Kenneth M. Goldstein - Director
Erika Franklin Fowler - Research Director
Tricia Olsen - Project & Grant Director
Inbal Unger-Cavari - Project Assistant & UW NewsLab Israel Associate Director

Kenneth M. Goldstein - Center for the Study of Politics, WiscAds, UW NewsLab Director

Ken Goldstein is a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Goldstein received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and combines his academic training with an ear for real politics and an impressive set of political contacts and experience. He is the author of Interest Groups, Lobbying, and Participation in America, published by Cambridge University Press. His research on political advertising, turnout, campaign finance, survey methodology, Israeli politics, and presidential elections has also appeared in The American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Communication, and Political Science, as well as in a series of book chapters. He is currently at work on a book project on television advertising and campaign finance, which is also under contract with Cambridge University Press.

In addition to his scholarly work, Goldstein has had extensive professional experience in conducting survey research for corporate, media, and political clients. Before attending graduate school, Goldstein worked as a researcher for the CBS News Election Unit and for the Charlie Rose show. Goldstein has worked as an election night consultant for CNN and CBS News. He is also currently a consultant for the ABC News political unit.

Goldstein’s reputation for unbiased and non-partisan analysis has made him a favorite source for politicians and the news media alike. He is quoted extensively in the country's leading media sources.

Goldstein lives in Middleton, Wisconsin with his wife, Amanda, daughter, Samantha, son, Nathaniel, and yellow Lab, Sunny.

Erika Franklin Fowler - UW NewsLab Research Director

Erika Franklin Fowler is a Ph.D. candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the Research Director of the Wisconsin NewsLab. She is completing a dissertation about the political content and effectiveness of local television news coverage of elections in which she concludes that political advertisements actually have more substantive information and a more consistent effect on citizen knowledge, perceptions of the campaign and turnout than local television news messages. Fowler has also published several pieces on political communication and free media in particular, including a book chapter on effects of free media in campaigns with Ken Goldstein, an article with Ken Goldstein, Marty Kaplan and Matthew Hale to appear in an upcoming volume of Stanford Law & Policy Review and an analysis of health news on local television (with Ken Goldstein and medical researchers at the University of Michigan) published in the American Journal of Managed Care.

A summa cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College with a B.A. in political science and mathematics and an MA from UW-Madison in political science, Fowler has worked with the Wisconsin NewsLab since its inception in 2002. Her primary research interests include political communication, political behavior, and research methodology.

Prior to attending the UW-Madison, Fowler worked as a quantitative research analyst for a brokerage in Minneapolis.

Tricia Olsen - UW NewsLab Project & Grant Director

A graduate student at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, Tricia Olsen has worked with the Wisconsin NewsLab since the fall of 2004. She is the Project Director for UW NewsLab and will run the Midwest News Index, the first and most systematic project to track a full year of news coverage in nine Midwestern markets from June 2006 through May of 2007. Olsen is also responsible for overseeing Spanish-language coding and writing and administering foundation grants for UW NewsLab.

Olsen graduated from Carleton College with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and a minor in Political Science, where she refined her Spanish and Portuguese language skills. She earned her M.A. in Political Science from UW - Madison in 2006. Her research interests include Latin American politics, methodology, and transnational social movements and networks.

Inbal Unger-Cavari - Project Assistant & Associate Director of UW NewsLab Israel

Inbal Unger-Cavari has worked with the Wisconsin NewsLab since the fall of 2004 and was given the primary responsibility in building the training program for the 2004 Local News Election Project. She is now also involved in heading the daily operation of NewsLab and her responsibilities include supervision of undergraduate students and the coordination of the joint program with Hebrew University. Inbal is an M.A graduate from Haifa University, Israel with M.A. in organizational studies. Her specialty is focused on building training programs and worked in that field for several years for a large wireless communications company in Israel.