Leadership/Staff

Ezra Bristow

Event and Communications Coordinator
Institute of Governmental Studies
Ezra received a BA in Studio Arts at Trinity College and studied Visual Arts and Communication Studies at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2015, Ezra pivoted from visual arts to performing arts when he became one of the principal dancers and volunteer social media & marketing manager for SambaFunk! Carnaval Explosion, an Oakland-based nonprofit arts organization. Over the last five years, Ezra has supported live and virtual performances, fundraising campaigns, and events with companies and organizations like the National Institute for Mental Illness, LiveNation...

Robert Toyama

IGS Library Cataloger
Institute of Governmental Studies

Robert Toyama is the IGS Library’s part-time cataloger. He is responsible for creating metadata and bibliographic records to make the library’s collections discoverable in UC Library Search. He is also the Cataloging Coordinator at the Ethnic Studies Library, processing library materials for the Asian...

Christine Trost

Executive Director of IGS, and Director of the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics & Public Service
Institute of Governmental Studies
Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service

Christine Trost is Executive Director of IGS and Director of the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service, a component of IGS that seeks to interest undergraduates in public service through internship programs, public events, and the presence of distinguished visitors on campus. Christine received her Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley and spent much of her graduate career at IGS, sharing a carrel, attending afternoon tea, and working as a research assistant. After completing her degree, she taught courses in American Politics at UC Berkeley...

Institute of Governmental Studies Directors

G. Christina Mora and Eric Schickler serve as the co-directors for the Institute of Governmental Studies. They have come together as co-direcotrs because they value an interdisciplinary approach and envision IGS as a welcoming space for all who are interested in politics and governance issues defined broadly.

They also value collaboration and will work to make IGS a place that fosters community as it encourages deep conversations across disciplines. Whether you are in Political Science, Sociology, History, Ethnic Studies, Economics, Public Health or another field...

G. Cristina Mora

IGS Co-Director, Associate Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology

Associate Professor Cristina Mora (Sociology) completed her B.A. in Sociology at UC Berkeley in 2003 and earned her PhD in Sociology from Princeton University in 2009. Before returning to Cal, she was a Provost Postdoctoral Scholar in Sociology at the University of Chicago. Professor Mora’s research focuses mainly on questions of racial and ethnic categorization, organizations, and immigration. Her book, Making Hispanics, was published in 2014 by the University of Chicago Press and provides a socio-historical account of the rise of the “Hispanic/Latino” panethnic category in the...