Ken Goldstein recently served as Senior Vice-President for Survey Research & Institutional Policy at the Association of American Universities, which is composed of 69 of America’s leading research universities. He provided strategic leadership and management to the association’s priorities and developed a program of public polling research in support of AAU’s advocacy messaging and campaigns. Goldstein also provided strategic guidance on both policy and marketing for individual AAU institutions providing local, state, and national polling services for over 40 AAU institutions. He also oversaw AAU’s institutional policy activities and lead research projects on a variety of topics related to research and teaching. He currently is a Senior Fellow at the AAU.
Ken Goldstein earned his PhD at the University of Michigan. He was a professor in the Political Science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2000 to 2013. While at the University of Wisconsin, he won the Kellet Award for his career research accomplishments and the Chancellor’s Award for excellence in teaching. Goldstein is now a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco (based in Washington DC) where he is founding Director of the USF in DC program and academic director of USF’s Masters in Public Leadership program focused on veterans who want to continue their service in elective office. Goldstein has also been a visiting professor at University of Michigan, Hebrew University and University of California.
Goldstein is one of the country’s premier experts on political campaigns, in general, and the use and impact of advertising, in particular. He has authored or co-authored over fifty publications -- books, refereed journal articles, or book chapters. These publications on political advertising, voter turnout, survey methodology, presidential elections, and news coverage have appeared in political science journals and major university presses as well as in refereed law and medical journals.
Goldstein combines his academic training with an ear for real politics and has had extensive professional experience in a variety of media, corporate, and political settings. Goldstein is a consultant for the ABC News Political Unit and a senior member of their election night decision team. He has worked on network election night coverage in every U.S. federal election since 1988. You can read here about some of what he does on election nights. In 2020, he helped launch and direct the new ABC News poll, which has done over 75 studies in the last four years.
More generally, Goldstein’s reputation for unbiased and non-partisan analysis has made him a favorite source for politicians and the news media alike. He has appeared numerous times on Newshour, ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, CNBC and CNN, and is a frequent contributor on NPR. He is also quoted extensively in the country’s top newspapers.