People

National Advisory Council

The IGS National Advisory Council is responsible for providing guidance and direction to advance the Institute's development and outreach efforts. Membership is composed of distinguished individuals representing the corporate, philanthropy, non-profit, professional, and academic sectors that are affiliated with the IGS mission.

Visiting Scholars and Research Affiliates

IGS welcomes visiting scholars who wish to conduct independent research at UC Berkeley. Scholars from political science, sociology, business administration, history, journalism, and public health are among the researchers affiliated with our multidisciplinary institute. Please see the Visiting Scholars Program page for details on how to apply.

Eric Schickler

IGS Co-Director, Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science
Charles and Louis Travers Department of Political Science

Eric Schickler is Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of three books which have won the Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize for the best book on legislative politics: Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001), Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the United States Senate (2006, with Gregory Wawro), and Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power (2016, with Douglas Kriner; also winner of the Richard E....

Affiliated Faculty

IGS has an active interdisciplinary core faculty that draws from several schools and departments. In addition to political science, those disciplines include sociology, public policy, law, business, and history. The core faculty have published widely on many topics within the areas of institutional design, policy and politics. In addition, several of them have extensive experience working with governments, the media, and public commissions, adding a practical perspective to their work on institutional design and reform issues.

IGS Directors

The Institute of Governmental Studies, now in its tenth decade on the Berkeley campus, began life in 1919 as the Bureau of Public Administration.

The list of IGS Directors includes the following prominent scholars:

Samuel C. May (1921-55)
May earned his M.A. in political science at Columbia University in 1920. The University of California’s ninth president, David P. Barrows, brought May to Berkeley to define and develop the new field of public administration.

Milton Chernin (Acting Director, 1955-58)
Chernin received his Ph.D....

Matsui Advisory Committee

The Matsui Center National Advisory Committee offers advice, suggestions, and guidance with regard to all aspects of the operation of the Center, including programming, donor development, and administration.

Brady Williamson

Shareholder, Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.

National Advisory Council: 2023

Brady Williamson is a constitutional and corporate litigator who taught periodically at the University of Wisconsin Law School for more than three decades. He has successfully represented clients in the U.S. Supreme Court, and he often has appeared in the federal and state appellate courts on constitutional issues. Beginning in October 2017, he has served as the court-appointed fee examiner in the $120 billion PROMESA reorganization proceedings for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

He has long been involved in constitutional and election law...

Maggie Tsao

2022 Matsui Washington Fellow