Kenneth A. Gold, Ph.D., joined the Government Affairs Institute at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 1989 and became Director of the Institute in 1992. Before joining GAI, Dr. Gold taught at the American University in Washington, D.C., and was Assistant Professor with the University's School of International Service and with the School of Government and Public Affairs. He has also been a member of the Senior Staff at the Brookings Institution.

Dr. Gold received his B.A. degree from the City College of New York, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of United States Foreign Economic Policy Making: An Analysis of the Use of Food Resources.

Worth H. Hester, M.P.A., is a Senior Fellow and Assistant Director of the Government Affairs Institute. He joined the faculty of GAI in 1988 as a Presidential Management Fellow and took the job of Assistant Director in 1999.  During seven years of government service, he served as an Employee Development Specialist, Program Analyst, and Legislative Analyst for a Member of Congress.  Worth also spent two years as Senior Staff with the Center for Public Policy Education at the Brookings Institution.

Mr. Hester has been teaching about Congress and the legislative process for more than 20 years. He has served as Director of the Institute’s Capitol Hill Fellowship Program since 1997 and is President of the Institute’s Board of Directors.  He received his B.A. degree magna cum laude in Government from Campbell University.  His M.P.A. in Coastal Studies/Natural Resource Management is from the University of West Florida.

Marian Currinder, Ph.D., joined GAI as a Senior Fellow in 2006. Previously she was an assistant professor of American Politics at the College of Charleston. Dr. Currinder was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in 2003-04. Prior to receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Currinder worked in DC as a legislative analyst and research associate. She has published several journal articles and book chapters on congressional politics and campaign finance, and is the author of Money in the House: Campaign Funds and Congressional Party Politics.

Dr. Currinder received her B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

Charles B. Cushman, Ph.D.,joined GAI as a Senior Fellow in 2011. He has taught courses on politics and public policy, national security policymaking, and Congress’s roles in defense policy, and has lectured in Latin America on US politics and government structure. He is the author of An Introduction to the US Congress. He is working on a second book, which explores congressional roles in the US national security policymaking process. He has provided foreign and defense policy analysis to many news outlets, including the BBC, CBC, the Voice of America, Al-Jazeera, and CNN.

Dr. Cushman did his graduate training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he completed a Ph.D. in American Politics. He is a graduate of West Point and served nine years in the US Army as an Armor officer, commanding troops in Germany and at Fort Knox, KY, and completing his service as an instructor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point.

Previously, he was Acting Director of the Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University. He was also a defense consultant with clients in Headquarters, US Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and the Space Commission headed by Donald Rumsfeld. He has been a lobbyist working to advance peace in the Middle East, and was defense Legislative Assistant to Rep. David Price (D-NC) in the 105th Congress.

John Haskell, Ph.D., has been a Senior Fellow with the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University since 2000. John has taught at Davidson College, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Drake University, and is currently a visiting faculty member with Claremont McKenna College's Washington Program. He is the author of Fundamentally Flawed, a critique of the presidential nomination process, Direct Democracy or Representative Government?, and Congress in Context, published in 2010. John was a Congressional Fellow in 1997-98, during which time he was the Budget Committee liaison for Congressman David Price. He also handled education and tax issues for the Congressman. John received his Ph.D. in American Politics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Susan Sullivan Lagon, Ph.D., joined GAI as a Senior Fellow in 1997. Before that, she taught American Politics and Constitutional Law full-time in the Government Department at Georgetown University for five years.  Her prior experience includes teaching AP Politics in high school and a stint as Assistant Political Science Editor at Congressional Quarterly Press, where she was a frequent speaker at CQ's "Understanding Congress" seminars. She has spoken for numerous groups, including the American Political Science Association, the Fulbright Scholars Program, the World Bank, and more than 500 international visitors groups sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency.

Dr. Lagon earned both her B.A. and M.A. in Government and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia, and her Ph.D. from Georgetown University.

Mark V. Nadel, Ph.D., most recently was Visiting Professor and Academic Director of the Masters of Public Management program at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. He also taught at Cornell and Johns Hopkins universities. He received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.  He is the author of two books and several articles on American politics.

Dr. Nadel also had a long career in government, most recently as the Associate Commissioner for the Office of Disability and Income Assistance Policy at the Social Security Administration. He was responsible for providing broad policy analysis and development for the Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs. Prior to coming to Social Security, Dr. Nadel was Associate Director of the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) Income Security issue area where he was responsible for GAO's work on welfare reform and child welfare issues. Previously, he directed GAO's work on public health and health insurance issues. He has testified numerous times before Congress on health policy and children's issues.