Lorrie Frasure, Ph.D.

Director, Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies

Professor Lorrie Frasure is the Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. A leading scholar in the field of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, Frasure is the inaugural Ralph J. Bunche Endowed Chair and Professor of Political Science and African American Studies. Professor Frasure joined the faculty of UCLA in 2007 and became the first woman of color and the first Black female to earn tenure and to become full professor in the Political Science department. A first-generation college graduate, Professor Frasure received her B.A. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, a Master in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, and M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Among her many publications, Professor Frasure is the author of the award-winning, Racial and Ethnic Politics in American Suburbs. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS), the first multiracial/ethnic, multilingual post-election study of political preferences and behavior among adults in a presidential election. With major funding from the National Science Foundation, the 2020 CMPS and the CMPS Scholars Research Network includes a consortium of nearly 250 scholars, across 100 universities and colleges. The CMPS is considered one of the most impactful survey-based data projects in the social sciences. Moreover, Professor Frasure is the co-Principal Investigator for the Mark Q. Sawyer Summer Institute in Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, supported by a multi-year grant from the University of California- Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative. She also has been the recipient of the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award, the university’s highest recognition for superior teaching.