Gerard Alexander is an associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia. His research began with a focus on the conditions of democratic consolidation in advanced industrial countries, especially in Western Europe. His first book, The Sources of Democratic Consolidation (Cornell University Press, 2002), argued that the key right-of-center political movements formed long-term commitments to democracy only when their political risks in democracy became relatively low as left agendas moderated across time. Variation in these risks was used to explain variation in conservative regime preferences and in regime outcomes in Europe’s five largest countries from the 1870’s France to 1980’s Spain.

Alexander's current research concerns factors affecting the size and role of government in selected cases in Western Europe and also the United States, and how they influence conservative attempts at reform of welfare states.

Michelle Hackman is a reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Washington bureau, where she covers U.S. immigration policy. Her coverage includes writing about the southern border, legal and employment-based immigration, refugee resettlement, care of unaccompanied children, immigration enforcement and relevant legislation on Capitol Hill. Previously, she wrote about health and education policy in Washington.

Michelle first joined the Journal in 2016 and is a graduate of Yale University.

Jennifer L. Lawless is the Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor of Politics and professor of public policy at the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the UVA faculty, she was a professor of government at American University and the director of the Women & Politics Institute. Before that, she was an assistant and then associate professor at Brown.

Lawless' research focuses on political ambition, campaigns and elections, and media and politics. She is the author or co-author of six books, including Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era (with Danny Hayes) and It Still Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don’t Run for Office (with Richard L. Fox). Her research, which has been supported by the National Science Foundation, has appeared in numerous academic journals, and is regularly cited in the popular press.

She is an associate editor of the American Journal of Politics Science, and holds an appointment as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Lawless graduated from Union College with a B.A. in political science and Stanford University with an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science. In 2006, she sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House of Representatives in Rhode Island’s second congressional district. Although she lost the race, she remains an obsessive political junkie.

David Leblang is the Ambassador Henry J. Taylor and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor Endowed Professor of Politics and Public Policy. He is the Randolph Compton Professor of Public Affairs at the University’s Miller Center of Public Affairs where he is director of policy studies. He currently serves as interim associate dean for student experience and strategic initiatives in the UVA College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Leblang is a scholar of political economy with research interests in global migration and in the politics of financial markets. His recent publications include The Ties That Bind: Immigration and the Global Political Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2023), “Labor Market Policy as Immigration Control: The Case of Temporary Protected Status” (International Studies Quarterly, 2022), and “Framing Unpopular Foreign Policies” (American Journal of Political Science, 2022).

In 2015, Leblang was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Mentoring Award by the University of Virginia, and in 2016 he received the Outstanding Mentoring Award from the Society of Women in International Political Economy of the International Studies Association. He is a devoted fan of Bruce Springsteen and the New York Mets, in that order.

Dara Lind is a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, where she works to help the public better understand immigration policy with written resources, public engagement, and guidance of colleagues’ efforts to ensure the Council’s experts have the greatest possible impact. Before joining the Council, she was one of the most trusted and respected immigration reporters in the country—first at Vox (where she also cohosted the policy podcast The Weeds) and then at ProPublica. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times and Bloomberg BusinessWeek, in addition to numerous TV and radio appearances. She began her immigration career as a policy staffer at America’s Voice.

Lise Clavel has worked in politics, government, and advocacy for the past 15 years. Most recently, she served in the Biden White House as deputy assistant to the president and senior advisor for migration, and before that as chief of staff at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In those roles, Clavel led policy development in response to southwest border challenges and other national security issues related to trade and travel.

From 2015 to 2019, Clavel worked on education policy and advocacy in the United States as a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In the second term of the Obama administration, she served as special assistant to the president and director of public engagement for the vice president. Clavel also has managed federal campaigns in Virginia and served in leadership roles in both the Biden and Obama presidential campaigns. She got her start in politics working on Tom Perriello's campaign in Virginia's 5th district, which encompasses Charlottesville. She also served as Perriello's chief of staff on Capitol Hill following his 2008 victory. Clavel graduated from Yale University with a degree in English.