Deondra Rose

Associate professor of public policy, political science and history; director of Polis: Center for Politics at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy

‘Unity’--or the practice of coming together for a common good--is part and parcel of democracy. Without it government by the people is a mere aspiration, and our efforts to make good on promises like equality, freedom, and justice chronically fall short. The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy will help bridge the gap that our country is facing and direct us toward the common ground that we need.

Deondra Rose is an Associate Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and History at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. She is also the Director of Polis: Center for Politics at Duke University and Co-director of the North Carolina Scholars Strategy Network (SSN). Her research focuses on U.S. higher education policy, political behavior, American political development, and the politics of inequality. She is the author of Citizens By Degree: Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Politics (Oxford University Press 2018), which examines the role that landmark federal higher education policies have played in the progress that women have made since the mid-twentieth century.

A summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Georgia, Rose received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, with a specialization in American Politics and public policy. Prior to entering academia, Deondra worked in Georgia and Minnesota politics, and she is an alumna of Barack Obama’s 2006 “Yes We Can” Campaign and Political Training Program.