California Election 2020 Data Challenge

Mindy Romero

Research Assistant Professor; Founder and Director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy

Mindy Romero is a research assistant professor and founder and director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy based in Sacramento, California. 

Romero is a political sociologist and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Davis. Her research focuses on political behavior and race/ethnicity, and seeks to explain patterns of voting and political underrepresentation, particularly among youth and communities of color in California and the U.S.

Romero has been invited to speak about civic engagement and political rights in numerous venues, testifying before the National Commission on Voting Rights and the California Legislature, among others. 

Her research has been cited in major news outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, Politico and the Huffington Post. She has also been a frequent guest on National Public Radio, Capital Public Radio, and several other NPR-affiliated stations in California. She is a regular op-ed contributor to the Sacramento Bee and CalMatters.  

Romero works with a wide array of policymakers, elected officials, voter education groups and community advocates to strengthen political participation and representation. She is currently an adjunct fellow of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) and former member of their Statewide Survey Advisory Committee. Romero is a member of the California Secretary of State’s Taskforce on the Voter’s Choice Act. She is the former Chair of Mutual Housing California and former Vice-Chair of the Social Services Commission for the City of Davis.

MacKenzie Smith

UC Davis Librarian and Vice Provost of Digital Scholarship

MacKenzie Smith creates and leads the strategic vision for the UC Davis libraries and oversees operations for the university’s four main libraries (Shields, Physical Sciences & Engineering, Carlson Health Sciences, and Blaisdell Medical). She leads the library’s efforts to integrate digital resources an information technology to serve the university’s academic community. She has published on information technology and digital knowledge management, and works toward creating and sustaining efforts that enhance efficient and effective access to knowledge. Smith leads the DataLab advisory group.

Jesse Salinas

Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters for Yolo County

Jesse Salinas has extensive experience working in government and nonprofit leadership. He has served Yolo County as the Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters since 2016, and also serves on the Election, Recorder and Assessor Association’s Legislative Committees. Previously he served a decade as principal management analyst in Yolo County’s Administrator’s Office and Department of Financial Services. He worked for the CA School Boards Association as its first research analyst, helping to shape the state’s education policy discussion. In the nonprofit sector, he served as an Executive Director of Communities in Schools of CA. Jesse holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz with a major in Psychology and minor in Computer Science, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.