Polling and Democracy

D. Sunshine Hillygus is the Director of the Duke Initiative on Survey Methodology and Co-Director of the Polarization Lab. She has published widely on the topics of American political behavior, campaigns and elections, survey methods, public opinion, and information technology and politics. Professor Hillygus is co-author of “Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action,” “The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Political Campaigns,” and “The Hard Count: The Social and Political Challenges of the 2000 Census.” From 2003 to 2009, Professor Hillygus taught at Harvard University, where she was the Frederick S. Danziger Associate Professor of Government and founding Director of the Program on Survey Research.

David Wilson’s research examines how individuals formulate their political preferences about race and justice, and how social cognition shapes broader survey response behaviors. His research is published widely in areas of inquiry that include the application of double standards in evaluating racial groups and related policy issues, attitudes toward voter identification laws and electoral malfeasance, blame attributions toward elected leaders and political groups, and how diversity culture and climate affect organizational employee engagement. Professor Wilson is the co-author of the forthcoming book “Racial Resentment in the Political Mind.” He is currently a Senior Associate Dean for Social Sciences in the University of Delaware’s College of Arts & Sciences. Prior to his joining UD, Professor Wilson was a senior statistical researcher for the Gallup Organization and taught statistical application courses for SPSS. He holds a B.A. in Government from Western Kentucky University and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

Douglas Rivers is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. One of the world’s leading experts on survey research as well as a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Professor Rivers is also the president and CEO of YouGov/Polimetrix. He has taught at Harvard University, Caltech, UCLA, and most recently Stanford University. Professor Rivers has founded two successful technology companies, Preview Systems and Knowledge Networks. A pioneer in the field of digital rights management, Preview Systems conducted a successful IPO in 1999 and was sold in 2001. As CEO of the company, Professor Rivers was named Executive of the Year (2000) by Research Business Report and received the Innovator’s Award from the American Association of Public Opinion Research (2001). He is also a CBS News consultant and has published academic papers in numerous journals, including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the American Economics Review. Professor Rivers holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Jennifer Agiesta is Director of Polling and Election Analytics at CNN. Named to the position in January 2015, Ms. Agiesta produces all of the network’s polling and leads its Election Night decision team, while guiding CNN’s reporting on the use of polls. She works out of CNN’s Washington, D.C. bureau. Prior to joining CNN, Ms. Agiesta served as Director of Polling at The Associated Press, where she ran a two-person polling unit, conducting domestic and international survey research for the news cooperative and leading its Election Night exit poll coverage. She has also covered polling at The Washington Post, launching the site’s polling blog “Behind the Numbers,” and helped build the National Election Pool exit poll operation at Edison Research. Prior to her media work, Ms. Agiesta worked on messaging research with D.C. firms Belden, Russonello & Stewart and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. A native of Long Island, Ms. Agiesta holds a Bachelor’s degree from Washington and Lee University.

Peter K. Enns is a professor in the Department of Government and the Brooks School of Public Policy and Robert S. Harrison Director of the Cornell Center for Social Sciences at Cornell University. He is also co-founder and chief data scientist at Verasight. Professor Enns’ research and teaching focus on public opinion and political representation, mass incarceration and the legal system, and data science. He was Executive Director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research from 2015 to 2022.

Professor Enns has published three books — ”Hijacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence,” “Incarceration Nation: How the United States Became the Most Punitive Democracy in the World,” and “Who Gets Represented?” — as well as dozens of academic articles and op-eds. His research has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, FWD.us, Koch Foundation, National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Russell Sage Foundation. In 2017, Professor Enns received the Emerging Scholar Award from the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior section of the American Political Science Association, presented to the top scholar in the field within ten years of their doctorate.

Scott Keeter is a senior survey advisor at Pew Research Center, providing methodological guidance to all of Pew Research Center’s research areas. An expert on American public opinion and political behavior, he is co-author of four books and has published numerous articles on survey methodology. Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Dr. Keeter taught at George Mason University, Rutgers University, and Virginia Commonwealth University, where he also directed a survey research center. He is a graduate of Davidson College and received his doctorate in political science from the University of North Carolina. A past president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), in 2016 Dr. Keeter won their highest honor, the AAPOR Award for Lifetime Achievement, for “outstanding contributions to the field of public opinion research.”