Danyao Li is an Assistant Professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy. She earned her Ph.D. in Public Affairs from The Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington. Her research aims to understand how the design and implementation of policy programs impact organizational performance and contribute to disparities in policy outcomes, particularly in law enforcement. Her research examines topics such as police recruitment, training, workforce diversity and representation, and other key practices in policing. Her work has been published in leading journals, including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, and American Review of Public Administration. 

Pamela McCann, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. Dr. McCann previously served as an assistant professor of public affairs at the University of Washington. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her research interests include U.S. political institutions, bureaucratic delegation, federalism, intergovernmental politics, legislative behavior, public policy, health policy, policy diffusion, state and local politics. She examines the influence of the states and state-level political institutions on national political maneuvering and policy choices. In particular, Dr. McCann focuses on the influence of policy actors’ intergovernmental context on legislative choices. Her recent work addresses the impact of the interaction of state and national political institutions on political choices and policy outcomes. Dr. McCann has published in highly respected journals across public policy, public administration, and political science, including Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Journal of Politics, and Publius. Her book, The Federal Design Dilemma, was published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press.

Mindy Romero is the founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy (CID), formerly known as the California Civic Engagement Project, which is part of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and is based in Sacramento, California. Romero is a political sociologist and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on political behavior and race/ethnicity, and seeks to explain patterns of voting and political underrepresentation, particularly among youth and communities of color in California and the U.S.

Romero has been invited to speak about civic engagement and political rights in numerous venues, testifying before the National Commission on Voting Rights and the California Legislature, among others. Her research has been cited in major news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Politico and the Huffington Post. She has also been a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Capital Public Radio, and several other NPR-affiliated stations in California. She is a regular op-ed contributor to the Sacramento Bee and CalMatters. In 2018, the McClatchy News named Romero a “California Influencer”, one of a group of sixty thought leaders in the state.

Romero works with a wide array of policymakers, elected officials, voter education groups and community advocates to strengthen political participation and representation. She is currently an adjunct fellow of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) and former member of their Statewide Survey Advisory Committee. Romero was named to the National Academy of Public Administration’s 2023 Class of Academy Fellows. She is the former Chair of Mutual Housing California and former Vice-Chair of the Social Services Commission for the City of Davis. 

Shui Yan Tang’s research focuses on institutional analysis and design, common-pool resource governance, environmental politics and policy, collaborative governance, and governance reform. He is the author of Institutions and Collective Action: Self-Governance in Irrigation (ICS Press, 1992) and Ten Principles for a Rule-ordered Society: Enhancing China’s Governing Capacity (China Economic Publishing House, 2012). He has published in numerous journals, including Comparative Politics, Economic Development Quarterly, Environment and Planning A, Governance, Harvard Business Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Land Economics, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Public Administration Review, The China Quarterly, and World Development. Professor Tang was associate editor of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.