Joel Day

Biography

Joel Day is Managing Director of the Notre Dame Democracy Initiative. He is a scholar-practitioner who brings over 20 years of leadership experience in government, nonprofits, and political campaigns. He previously served as department director at the city of San Diego where he oversaw several public safety initiatives. In 2020, he was appointed Senior Advisor for COVID-19 Response and Recovery, helping stand up the nation’s largest emergency homeless shelter, coordinating regional public health policy, and managing continuity of operations for a workforce of 11,000. Day has also served as staff or advisor for numerous U.S. presidential, senatorial, and congressional campaigns, and as COO/CFO for an anti-trafficking nonprofit.

Day most recently held the position of Senior Fellow and Director of Research at Princeton University's Bridging Divides Initiative, where he worked to count and counter events of political violence in the U.S. He has also held academic appointments at the University of Southern California and the University of California San Diego. His research on political violence, democratic pluralism, and religious ideology led to fieldwork in the West Bank settlements, with former civil war combatants in Sierra Leone, and with cities countering extremism and hate throughout Europe and the United States. This research has been published in the Journal of Democracy, Journal of Peace Research, Politics and Religion, Foreign Policy, Perspectives on Terrorism, Review of Faith and International Affairs, Small Wars Journal, and Journal of Strategic Security. His research findings or commentary have been featured by Newsweek, NPR, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Hill, the LA Times, CNN, and more. The American Political Science Association recently awarded Day the prize for “best article” in Religion & Politics.

Day holds a Ph.D. in international and comparative politics from the University of Denver Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs.