Staff
Robert P. Jones, Ph.D.
CEO and Founder
Dr. Jones is a leading scholar in both the academy and public policy circles. He is the author two academic books and numerous peer-review articles on religion and public policy.
Dr. Jones writes a weekly column for PRRI’s “Figuring Faith” blog at the Washington Post’s On Faith section. Dr. Jones is one of six members of the national steering committee for the Religion and Politics Section at the American Academy of Religion and serves on the editorial board for the journal “Religion and Politics,” a journal of the American Political Science Association. He is also an active member of the Society of Christian Ethics and the American Association of Public Opinion Research. He holds a Ph.D. in religion from Emory University, where he specialized in sociology of religion, politics, and religious ethics. He also holds a M.Div. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Before founding PRRI, Dr. Jones worked as a consultant and senior research fellow at several think tanks in Washington, DC, and was assistant professor of religious studies at Missouri State University. Dr. Jones’s work is frequently featured in major national media. Dr. Jones’ two books are Progressive & Religious: How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving Beyond the Culture Wars and Transforming American Public Life and Liberalism’s Troubled Search for Equality.
Daniel Cox
Director of Research, Co-founder
Mr. Cox also brings a wealth of expertise to PRRI projects. Prior to joining PRRI, he served as Research Associate at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, where he worked on the core research team for dozens of polls, including the groundbreaking Religious Landscape Survey, one of the largest public opinion surveys on religion ever conducted. Mr. Cox specializes in youth politics and religion, and his work has appeared in numerous national news and religious publications including the New York Times, ABC News, CNN, Newsweek, World Magazine, and others. Cox holds an M.A. in American government from Georgetown University and a B.A. in political science from Union College. He is an active member of the American Association of Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).
Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux
Online Communications and Project Associate
Ms. Thomson-DeVeaux is also an intrepid explorer on issues connected to the intersection of religion and politics. She graduated in May 2011 with an AB in Religion and Gender & Sexuality Studies from Princeton University, where she was the co-recipient of the M. Taylor Pyne Honor Prize, the highest general distinction awarded to an undergraduate. While at Princeton, she was involved in a variety of research and activism projects to deal with controversial social issues, and helped develop a groundbreaking report on undergraduate women’s leadership. Her writing has appeared in a number of venues, including Care2 Causes and the Princeton Alumni Weekly, and she has interned with two leading nonprofit organizations focused on sexuality and women’s issues.
Samantha Holquist
Research Assistant
Ms. Holquist is an avid follower of the overlapping issues of religion and politics, on both a domestic and international level. She is a recent graduate of Wake Forest University where she earned her B.A. in Political Science and Religion. She focused much of her college career on examining religion’s impact on public policy, not only in the United States but also in Asia and the Middle East. While attending the Arabic Language Institute in Morocco, Ms. Holquist lived with a Muslim family and learned first-hand how religious and political values interact in an Islamic country. She is an active member of Pi Sigma Alpha and Theta Alpha Kappa.