Placement Record

The Department of Political Science doctoral program maintains a high percentage of alumni job placements, including in tenure-track positions at prestigious academic institutions. Here are stories about some recent graduates, along with a comprehensive list of placements.  

Ginger Alonso Ginger Alonso (PhD 2023) started as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in Fall 2023 at California State University, Chico in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice. In addition to her teaching and research at CSUC, Ginger is a faculty advisor in the MPA program and a volunteer for the Data Science Initiative. Ginger was a Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) scholar. As a doctoral student, she received the Robert Jackman Award and was nominated for the Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award in 2020. During this time, she also lectured at CSUC, UC Davis, and Butte College, and worked with students at the UC Center in Sacramento. Her research and teaching interests broadly integrate identity politics and health policy. During her PhD, her research focused on the role of ethnic identity, ideology and partisanship in perceptions of crisis events like economic recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Moving forward, she will continue to explore the tension between self-interest and community interests during times of hardship, as well as initiating a new project exploring the impact of natural disasters on the healthcare workforce in medically underserved areas. Sam Collitt Sam Collitt is the lead researcher at Committee of 100, a US non-profit that seeks to improve social and policy outcomes for Chinese Americans.  During his PhD, his research focused on using survey data to assess how partisans get and process political information.  At Committee of 100, he continues to use and produce survey data to gain new insights about particular populations’ opinions and behaviors.  In 2023, Sam led Committee of 100’s side of a collaborative survey research project with Columbia University: a large-scale national study of Chinese Americans’ health outcomes, financial security, cultural identities, experiences with racial discrimination, and political opinions & engagement.  His work has been featured in news stories by a wide variety of national outlets. Jonathan Colner Jonathan Colner (PhD 2024) started as a Data Science Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow at New York University’s Center for Data Science in Fall 2024. Additionally, Jonathan recently received the SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award from the National Science Foundation. This fellowship, jointly funded by the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences and the Accountable Institutions and Behavior Program, supports 2 years of research at City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Among his achievements as a doctoral student, Jonathan received the Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Educational Foundation Dissertation Writing Fellowship as well as the Dean's Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. Jonathan’s research examines how institutional structures affect voters, candidates, and elected officials at the local level. Additionally, he looks to develop new methods for extracting local administrative data leveraging object detection and large language models. Jonathan has been published multiple times in the American Journal of Political Science and has work forthcoming in PS: Political Science and Politics.

