Randy Willoughby, Ph.D, has been on the USD faculty since 1988 and teaches course on comparative politics and international security. His undergraduate education began at the University of California at Irvine and concluded at UCLA. His graduate education was at the University of California at Berkeley, preceded by a year of study in Paris, and including a year working in the Executive Office of the President in Washington DC, a year teaching at the University of Santa Clara, and two years participating on a research project at the University of California at San Diego.

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Emily Edmonds-Poli , PhD, joined the USD faculty in 2001.  Edmonds-Poli teaches classes on international relations and Latin American politics. Her research focuses on local and state level politics in Mexico, as well as decentralization and democratization in Latin America.

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Virginia Lewis, PhD, has been a faculty member at USD since 1980. She has been deeply involved in university governance, and has made student learning her mission. From directing the Oxford program for ten years and serving as faculty advisor to student groups, to teaching courses in her research areas,  Lewis sees the university as a student-centric community. She has been chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, chair of the College of Arts and Sciences Academic Assembly, and a member of the University Senate.

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Since receiving her PhD in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1994, Mary M. McKenzie has taught regularly in the Political Science Department.  She also has taught at California State University, San Marcos and at Grossmont College.  At USD, Dr. McKenzie teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in international relations, including International Organizations, American Foreign Policy, and Model United Nations.  Additionally, Dr. McKenzie serves on the City of San Diego’s International Affairs Board and is president of the United Nations Association of San Diego.

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Vidya Nadkarni, PhD,  joined USD’s faculty in 1990. Nadkarni teaches courses in the area of international relations and foreign policy.  Her research interests center on the foreign policies of resurgent (Russia) and aspiring (China, India) global powers. 

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Peter K. Nunez, J.D. began teaching in the Department of Political Science and International Relations in 1997. He previously taught intermittently as an adjunct at the USD School of Law. He spent most of his career as a lawyer for the federal government, beginning in 1970, as a law clerk for the Honorable Gordon Thompson, Jr., Federal District Court Judge for the Southern District of California. He spent the next ten years as an assistant U.S. Attorney (1972-1982), then was appointed as the U.S. Attorney from 1982 through 1988 by President Ronald Reagan. From 1990 to 1993, he was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement in Washington, D.C.

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Lee Ann Otto, PhD, has been a member of the faculty since 1984. She is a professor in the department of Political Science and International Relations and has served as the associate dean of the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies since its inauguration in 2007. Otto is also the director of USD’s Masters Program in Peace and Justice Studies. She teaches courses on Chinese politics, Japanese politics, revolutionary change, and the law of the sea at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her research focuses on Chinese policies relating to the war on terror and their impact on Uyghurs and other minority groups within China. She is a former recipient of USD’s University Professorship award.

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David A. Shirk, PhD,  joined the University of San Diego in July 2003. Shirk’s teaching covers a wide range of subject areas, mainly concentrated in comparative politics, international political economy, Latin American studies, and U.S.-Latin American relations, with a concentration in Mexico and border politics. He conducts research on Mexican politics, U.S.-Mexican relations, and law enforcement and security along the U.S.-Mexican border. Shirk also directs the Trans-Border Institute, which works to promote greater analysis and understanding of Mexico, U.S.-Mexico relations, and the U.S.-Mexico border region.

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Dr. Michael A. Turner teaches at both San Diego State University and the University of San Diego.  He is also a consultant to the United States Government on national security matters.  Until 2006, Dr. Turner was the Director of International Relations Program at Alliant International University in San Diego, CA.   Before joining Alliant, Dr. Turner was a senior CIA officer, attached both to the analytical directorate as well as to elements supporting the Director of Central Intelligence.  At varying times, Dr. Turner has taught strategic affairs at the University of Maryland, the University of Virginia, John s Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, and the Air War College. Dr. Turner’s research interests include intelligence and national security, American foreign policy, Middle East as well as Central and South Asian Politics, and counterterrorism policy.  Dr. Turner teaches both graduate and undergraduate international relations courses.

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J. Michael Williams, J.D., PhD, is an alumnus of the University of San Diego (1992) and has been a member of the faculty since 1999.  He currently serves as the chair of the Department of Political Science and International Relations. Williams offers undergraduate courses on introduction to political science, comparative politics, politics in sub-Saharan Africa, and politics in South Africa. His research focuses on African politics, with special interests in democratization, indigenous political structures, local governance, rule of law, the courts and constitutionalism.  He has published numerous articles and one book on the chieftaincy in South Africa - Chieftaincy, the State, and Democracy: Political Legitimacy in Post-Apartheid South Africa (Indiana University Press, 2010).

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