Impeachment Experts

House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler announced the release of two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. 

FIU experts are available to discuss various issues surrounding impeachment. 

Members of the FIU Media Relations team are available to assist in contacting the experts.

• Maydel Santana, assistant vice president: 305-348-1555, santanam@fiu.edu
• Madeline Baró, director of media relations: 305-348-2234,  mbaro@fiu.edu
• Dianne Fernandez, broadcast media specialist: 305-608-4870, dfernand37@fiu.edu
• Amy Ellis, communications manager, Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs: 305-348-5360,  ellis@fiu.edu

Kathryn A. DePalo
Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Relations
DePalo has extensive experience in state and local government processes and elections both in Connecticut and Florida. She has managed several campaigns, including a successful countywide judicial campaign in Broward County, Florida. Her teaching focus is American politics, including judicial process, gender and politics, and state and local government. DePalo’s primary research interest is in Florida politics, and has published on topics such as state judicial selection, the effects of gender in state legislative politics, and career paths of term-limited legislators. For a video of DePalo please click here.
Office: 305-348-2859
Email:  depalok@fiu.edu

Elizabeth Foley
Professor in the FIU College of Law
Foley is a founding member of the FIU College of Law. She teaches constitutional law, civil procedure and health care law. Professor Foley is the author of Liberty for All: Reclaiming Individual Privacy in a New Era of Public Morality (Yale University Press 2006), The Law of Life and Death (Harvard University Press 2011) and The Tea Party: Three Principles (Cambridge University Press 2012). She is a frequent media commentator and op-ed writer, and her opinions have been aired by The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, New York Times, Washington Post, Miami Herald, National Law Journal, National Public Radio, SCOTUSblog.com, Jurist, CNN and the BBC, among others. Professor Foley has testified before Congress several times on important issues of constitutional law, including congressional standing to sue the President, the scope of the President’s duty to faithfully execute the law, and the constitutionality of executive orders on immigration. She is a blogger for the top-rated blog, Instapundit.com.
Office: 305-348-8344
Email:foleye@fiu.edu

Sara Moats
Instructor in FIU’s Department of Politics and International Relations
Moats' research focuses on American political institutions, interest groups and international organizations, including the interaction between domestic interest groups and the various levels of government both domestically and internationally. She teaches a variety of American politics courses, including the legislative process, American federalism, interest group politics and environmental politics. 
Office: 305-348-2226
Cell: 304-282-5159
Email:  sara.moats@fiu.edu

Dario Moreno
Associate Professor in the Department of Politics & International Relations 
He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He conducts research on Miami politics, Florida politics, and Cuban-American politics. He has published over 20 scholarly articles, book chapters, and two books. Dr. Moreno is a nationally recognized expert on Florida and Miami politics and is often quoted in both the national and local media. He has been a Pew Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a Fulbright scholar in Costa Rica. He teaches courses on Miami politics, Cuban politics, Florida politics and urban politics.
Office: 305-349-3854
Email:  dario.moreno@fiu.edu or  darmrn@aol.com

David Kramer
Senior fellow in the Vaclav Havel Program for Human Rights and Diplomacy at the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs
An internationally known expert on Russia and U.S.-Russia relations, Ukraine and human rights, Kramer is the former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor under President George W. Bush. Kramer is available to speak on all aspects of U.S. foreign policy toward Russia, including Russian cyberattacks, the spread of “fake news,” and Russian military intervention in Ukraine, Crimea and Syria. He has written extensively for  The Washington Post,  Politico,  Foreign Policy and  The American Interest.
Office: 305-348-7266
Email:  david.kramer@fiu.edu

Eduardo Gamarra
Political Science Professor
Eduardo Gamarra has conducted  two polls on Hispanic voters in the United States and Florida. He also has done research on the regional dynamics of Latin America, including Cuba’s role. As an expert in Bolivia and the Andean region, he has followed closely the alliances formed by Fidel Castro, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Gamarra has also studied drug trafficking in the Caribbean and the effects of American policies in the regional dynamics. He has testified in front of the U.S. Congress several times and is the author of more than half a dozen books and more than forty academic articles on Latin America. Gamarra is available for interviews in English and Spanish.
Cell: 786-253-4898
Email:  Eduardo.Gamarra@fiu.edu

