Biography

I started off as a historian, but the questions I was primarily interested in were related to voting behavior: Why do people vote? How do voters decide which party to vote for? How do people form political attitudes? Why do some issues dominate elections over others?

After several brief attempts at understanding political attitudes in Romania -- as a campaign volunteer in the 1996 presidential election, a field interviewer with Daedalus and Gallup survey companies, and a chairmanship position at an election precinct in the 2000 presidential elections -- I decided to transition to political science to find my own answers to the questions mentioned above.

My academic journey took me over a variety of different political and cultural contexts, including Romania, France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and the United States (Florida, North Carolina, and Illinois).

My full vitae can be accessed here.

Education

• PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Florida, Dec 2012

• MA in Political Science, Department of Political Science, University of Florida, 2008

• MA in International Relations, Department of History, University of Bucharest, 2003

• BA, Department of History, University of Bucharest, 1999

Additional Training in Political Methodology

• Behavioral Models of Politics, University of Pittsburgh, 2016. Workshops: Stochastic Modeling and Incentivized Experiments.

• Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2008. Courses: Regression Analysis, Panel Data, Event History Analysis, Survival Analysis, Multilevel Analysis, and Math for Social Science

Academic Appointments

• Assistant Professor, National Louis University, Undergraduate College (since 2022)

• Teaching Associate/Instructor, Beloit College, Wisconsin (Fall 2022), National Louis University, Chicago, IL (Undergraduate College) (2020 - 2022), Concordia University, Chicago, IL (2021 - 2022), Roosevelt University (2002) and Loyola University, Chicago, IL (2020 - 2021)

• Teaching Assistant Professor, East Carolina University, Department of Political Science (2016-2019)

• Director, Prague Study Abroad Program, East Carolina University and Anglo-American University (2017-2019)

• Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Political Studies, Department of International Relations, Charles University (2015-2016)

• Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Florida, Department of Political Science (2013-2014)

• Teaching Instructor, Center for European Studies, University of Florida (2012-2013)

Fellowships/Awards (selected)

• A two-year Seed Grant from the NLU Engaged Research Office - MappCivics.Youth Empowering in Chicago (PI), (July 2023 - June 2025) ($10,000)

• “MappCivics. Youth Empowering in Chicago,” a Growing Democracy Grant from the Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs, American Political Science Association (PI) with BUILD, Inc., Chicago as Co-PI ($10,000) (June 2023 - May 2024)

• Research Associate Award at the Summer Research Laboratory of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign to work on a new project titled “Russia and the Council of Europe Relations: A view from within the European Institution” (summer 2023)

• University Studies Grant from the International Visegrad Fund in Bratislava (Slovakia). 2017-2020 (PI, with Dr. Armin Krishnan as Director) (€18 503) (2017)

• NSF, I-Cubed Interdisciplinary Research Award: “Political Engagement on Facebook. Exploring Young Voters’ Political Engagement in Florida” (with Ji Young Kim, Juliana Fernandes) ($2,500) (2011)

• Clogg Scholarship Award, Inter-University Consortium for Political & Social Research (ICPSR) Summer Program, Ann Arbor, Michigan ($4,400) (2008)