Senior Director for Intelligence Programs and Reform on the staff of the National Security Council. He received a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University, J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, and Master in Public Policy from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Texas Politics
Joshua M Blank
Director of Research for the Texas Politics Project
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 471 0371, joshmblank@austin.utexas.edu
Joshua Blank is the Research Director of the Texas Politics Project. Born in New York, NY, he has a bachelor's degree in political science from Boston University and a doctoral degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Robert M Chesney
Dean, School of Law
+1 512 232 1298, rchesney@law.utexas.edu
Bobby Chesney is a national security law specialist, with a particular interest in problems associated with terrorism. Professor Chesney recently served in the Justice Department in connection with the Detainee Policy Task Force created by Executive Order 13493. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security, a senior editor for the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, an associate member of the Intelligence Science Board, a non-resident fellow of the Brookings Institute, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the American Law Institute. He holds a TS/SCI clearance. Professor Chesney has published extensively on topics ranging from detention and prosecution in the counterterrorism context to the states secrets privilege (testifying in Congress last year regarding the latter topic). He has served previously as chair of the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools and as editor of the National Security Law Report (published by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security). His upcoming projects include a book (under contract with Oxford University Press) concerning the evolving judicial role in national security affairs.
Professor Chesney's scholarship is posted on SSRN here. He also maintains a BePress Selected Works page here, though it is not as current as the SSRN page. For a complete list of his publications including works-in-progress, please see his CV (posted in the left-side column of this page). For those interested in following national security law developments, Professor Chesney welcomes subscriptions to his listserv, which focuses exclusively on distributing news of recent judicial opinions, new statutes, forthcoming scholarship, and other similar resources relating to national security and the law. Just send him an email if you'd like to subscribe.
The course website for Professor Chesney's Con Law class is posted here. For National Security Law, click here. For Law and Terrorism, click here. Finally, to get the syllabus for the special one-week mini-course on terrorism and law, click here
Media Contact: Joey Williams, joey.williams@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-3716

Victoria M Defrancesco
Senior Lecturer
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
, vmdsoto@austin.utexas.edu
Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto's is interested in US politics and its implications for countries abroad. Her research analyzes how human thought and emotion shape political behavior. Her academic work focuses on: campaigns and elections, political marketing, women in politics, race and ethnic politics, and immigration. Her research projects examine the influence of social group identities (e.g. race, gender, ethnicity, religion, partisanship) on political behavior. examining the growth of the Latino population and how this demographic shift will affect the United States along social, political, and economic dimensions. This book project looks at the historical role of immigrants and focuses on what elements make Latino immigrants unique and different from past immigration waves and how this will affect the future of the nation. Her second current research project looks at the role of women in politics. In particular, she examines how women of color navigate the intersection of partisanship and ethnicity. With the recent rise of elected Republican women of color (e.g. Governors Susana Martinez and Nikki Haley) Victoria considers how women can shape their partys rhetoric and platforms.
She works to translate social science research into a more relatable form of information for a wide variety of audiences. She is a contributor to MSNBC and NBCNews.com as well as a regular political analyst for Telemundo. She also has previously provided on-air analysis for CNN, Fox, PBS, Univision, and NPR.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Sherri R Greenberg
Assistant Dean
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 471 8324, +1 512 656 6592, srgreenberg@austin.utexas.edu
Sherri Greenberg served for 10 years as a member of the Texas House of Representatives, completing her final term in January 2001. In 1999, she was appointed by the Speaker of the House to chair the House Pensions and Investments Committee, which oversees the Texas State Employee Retirement System, state employee health insurance program, Teacher Retirement System, local public employee retirement systems, and regulation of state investments and public securities. After the 1999 legislative session, the Speaker appointed her as chair of the Select Committee on Teacher Health Insurance.
Greenberg served two terms on the House Appropriations Committee, which is the House's budget writing committee, and served on the Appropriations Committee's Education and Major Information Systems Subcommittees. Other committee assignments included the House Economic Development Committee and the Welfare-to-Work Committee.
Greenberg's professional background is in public finance. She served as the Manager of Capital Finance for the City of Austin from 1985 to 1989, overseeing the City's debt management, capital budgeting, and capital improvement programs. Prior to that she worked as a Public Finance Officer for Standard & Poor's Corporation in New York, where she analyzed and assigned bond ratings to public projects across the country.
Greenberg has a B.A. in Government from UT Austin and an M.S. in Public Administration and Policy from the London School of Economics. At the LBJ School she teaches courses in public financial management, policy development, and public administration and management. Her teaching and research interests include public finance and budgeting, Texas state government, local government, health care, education, utilities, transportation, and campaigns and elections.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

