Economic Development Council Virtual Lunch

We are pleased to welcome Dan Schnur, Lynn Vavreck and John Myers for a distinguished panel hosted by Professor Schnur to discuss the upcoming November 2020 election.

Dan Schnur is a Professor at the University of California – Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications, where he teaches courses in politics, communications and leadership. He is the founder of the USC/LA Times statewide political poll and is the host of the weekly webinar “Politics In the Time of Coronavirus” for the LA World Affairs Council Town Hall at 11 AM on Thursdays.

Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, a contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, and a recipient of the Andrew F. Carnegie Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences.  She is the author of five books, including the “most ominous” book on the 2016 election: Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America, and The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election, described as the “definitive account” of the 2012 election. Political consultants on both sides of the aisle refer to her work on political messaging in The Message Matters as “required reading” for presidential candidates. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and she has served on the advisory boards of both the British and American National Election Studies. At UCLA she teaches courses on campaigns, elections, public opinion, and the 1960s. Professor Vavreck holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester and held previous appointments at Princeton University, Dartmouth College, and The White House.  A native of Cleveland, Ohio, she remains a loyal Browns fan and is a “known equestrian” – to draw on a phrase from the 2012 presidential campaign.

John Myers joined the Los Angeles Times as Sacramento bureau chief in 2015 after more than two decades in radio and television news, much of that as an award-winning reporter covering statehouse policy and politics. During a decade of work for San Francisco’s NPR affiliate, his unique online projects included everything from one of Sacramento’s original politics blogs to California’s first politics podcast. He served as the moderator of gubernatorial debates in 2014 and 2010 and is often cited by state and national news organizations as one of Sacramento’s top political journalists.