Brian Fonseca
Director of the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy 
Fonseca serves as the institute’s technical expert for national security and foreign policy. He has been featured in local and national media analyzing the 2016 U.S. general elections. He joined FIU after serving as the senior research manager for socio-cultural analysis at United States Southern Command. Fonseca holds degrees in international business and international relations from FIU and has attended Sichuan University in Chengdu, China and the National Defense University in Washington D.C. From 1997 to 2004, he served in the United States Marine Corps and facilitated the training of foreign military forces in both hostile theaters and during peacetime operations.
Office: 305-348-7420
Cell: 305-218-6323
Email:  fonsecab@fiu.edu

Frank Mora
Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center
Prior to coming to FIU, Mora served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere. During the last twenty years Mora worked as a consultant to the Library of Congress, U.S. Department of the Air Force, Department of the Army, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the National Democratic Institute, U.S. State Department, the Organization of American States, and U.S. Southern Command. Mora is the author or editor of five books and numerous academic and policy articles, book chapters, and monographs on hemispheric security, U.S.-Latin American relations, civil-military relations, Cuban politics and military, and Latin American foreign policy. He is a recipient of the Outstanding Public Service Award, Department of Defense (2011). He is available for Spanish language interviews.
Office: 305-348-2894
Email: moraf@fiu.edu 

Randy Pestana
Assistant Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives at the Jack D. Gordon Institute
Pestana specializes in international relations with a focus on U.S. foreign policy, electoral politics, global security and U.S.-Latin American relations. His work examines governance and security in the Western Hemisphere including U.S. national security strategy, civil-military relations and rule of law. Pestana is charged with leading the Gordon Institute’s 2016 Presidential Election coverage and has conducted numerous interviews with both local and national media. Pestana is an adjunct professor for the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs and the Honors College. He holds an M.A. in Latin American and Caribbean Studies with a graduate certificate in National Security Studies from FIU.
Office: 305-348-0114
Email: rpestana@fiu.edu

Tatiana Kostadinova
Professor in the department of Politics and International Relations
Dr. Kostadinova’s research and teaching interests include Central and Eastern European political institutions with a special emphasis on elections, electoral systems and electoral behavior; institutional reform; democratic transition; political corruption; comparative public policy; and public support for foreign policies. Kostadinova’s book  Political Corruption in Eastern Europe: Politics After Communism(2012) analyzes the emergence of corruption as a major obstacle to successful democratic transition. Kostadinova teaches undergraduate courses in Russian and Eastern European politics, electoral behavior, and research methods, and graduate courses in institutional choice, democratic transitions, political parties, and advanced research. She has also conducted field work in Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia. Kostadinova has authored and co-authored articles, book chapters and book reviews. Kostadinova can talk about U.S. diplomatic relations with Russia. She is fluent in English, Bulgarian and Russian.
Office: 305-348-4493

Markus Thiel
Director of EU/Jean Monnet Center of Excellence in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Associate professor of politics and international relations
Dr. Thiel’s areas of expertise include the politics of the European Union and Western Europe, as well as its political sociology and identity. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on international relations, comparative Western European politics, European Union Politics, international relations of Europe, and international organizations. He has published several articles and book chapters at the European Union Center of Excellence, as well as in  Transatlantic Monthly,  International Studies Compendium, Journal of Human Rights, Perspectives on European Politics & Society, and the  Journal of European Integration. He has also published  The Limits of Transnationalism: Collective Identities and EU Integration (2011) and co-edited three volumes, including  Diversity and the European Union (2009),  Identity Politics in the Age of Globalization (2010),  and European Identity and Culture: Narratives of Transnational Belonging (2012). Thiel is a research associate at the  Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence and is an affiliated faculty member of the FIU  European Studies Program. Thiel is available for interviews for European-Union related questions on the immigration crisis in Europe and other topics.
Office: 305-348-4493
Email:  thielm@fiu.edu

Kevin Evans
Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for Political Science. 
Professor Evans received a B.A. in Political Science from UC-Irvine in 2005 and a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC-Davis in 2011. Evans is an expert on the American presidency and interbranch relations. His research often addresses questions related to conflict and cooperation between the branches of American government and the institutional development of the presidency. His scholarship has been published in American Politics Research, Congress & the Presidency, Political Research Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, and Presidential Studies Quarterly. Evans’s work and expertise have also been featured in nationally recognized outlets like The Washington Post, Vox, New Republic, and CQ Weekly.
Office: 305-348-2073
Email: kevin.evans2@fiu.edu