Dr. Costas Panagopoulos is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy and the graduate program in Elections and Campaign Management at Fordham University. He was previously research associate at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University, where he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in 2006. Dr. Panagopoulos previously founded and directed the Master’s Program in Political Campaign Management in the Department of Politics at New York University. A leading expert on campaigns and elections, voting behavior, media and public opinion, campaign strategy and campaign finance, Dr. Panagopoulos has been part of the Decision Desk team at NBC News since the 2006 election cycle. In 1992, while a student at Harvard University, Dr. Panagopoulos was a candidate for the Massachusetts State Legislature.
Dr. Panagopoulos was selected by the American Political Science Association as a Congressional Fellow during 2004-2005, and he served in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY). He has also been a Visiting Research Scholar at the Institute for Politics, the Internet and Democracy at the Graduate School for Political Management at George Washington University and is a Research Fellow at the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University, both in Washington, DC.
Previously, Panagopoulos was Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University and Scholar-in-Residence in the Department of Government at American University. Panagopoulos has taught in the Political Science departments at Columbia University, New York University, Fordham University, New School University, SUNY, Yeshiva University, and Pace University.
Panagopoulos has provided strategic advice to numerous candidates running for federal, state and local offices or in international elections. The former Editor-in-Chief of Campaigns & Elections magazine, Panagopoulos serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Political Consultants and has also worked as a consultant in the Electoral Assistance Division at the United Nations. Previously, Dr. Panagopoulos developed professional specializations in the marketing, media and public relations industries. He worked for top domestic and international clients in the Public Affairs and Crisis Management units at Burson-Marsteller, the world’s largest public relations firm. He then joined Adweek magazine as Features Editor to analyze the political advertising of the 1996 presidential campaign. He subsequently held positions at Hearst, Conde Nast, and Miramax where he developed additional expertise in marketing.
A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, and the son of immigrants from Greece, Dr. Panagopoulos received his undergraduate degree in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard University. He earned his doctoral degree in Politics from New York University. Panagopoulos is the author of dozens of scholarly articles published in outlets including: American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Political Behavior, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Psychology, Presidential Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, PS: Political Science and Politics, Women & Politics, and the Journal of Political Marketing. He is editor of Rewiring Politics: Presidential Nominating Conventions in the Media Age (LSU Press), Politicking Online: The Transformation of Election Campaign Communications (Rutgers University Press), and Public Financing in American Elections (Temple University Press) and coauthor (with Joshua Schank) of All Roads Lead to Congress: The $300 Billion Fight Over Highway Funding (CQ Press). Dr. Panagopoulos has provided extensive analysis and commentary for print and broadcast media outlets including: CNN, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Fox News, BBC, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.