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Private Governance Workshop

Vanderbilt Affiliates

Brooke A. Ackerly, Associate Professor of Political Science, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Affiliated Faculty, Women's and Gender Studies, Principal Investigator, Global Feminisms Collaborative

Brooke Ackerly (Stanford PhD) is a political theorist and feminist methodologist. Her research interests include human rights, social and environmental justice, democracy, and methodologies for political theory and social science.

Allison Archer, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) Graduate Affiliate, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Allison Archer is a third-year doctoral student at Vanderbilt. Her research interests include the media, political psychology and public opinion. She is a CSDI graduate affiliate and the Graduate Research Assistant for the Research on Individuals, Politics and Society (RIPS) Lab.

Jack Barkenbus, Associate Director Climate Change Research Network, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment (VIEE), Vanderbilt University  

Jack Barkenbus is a political scientist and visiting scholar with the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment (VIEE). His research focuses on the interface of technology and institutions in the energy field, with special emphasis on climate change and energy policy research. He previously was Executive Director of the Energy, Environment and Resources Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Senior Researcher with the Institute for Energy Analysis (Oak Ridge).

Anna C. Carella, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Ms. Anna Carella is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science. She works with John Nay (also participating in the workshop) and Dr. Brooke Ackerly as part of the ISEE Bangladesh project http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ISEEBangladesh/about.php. In the context of this project, they are interested in (among other things) the dynamics of local-level governance of community drinking water projects in southwestern Bangladesh. Anna is particularly interested in internationally-led efforts to encourage local-level governance and the political implications of such intentions and relationships.

Mark A. Cohen, Justin Potter Professor of American Competitive Enterprise and Professor of LawUniversity Fellow, Resources for the Future, Owen School of Management, Vanderbilt University

Mark Cohen is a professor of management at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University and holds a secondary appointment at Vanderbilt as a Professor of Law. Professor Cohen is a Resources for the Future (RFF) University Fellow and an expert on government enforcement of policy mandates, having published more than 85 articles and books on related topics. He has served on various governmental advisory panels, including Tennessee's Environmental Justice Steering Committee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board Panel on Illegal Competitive Advantage and Economic Benefits. He is a member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative, and serves on several academic editorial boards including Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, Environmental Economics, and Managerial and Decision Economics.

Representative Writing: The Role of Information Disclosure in Climate Mitigation Policy

Andrew F. Daughety, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Economics, Professor of Law (by Courtesy), Vanderbilt University

Andrew Daughety is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Economics and Professor of Law (by Courtesy) at Vanderbilt University, as well as a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt. His research interests are in industrial organization and in law and economics; he is an Associate Editor for the Rand Journal of Economics, is on the Editorial Board for the American Law and Economics Review, and is a past member of the NSF Law and Social Sciences Panel.

Michal Eskenazi, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Michal Eskenazi is a doctoral student in Political Science at Vanderbilt University, focusing on Conflict Studies. She holds an MA degree from the NYU, where she also worked at the Center on Law and Security. In the Center on Law and Security she conducted a project on the legal aspect of the use of private military contractors in war, while focusing mainly on the intelligence community. Before moving to the U.S, she worked as a Program Coordinator at the Center for the Study of European Politics and Society in Ben Gurion University of the Negev. 

Evan Haglund, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) Graduate Affiliate, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Evan Haglund is a graduate affiliate in the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions and a doctoral student in political science at Vanderbilt. After completing a BA in Public Policy at the University of Chicago in 2003, Evan worked in Washington for a lobbying firm. He joined the Foreign Service in 2005, serving at US embassies in Accra, Ghana and Ljubljana, Slovenia prior to coming to Vanderbilt. His research focuses on presidential appointments and bureaucratic performance.

David J. Hess, Professor, Sociology Department, Vanderbilt University

David J. Hess is a professor in the Sociology Department at Vanderbilt University, Associate Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment (VIEE), Director of Environmental and Sustainability Studies, and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Sociology Department. He has worked on social movements and environmental innovation, green jobs and green economic development, the public understanding of science, and the small business sector and sustainability.

Cindy D. Kam, Associate Chair, Director of Graduate Studies, Professor, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Cindy D. Kam is Professor of Political Science and Psychology at Vanderbilt. She is an expert in political psychology, public opinion, and political participation.

Scott Limbocker, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) Graduate Affiliate, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Scott Limbocker is a graduate student in political science at Vanderbilt University. His interests include elections and campaign finance.

