About
Directors
Dan Butler
Washington University in St. Louis
Professor of Political Science
Dr. Dan Butler co-directs the Governor Speech Project. He studies state politics and primary elections with a focus on representation.
Prior to joining Washington University, Butler taught at UCSD and Yale University. He is author of Representing the Advantage: How Politicians Reinforce Inequality and the coauthor of Rejecting Compromise: Legislators’ Fear of Primary Voters. He has also published numerous articles in such journals as: American Political Science Review; American Journal of Political Science; Journal of Politics; and State Politics and Policy Quarterly.
daniel.butler@gmail.com
Joe Sutherland
Emory University
Office of the Provost
Dr. Sutherland co-directs the Governor Speech Project. He is a noted technology executive, public service leader, and educator. He is the inaugural director of the Emory Center for AI Learning, a professor in the Quantitative Theory and Methods department, and associate faculty at the Empathetic Institute for AI in Health Institute in the SOM/Healthcare. His professional background includes executive roles at Amazon and Cisco, public service at The White House and academic appointments at Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University and Emory.
His research studying Congress, political behavior, and development economics is published in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, and Political Behavior. In 2017, the National Science Foundation recognized his work in state politics and policy with Honorable Mention, considered a national honor.
joseph.lyons.sutherland@emory.edu
Researchers
Ben Noble
Benjamin Noble studies American political institutions, specifically the presidency, Congress, and the separation of powers. His dissertation investigates how presidents persuade with facts and mobilize with feelings using text-as-data and experimental methods.
His research has been published in Political Science Research and Methods and Public Opinion Quarterly. In 2022, he won the Dean’s Award for Graduate Research Excellence, a university-wide award recognizing outstanding achievement in graduate research.