James R Henson
Executive Director of Texas Politics Project
, Texas Politics Project
+1 512 471 0090, j.henson@austin.utexas.edu
James Henson teaches in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin and directs the Texas Politics Project, a collection of enterprises designed to encourage informed interest and engagement in Texas politics and government. In that role, he co-directs, with Daron Shaw, the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, the only open-access, public, statewide survey of public opinion in Texas. The data sets from those surveys are available in the polling section of the Texas Politics website. He also writes about politics for The Texas Tribune, and is a frequent resource for news media and researchers on Texas politics and government. He also coordinates the Government Department's internship program.
Dr. Henson was appointed to the City of Austin Ethics Review Commission in 2009 by the Austin City Council, and served as chairman of the commission from 2010 to 2012. He is currently a member of the advisory board of The Subiendo Academy in the McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin.

Peniel E Joseph
Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 475 7241, peniel.joseph@austin.utexas.edu
Josephs research focuses has been on Black Power Studies, which explore the interdisciplinary fields of Africana studies, womens and ethnic studies, law and society and political science. He is currently teaching The Civil Rights Movement and Public Policy.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Daron R Shaw
Professor
, Department of Government
, College of Liberal Arts
+1 512 232 7275, dshaw@austin.utexas.edu
Daron Shaw's research interests include American government, campaigns and elections, political parties, public opinion and voting behavior, and applied survey research. Dr. Shaws most recent book is Campaigns and Elections, a textbook he co-authored with John Sides, Keena Lipsitz, and Matthew Grossman. He is also the author of two scholarly monographs. The first is Unconventional Wisdom: Facts and Myths about American Voters (with Karen Kaufman and John Petrocik), which explores what we know (and dont know) about voters and voting in the United States. The second is Race to 270, which examines Electoral College strategies and resource allocation patterns in U.S. presidential elections from 1988 through 2004. Dr. Shaw has also published numerous articles in professional journals such as the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Communication, PS: Political Science, Election Law Journal, Party Politics, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and American Politics Research.
In addition to his scholarly research, Dr. Shaw served as a strategist during the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. He is the co-director of the Fox News Poll, one of the principle investigators for the University of Texas-Texas Tribune Poll, and director of the Texas Lyceum Poll. He also serves on the Board of Overseers for the American National Election Study, and is on the Advisory Board for the Annette Strauss Institute. Dr. Shaw was formerly a presidential appointee to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. In 2012, he was named the Frank. C. Erwin, Jr. Chair of State Government.
Media Contact: Daniel Oppenheimer, oppenheimer@utexas.edu, 512-475-9712

Paul J Stekler
Professor Emeritus
, Department of Radio-Television-Film
, Moody College of Communication
, paul.stekler@austin.utexas.edu
Paul Stekler's documentary work about American politics and society includes "Last Man Standing" (broadcast on PBS's P.O.V. series). "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire" (winner of an Emmy and the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival), "Vote for Me: Politics in America," a four-hour documentary series about grassroots electoral politics (winner of an Emmy, a George Foster Peabody Award and a duPont-Columbia Journalism Award); and two segments of the "Eyes on the Prize II" series on the history of civil rights.
Stekler marries his political and media expertise as the host and executive producer for
PBS's statewide Texas politics show "Special Session," while also teaching a campaign
politics course at the LBJ School along with Matthew Dowd, chief campaign strategist for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign; Mark McKinnon, who oversaw advertising for the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns; and Wayne Slater, senior political writer of the Dallas Morning News and coauthor of "Bush?s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential."
Stekler has a doctorate in government from Harvard University, has written about Southern politics, and was a political consultant in New Orleans. He has taught at the University of Texas' nationally recognized RTF film program since 1997. He also appeared on MTV's The Real World Austin as that season's boss, supervising the making of a documentary film about SXSW.
Media Contact: Mary Huber, mary.huber@austin.utexas.edu, 409-790-6902

