Professor, Department of Political Science
Director, Center for Communications and Community
University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Gilliam received his B.A. from Drake University and his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He is Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Center for Communications and Community at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Grinnell College, and the University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Most recently, he has taught with former Vice President Al Gore at Columbia University, Fisk University, and Middle Tennessee State University. He will be a Visiting Scholar at Brandeis University in 2001-2002. Professor Gilliam has served as the Research Director for the California Commission on the Status of African American Males and as Chair of the B.A. and M.A. Programs at the Center for African-American Studies, UCLA.

He is the author of the Farther to Go: Reading and Cases in African-American Politics (Harcourt Brace) and, with Shanto Iyengar, the forthcoming Race, Television News, and American Politics: Script-based Reasoning About Crime and Welfare (Princeton University Press). Dr. Gilliam has also published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Social Policy Report, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Politics, Nieman Reports, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Social Science Quarterly, Public Opinion, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Government and Policy, Sociological Inquiry, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Psychology, Ethiopian Review and The Source. His paper (with Seth Masket) was voted the "best paper" in black politics at the 2000 meetings of the Western Political Science Foundation.

The Ford Foundation and UCLA's African American Studies Center awarded Dr. Gilliam post-doctoral fellowships. He was awarded a Research Fellowship from the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, UCLA. He has been twice nominated for UCLA's Luckman Distinguished Teaching Award. Dr. Gilliam has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Political Science and Political Research Quarterly. In addition, the National Science Foundation appointed him to the Committee of Visitors. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of UCLA's Center for Urban Poverty, Lewis Center for Regional Policy, and Center for African American Politics.

Over the last five years Dr. Gilliam has consulted on a wide range of projects focusing on race and media for groups such as the Aspen Institute, the National Funding Collaborative for Violence Prevention, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the W.T. Grant Foundation, the Youth Law Center, the MacArthur Foundation, Children Now, Council on Foundations, National Governor's Association, and the Charles S. Benton Foundation. Dr. Gilliam serves on the Boards of the National Funding Collaborative for Violence Prevention and the FrameWorks Institute, both of Washington, D.C.

Dr. Gilliam has been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Diego Union Tribune, Boston Globe, Des Moines Register, and the Sydney Times. He has appeared on the NBC Nightly News, ABC Nightly News, CNN, C-Span, KNBC, KABC, KRON, and KPIX.