Quan Mai, Doctoral Student, Sociology Department, Vanderbilt University

Quan D. Mai is a Ph.D. student in the Sociology Department of Vanderbilt University. He graduated in 2011 from Bates College. His research interests include political economy, media, work and occupations, labor sociology and the welfare state. He works with Larry W. Isaac and David J. Hess on multiple projects dealing with the cultural consequences of the labor movements and socio-political determinants of green energy policy. He was the recipient of the 2012 Marion Loftin award for the best graduate student paper for his project titled "All the Labor Problems Fit to Print: The New York Times and the Cultural Production of the U.S 'Labor Problem', 1870-1930."

Robert A. Mikos, Professor of Law, Director, Program in Law and Government, Vanderbilt Law School

Robert Mikos is a Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Law and Government at Vanderbilt Law School, as well as a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI).  His research is focused on federalism and criminal law issues. At present, Professor Mikos directs his scholarship toward the power struggle between federal and state governments and the subsequent implications for law and public policy. Professor Mikos earned his J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as articles editor on the Michigan Law Review and won numerous awards. He has since clerked for Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, taught at University of California at Davis, Notre Dame, and the University of Michigan.

John Jacob Nay, Doctoral Candidate, Environmental Engineering, Management and Policy, Vanderbilt UniversityFellow, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and the Environment

John Jacob Nay is a doctoral student a Vanderbilt University, and Graduate Fellow, Vanderbilt Institute for Energy & Environment (VIEE). His research interests include: behavioral and institutional factors that facilitate collective action and public goods provision under uncertainty; and agent-based computational modeling methodologies, especially applied to policy and organizational design problems.

Bruce Oppenheimer, Professor of Public Policy and Education, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Jennifer F. Reinganum, E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Economics, Professor of Law (by Courtesy), Vanderbilt University 

Jennifer Reinganum is the E. Bronson Ingram Professor of Economics and Professor of Law (by Courtesy) at Vanderbilt University, as well as a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt. Her research interests are in industrial organization and in law and economics; she is a co-editor for the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, and a past president of the American Law and Economics Association.

Mark Richardson, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions (CSDI) Graduate Affiliate, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department

Mark is a third-year graduate student in the Department of Political Science studying American political institutions. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, Mark worked as a bank regulator for over five years, three of which were with the Federal Reserve System. Mark holds a B.S. in Economics with a concentration in finance from the University of Tennessee at Martin and a Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

Edward L. Rubin, University Professor of Law and Political Science, Vanderbilt Law School

J.B. Ruhl, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law, Co-Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program

J.B. Ruhl is the David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law and Co-Director of the Energy, Environmental, and Land Use Program at the Vanderbilt University Law School. His research focuses on climate change adaptation, endangered species, ecosystem management, and adaptive management.

Representative Writing: Climate Change Adaptation and the Structural Transformation of Environmental Law

Jennifer L. Selin, CSDI Graduate Affiliate, Doctoral Student, Political Science Department, Vanderbilt University

Jennifer Selin is a Ph.D. student in political science at Vanderbilt University. Her research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science and examines how differences in the internal features of administrative agencies influence the extent of political control exercised by the President and Congress. Jennifer also holds a J.D. from Wake Forest University and practiced administrative law prior to joining Vanderbilt's political science department.

Kevin M. Stack, Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University 

Kevin M. Stack is a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University School of Law, where he now serves as its Associate Dean for Research. Professor Stack's research is in the areas of administrative law, regulation, separation of powers, and legislation. His work has appeared in numerous law reviews, including the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, Constitutional Commentary, and the Iowa Law Review. In 2013, he won the American Bar Association's 2013 Scholarship Prize in Administrative Law for his article, Interpreting Regulations, 111 Mich. L. Rev. 355 (2012). He is also a co-author (with Lisa Bressman and Edward Rubin) of THE REGULATORY STATE (2010). Prior to joining the Vanderbilt faculty, he was an Associate Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University. He received his undergraduate degree in philosophy from Brown University, a master's degree in philosophy from Oxford University, supported by a Fulbright Scholarship, and his law degree from Yale Law School. After law school, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Kimba M. Wood, U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York, and for the Honorable A. Wallace Tashima of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, worked in litigation in Washington, D.C.

Randall S. Thomas John S. Beasley II Professor of Law and Business, Director, Law & Business Program

Randall Thomas has earned a reputation of being one of the most productive and thoughtful corporate and securities law scholars in the nation. His recent work addresses issues such as hedge fund shareholder activism, executive compensation, corporate voting, corporate litigation and the structure of firms. He joined the Vanderbilt law faculty in 2000 to develop and direct the Law and Business Program, having served previously in on the law faculties of the University of Iowa, the University of Michigan, Duke University, Boston University, and the University of Washington. Prior to teaching law, Professor Thomas was in private practice for four years, and clerked for U.S. District Judge Charles Joiner of the Eastern District of Michigan. An acclaimed teacher, Professor Thomas teaches courses in the area of corporate law, including Corporations and Securities Regulation