ADDITIONAL PLACEMENTS

• 2023-2024
• •Ray Brandt - Lecturer, UC Davis
  •Sam Fuller - Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University
  •Paige Pellaton - Assistant Adjunct Professor in American Politics and Public Policy, UC Center Sacramento
  •Rana McReynolds - Assistant Professor of African American Studies, San Jose State University
  •Marika Miner - Postdoctoral Fellow, OSUN Forum on Democracy and Development
• 2022-2023
• •Ginger Alonso - Assistant Professor, CSU Chico
  •Sharif Amlani - Data and Policy Analyst, Acumen
  •Rizwan Asghar - Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Trinity College Dublin
  •David Bracken - Teaching Professor, The Pennsylvania State University
  •Amanda Dorney - Lecturer, New St. Andrews College
  •Sara Kazemian - Data and Policy Analyst, Acumen
  •JD Mussel - Postdoctoral Fellow, Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University
  •Laurel Yacuta - Data Analyst, California Department of Justice
• 2021-2022
• •Isaac Hale - Assistant Professor, Occidental College
  •Sarah Prince - Product Manager, LeanTaas
• 2020-2021
• •Ipek Bahceci - Postdoctoral Fellow, European Union Institute
  •Samuel Collitt - Lead Researcher, Committee of 100
  •Slande Erole - Data & Visualization Specialist, ECCO Shoes
  •Jordan Hamzawi - Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School
  •Nahrain Rasho - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Arizona
  •Amy Skoll - Assistant Professor, Cal Maritime Academy
• 2019-2020 
• • Ross Butters - Adjunct Assistant Professor, UC Center Sacramento
  • Jaime Jackson - Assistant Professor, Sacramento State
  • Gento Kato - Assistant Professor, Nazarbayev University
  • Matthew Lesenyie - Assistant Professor, CSU Long Beach
  • Daniel Simmons - Assistant Professor, Saint Michael’s College
  • Cory Struthers - Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
  • Roi Zur - Lecturer (Assistant Professor), University of Essex
  • Tzu-Ping Liu - Assistant Professor, University of Taipei
• 2018-2019 
• • Adam Kunz - Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire
  • Fan Lu - Assistant Professor, Queen's University
  • Ariel Petrovich - Assistant Research Scholar, University of Maryland (formerly postdoctoral fellow, Harvard Belfer Center)
  • Evan Sandler -  Research Manager, USC (formerly postdoctoral fellow, Stanford University)
  • Carlos Algara - Assistant Professor, Claremont Graduate University (formerly APSA Congressional Fellow)
• 2017-2018
• • Andrey Tomashevskiy - Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
  • Paul Johnson - Research Analyst, US Airforce
  • Tracy Lin - Postdoctoral Scholar, London School of Economics
  • Christopher P. Donnelly - Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Mary Washington
• 2016-2017
• • Shareefa Al-Adwani - American University of Kuwait
  • Jesse Hammond - Naval Postgraduate School
  • Michelle Schwarze - University of Wisconsin, Madison
  • Timothy Taylor - Wheaton College
• 2015-2016
• • Richard Bairett - Southern Utah University
  • Wilfred Chow - University of Hong Kong
  • Christopher Hallenbrook - Assistant Professor, CSU Dominguez Hills
  • Tracy Lin - Postdoctoral Scholar, University of California, San Francisco
  • Kristina Victor - Visiting Assistant Professor, University of California Sacramento Center
  • John Warner - Kansas State University
  • Shaina Western - Oxford University (Somerville College)
• 2014-2015
• • Danielle Joesten - California State University, Sacramento
  • Matthew Pietryka - Florida State University
• 2013-2014
• • Alicja Jac-Kucharski - Lone Star College, Kingwood
  • Richard Johnson - University of Strathclyde
  • Debra Leiter - University of Missouri, Kansas City
  • Gail Pivetti - Research Analyst, KSE Partners
  • Ryan Reed - Northwest Missouri State University
  • Jack Reilly - New College
  • Michelle Schwarze - Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Matthew Weiss - University of Texas, Pan American
• 2012-2013
• • Chris Albon - Director, Governance Project, FrontlineSMS
  • Elissa Alzate - Winona State University, Minnesota
  • Niki Kalaf-Hughes - Bowling Green State University
  • Milosz Kucharski - Lone Star College, CyFair
  • Sarah Lockhart - Fordham University
  • Caitlin Milazzo - University of Exeter; currently at the University of Nottingham
  • Carl Palmer - Illinois State University
  • Jennifer Wilking - California State University, Chico
  • Ibrahim Zabad - St. Bonaventure University
• 2011-2012
• • Kevin Evans - Florida International University
  • Kris Inman - Social Science Researcher, Booz Allen Hamilton
  • Alexander Mayer - Research Associate, MDRC
  • Elizabeth Simas - University of Houston
  • Jonathan Seth Snider - Analyst, Department of Defense
  • James R. Zink - North Carolina State University
• 2010-2011
• • Andrea Duwel - Presentation High School
  • Rolfe Peterson - Mercyhurst College
  • Aimee Tannehill - Cryptanalyst, Federal Bureau of Investigation
• 2009-2010 
• • Monti Datta - University of Richmond
  • John B. Ryan - Florida State University
  • Belgin San-Acka - Koç University
  • Curtis Simon - Mt. San Antonio College
  • Zeynep Somer-Topcu - Vanderbilt University
• 2008-2009 
• • Leo Blanken - Naval Postgraduate School
  • Skyler Cranmer - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Nikolaus Emmanuel - Oklahoma State University
  • Gregory Love - University of Mississippi
  • Molly M. Melin - Loyola University Chicago
  • Jennifer Ramos - Loyola Marymount University
  • Gloria Walker - Centenary College of Louisiana
• 2007-2008
• • Olga Bogatyrenko - SUNY, Fredonia
  • Ryan Dudley - California Maritime Academy
  • Sarah Fulton - Texas A&M University
  • V. Gregg Garbesi - United States Naval Academy
  • Dana Zartner - Tulane University
• 2006-2007
• • Daniel Brunstetter - University of California, Irvine
• 2005-2006 
• • Matthew Carlson - University of Vermont
  •Ryan Claassen - Kent State University
  • Michael Koch - Texas A&M University
  • Michael Rocca - University of New Mexico
  • Patricia Sullivan - University of Georgia
• 2004-2005 
• • Cynthia Boaz - SUNY, Brockport
• 2003-2004 
• • Christian Erickson - Roosevelt University
  • Tiffany (Jones) Miller - University of Dallas
  • Kimberly L. Nalder - California State University, Sacramento 
• 2002-2003 
• • Bethany Barratt - Roosevelt University
  • Teena Gabrielson - Southwestern University
  • John J. Kennedy - University of Kansas 
• 2001-2002 
• • Richard Andres - School of Advanced Airpower Studies
  • Thomas G. Hansford - University of South Carolina
  • Stephen R. Routh - California State University, Stanislaus
  • Lisa Sharlach - University of Alabama
• 2000-2001
• • Craig Collins - California State University, East Bay
  • David Damore - University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Matthew Hoddie - Texas A&M University