Jeremi Suri
Professor
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
+1 512 475 7242, suri@austin.utexas.edu
Jeremi Suri's primary research interests include the formation and spread of nation-states, the emergence of modern international relations, the connections between foreign policy and domestic politics, and the rise of knowledge institutions as global actors. He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching, and Smithsonian Magazine named him one of America's "Top Young Innovators" in the Arts and Sciences in 2007.
He is the author and co-author of nine books, including the widely acclaimed biography of one of America's most distinguished diplomats, "Henry Kissinger and the American Century" (2007), "Foreign Policy Breakthroughs: Cases in Successful Diplomacy (2015, co-edited with Robert Hutchings), "Libertys Surest Guardian: American Nation-Building from the Founders to Obama" (2011), "The Global Revolutions of 1968" (2007), "Power and Protest: Global Revolution and the Rise of Détente" (2003), "American Foreign Relations since 1898: A Documentary Reader" (2010), "The Twentieth Century: The United States and the World, 1898-1991" (2014), "The Power of the Past: History and Statecraft (2015, co-edited with Hal Brands), "Sustainable National Security Strategy: The Past and Future of American Power" ( forthcoming 2016).
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054
Transportation

Oguzhan Bayrak
Professor
, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 232 6409, +1 512 232 7826, bayrak@mail.utexas.edu
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Chandra R Bhat
Professor
, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 471 4535, bhat@mail.utexas.edu
Dr. Chandra R. Bhat earned his Ph.D. in civil engineering from Northwestern University in 1991. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1997. Bhat is associate chairman of the Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Department.
Dr. Bhat conducts mathematical modeling of how people make decisions about their activity and travel choices. His research helps identify ways to reduce pollution and improve public health, and is useful for transportation policy makers because it identifies competitive positioning strategies for transportation services. His models enable evaluation of the effectiveness of alternative traffic congestion alleviation strategies such as telecommuting, urban form design to reduce auto dependency, work schedule changes, pricing strategies including tolls, ridesharing incentives, non-motorized travel such as bicycling and walking, and real-time driver information regarding traffic delays. Bhat also analyzes seat belt use and auto accidents and studies the adoption of alternative-fuel vehicles.
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Leigh B Boske
Professor Emeritus
, Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs
, leigh.boske@utexas.edu
Leigh B. Boske, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pittsburgh, is Associate Dean of the LBJ School. Over a twenty-year period at the LBJ School, his teaching and research interests have focused on transportation policy, economics, and finance. He is a recipient of the University of Texas Excellence in Teaching Award. His published research is on national and international transportation policies and programs, state multimodal transportation planning, cost efficiency in the airline and railroad industries, and port finance. In recognition of his research contribution to the understanding of the importance of maritime commerce and port development, Boske was named Port Person of the Year in 1997 by the Texas Ports Association. Boske has been a consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives, Texas Department of Transportation, Office of the Governor of Texas, Interstate Commerce Commission, Association of American Railroads, and other organizations. He is a founding member of the National Conference of State Rail Planning Officials and a former member of Transportation Research Board committees such as the Committee on Surface Freight Transportation Regulation and the Committee on the State Role in Railroad Transportation.
Media Contact: Tori Yu, victoriajyu@austin.utexas.edu, 512-232-4054

