Ethan Rarick, director, Matsui Center

Ethan Rarick is the director of the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley. A former political journalist, he is the author of California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown and Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West, and the editor of California Votes: The 2006 Governor’s Race and California Votes: The 2010 Governor’s Race. He is also the editor of the forthcoming third edition of Governing California: Politics, Government, and Public Policy in the Golden State. He studies California politics, policy and history, and has written about these subjects for many publications, including The Los Angeles Times and California History.