Professor Simon Jackman was Chief Executive Officer of the United States Studies Centre from April 2016 to May 2022. Between 1996 and 2016, he was a Professor of Political Science and Statistics at Stanford University. Jackman's teaching and research centres on public opinion, election campaigns, political participation, and electoral systems with special emphasis on American and Australian politics.

Shaun Ratcliff is an Honorary Associate at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. He was previously a Lecturer in Political Science at the Centre with a research focus on using novel data sources to study the issue preferences and behaviour of political actors, including voters, interest groups and elites. This includes the role of political parties as interest aggregators and the influence of party coalitions on policy goals.