Todd E Humphreys
Director, Organized Research Unit, Wireless Networking and Communications Group
, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 471 4489, todd.humphreys@utexas.edu
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Kara Kockelman
Professor
, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
, Cockrell School of Engineering
+1 512 471 0210, kkockelm@mail.utexas.edu
The Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Kockelman is a registered professional engineer and holds a PhD, MS, and BS in civil engineering, a Masters of City Planning, and a minor in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. She has received numerous fellowships and awards, including the NSF CAREER Award for faculty research and teaching (2000-2005), the NSF and Berkeley Fellowships for graduate study (1993-1998), the Tiebout Prize for best paper in regional science (1998), the U.C. Transportation Center "Student of the Year" Award (1998), and the University Medal from U.C. Berkeley as the "most distinguished graduate" among its body of 5,300 undergraduates (1991). Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, Dr. Kockelman worked as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the rural Andean region of Ecuador, managing the construction of potable water systems and other sanitation infrastructure. Dr. Kockelman's primary research interests include the statistical modeling of travel behavior and location choice, the connection between urban form and travel, and urban planning and policy-making. She has taught classes in transportation systems, transport economics, transport data acquisition and analysis, and geometric design (at U.T.) and statistics (at U.C. Berkeley). Dr. Kockelman is the author of numerous published papers, including the following: "A Model for Time- and Budget-Constrained Activity Demand Analysis" (Transportation Research B), "Changes in the Flow-Density Relationship due to Environmental, Vehicle, and Driver Characteristics" (Transportation Research Record No. 1644); "Travel Behavior as a Function of Accessibility, Land Use Balance, and Land Use Mixing" (TRR No. 1607); "The Effects of Location Elements on Home Purchase Prices and Rents" (TRR No. 1606); "Travel Demand and the Three Ds: Density, Diversity, and Design" (Transportation Research D, with Robert Cervero); "High-Speed Rail for California: A Cost-Benefit Analysis" (Berkeley Planning Journal). Dr. Kockelman sits on the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Transportation and Land Development and its Sub-Committee on Integrated Transportation and Land-Use Modeling, and she is a member of NCHRP Panel 8-37 ("Statistical and Methodological Standards for Metropolitan Travel Surveys") and TCRP Panel B-19 ("Providing Transit Options for Older Americans").
Media Contact: Nat Levy, nat.levy@utexas.edu, 512-471-2129

Peter H Stone
Professor
, Department of Computer Science
, College of Natural Sciences
+1 512 471 9796, pstone@cs.utexas.edu
Stone is the founder and director of the Learning Agents Research Group (LARG) within the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin.
His main research interest in AI is understanding how we can best create complete intelligent agents. He considers adaptation, interaction and embodiment to be essential capabilites of such agents. Thus, his research focuses mainly on machine learning, multiagent systems and robotics. For Stone, the most exciting research topics are those inspired by challenging real-world problems. He believes that complete successful research includes both precise, novel algorithms and fully implemented and rigorously evaluated applications. His application domains have included robot soccer, autonomous bidding agents, autonomous vehicles, autonomic computing and social agents.
Media Contact: Christine Sinatra, christine.sinatra@austin.utexas.edu, 512-471-4641

Heather K Way
Clinical Professor
, School of Law
+1 512 232 1210, hway@law.utexas.edu
Heather K. Way directs the Community Development Clinic. Way has been a practitioner in the field of community development and affordable housing law since 1997. Prior to joining the faculty in 2006, she was the founder and Director of Texas Community Building with Attorney Resources, which provides legal education and pro bono legal assistance to nonprofit organizations. Prior to founding Texas C-Bar, Way was a staff attorney at Legal Aid of Central Texas where, as a Skadden Fellow, she represented nonprofit community development corporations and low-income persons seeking to access affordable housing. Way frequently lectures on topics in the area of affordable housing and community development. She is actively involved in the development of public policies related to community development, including land banks, tax delinquent properties, housing preservation, and gentrification.
The State Bar of Texas Young Lawyers Association presented Way in 2002 with its Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas award. Way has also been recognized as the 2001 Outstanding Young Lawyer of Austin (by the Austin Young Lawyers Association) and one of the Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 by the Texas Lawyer. Most recently, she was recognized in 2006 as an outstanding "Houser" by the Texas Low Income Housing Information Services.
Media Contact: Robyn Lindenberg, rlindenberg@law.utexas.edu, 512-232-6798
For more information, contact: University Communications, Office of the President, 512-471-3151.