Daniel Q. Gillion Named Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt Presidential Associate Professor of Political Science

Daniel Q. Gillion, Associate Professor of Political Science, has been appointed Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt Presidential Associate Professor of Political Science. Gillion studies racial and ethnic politics, political behavior, public policy, and the American presidency. He is the author of two highly lauded books, The Political Power of Protest, which won the best book award of the American Political Science Association’s Race, Ethnicity, and Politics section, and Governing with Words, which won the W. E. B. Du Bois Book Award of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Before coming to Penn, Gillion was the Distinguished Provost Fellow. He later went on to be named a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar and a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. He is an Executive Council Member for the Southern Political Science Association, a Council Member for the Public Policy section of American Political Science Association, and serves on the Steering Committee for the American Political Science Association’s Section on Presidents and Executive Politics. At Penn, he is currently serving as a Penn Fellow and the Faculty Director for Rodin College House.

The Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt Presidential Professorship was established in 2015 by Julie Beren Platt, C’79 and Marc E. Platt, C’79, parents. Julie Beren Platt is a Penn Trustee and President of the Penn Alumni Board of Directors. She is also a member of the Board of Overseers of both the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies and Penn Hillel. Her husband, Marc, is an independent film producer and head of Marc Platt Productions. At Penn, Marc also serves on the Board of Overseers at the Katz Center, and both Marc and Julie serve on the Parent Leadership Committee. Three of their five children are Penn graduates (Samantha C’05, Jonah C’08, and Hannah C’12). Their son, Henry, is a member of the College Class of 2021. They generously support initiatives at Penn, including establishing the Platt Student Performing Arts House and the Julie Beren Platt and Marc Platt Rehearsal Room in Houston Hall, along with endowed undergraduate scholarships and the Katz Center.