Higher education leaders are public faces — of a college, of an institution, and of the discipline of higher education itself. Communicating clearly and credibly with diverse audiences, translating complex ideas for non-specialist listeners, and representing an institution's expertise and values in public settings are not peripheral to academic leadership. They are central to it. I have spent twenty years developing those capacities, and they show up in three distinct but related forms: invited public lectures, national broadcast and print media appearances, and professional conference presentations.
The most visible dimension of my public engagement is an active and sustained record of media commentary on American politics, elections, and democratic institutions. Over the past five years I have been sought out as an expert source by local, regional, and national outlets across television, radio, and print — appearing on broadcast programs, quoted in national news stories, and invited to contribute analysis on some of the most consequential political events of the period.
USA Today — analysis of presidential communication and the State of the Union address
ABC News (ABCnews.com) — multiple appearances covering Virginia elections, abortion policy, gubernatorial politics, and the Youngkin administration
The Independent (UK) — commentary on Trump, Musk, and the reshaping of American political reality
US News and World Report — Virginia legislative elections and abortion on the ballot
The Virginian-Pilot, Roanoke Times, McClatchy Newspaper Syndicate (Kansas City Star) — state and regional political analysis
Television appearances have included WSLS-TV, WDBJ-TV, WFXR-TV, CBS6, DCNewsNow, and FOX News Live, covering topics from Supreme Court vacancies and presidential executive orders to Virginia redistricting, election night analysis, and the dynamics of competitive state legislative races.
Radio appearances have included WFIR-AM and Virginia Public Media, with regular appearances for breaking political news, election analysis, and commentary on state and national political developments.
This media record reflects both subject matter expertise and the communication skills that expertise requires — the ability to make complex political dynamics legible to a general audience on deadline, to address contested and sensitive topics with clarity and appropriate nuance, and to represent an institution's scholarly voice credibly in high-visibility settings. It is, among other things, a demonstration of what it looks like when a faculty member takes the public engagement responsibilities of higher education seriously.
Beyond media commentary, I regularly accept invitations to speak to academic, civic, and community audiences on topics at the intersection of political science, civic education, and democratic participation. Recent and representative engagements include:
"The Unorthodox Presidencies of Donald J. Trump" — Presented at Virginia Commonwealth University (February 2025) and Virginia Tech's Power in Transition series (November 2024), as well as regularly to leadership classes at Radford University. This talk situates the Trump presidency within the scholarly literature on presidential behavior and institutional norms, drawing on the co-edited volume The Unorthodox Presidency of Donald Trump (University Press of Kansas, 2021).
"After the Ballots 2024" — American Democracy Project Webinar Series, November 2024. Post-election analysis for a national audience of civic engagement practitioners at AASCU institutions.
"CAN We All Just Get Along? Civility and Disagreement in an Age of Negative Partisanship" — Radford Political Science Days, February 2022. A public lecture on the structural roots of political polarization and what higher education can do about it.
"Operator Error: Civic Failure and its Threat to American Democracy" — University of West Georgia Into the Community series, 2017. Based on the book of the same title (Lexington Press, 2016).
"Deliberative Polling" — UWG State of Community, February 2018.
Earlier public engagements include invited talks to the Kansas Association of Municipalities Annual Meeting, the Western Kansas Women's Fellowship Society, Hays Rotary Club, and multiple civic and community organizations across Kansas, Georgia, and Virginia — a record that reflects a career-long commitment to taking scholarship beyond the campus.
I am available for public lectures, panel discussions, media appearances, and professional development sessions. My areas of deepest expertise and most frequent engagement include:
American Elections and Political Parties — state legislative campaigns, primary elections, party organization and candidate recruitment, campaign finance, and the structural conditions that shape electoral competition at the state level.
The Trump Presidency and American Democratic Institutions — drawing on two co-edited scholarly volumes and sustained public commentary, I offer analysis grounded in the academic literature on presidential behavior, institutional norms, and democratic backsliding.
Misinformation, Media Literacy, and News Deserts — the rise of mis- and disinformation in American political life, the collapse of local news infrastructure, and what higher education can do to build citizen resilience against information manipulation. Connected to a book manuscript under contract with Bloomsbury Press.
Civic Engagement and Democratic Participation — activating student and community participation in democratic life, building civic infrastructure at the institutional level, and assessing the outcomes of civic education programs.
Academic Leadership and Higher Education — the challenges facing regional public universities, the role of civic engagement in institutional mission, and the future of the public higher education compact.
To discuss booking availability, contact cbr@chapmanrackaway.com.