Frances Zlotnick

Frances Zlotnick is currently the a Senior Data Scientist at GitHub. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University, where she studied the impact of demographic trends on political preferences and outcomes. Her dissertation examines the effects of increasing racial and gender diversity on the political power of the American labor movement. She used original survey experiments, historical public opinion and campaign finance data, and detailed case studies to investigate how the changing characteristics of organized labor impacts support for labor’s goals among both the public and among policymakers. Using organized labor as a case study, she sought to explain why minorities continue to find their interests marginalized even as their numbers increase, why even progressive organizations often resist diversifying, and why they often suffer reduced political influence when they do. Frances received a B.A. in Politics from Oberlin College. Prior to coming to Stanford, she worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington D.C., where she studied the economic security of women and girls in the United States and the Middle East and North Africa, and the role of non-governmental organizations in providing support for immigrant populations.