My mission and purpose are to help people understand the world and make better decisions. I do this through clear, concise, and meaningful presentations of data and analysis.

What can I do for you?

  • Data

    Data Collection: Compiled presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial county-level election returns from 1872 to 2020.

    Survey Administration: Created, administered, collected, and cleaned data from two surveys through Qualtrics on political partisanship (N = 2.3K) and COVID-19 (N = 4.3K).

    Big Data: Organized and aggregated campaign finance contributions records from 13 million records.

    Webscraping: Webscraped data on California ballot proposition campaigns, state legislators, election data, news articles from LexisNexis, and party coalitions online.

  • Analysis

    Statistical Modeling: As a Ph.D. candidate, I use OLS and MLE tools daily. I also have experience creating machine learning models.

    Causal Inference: In published research, I used a difference-in-difference design to investigate whether making voting by mail easier increased turnout and affected presidential vote shares in the 2020 election. In my dissertation, I leverage redistricting as an exogenous shock to analyze the causal effects of money on House members’ behavior.

    Social Network Analysis: In graduate school, I examined U.S. House cosponsorship networks and campaign finance networks as a multiplex network. In the Washington Post, I present descriptive evidence on egocentric COVID-19 vaccine discussion networks.

  • Reporting

    Data Visualization: I am proficient in ggplot2, where I can make histograms, scatterplots, maps, and pretty much anything else.

    Communication: I am published in academic journals and The Washington Post. I have also presented quantitative research at UC Davis, and at national political science conferences.

    Teaching: I was twice asked to be the R mentor for undergraduate honors students. I have served a section instructor for undergraduate research methodology classes, and I have taught five R workshops at the UC Center in Sacramento.

View My Skill Based Resume Here

Why take a chance on me?

  • Values

    Integrity: I believe in holding myself and those around me to the highest professional standard because if people cannot trust you, how can they trust the work you do?

    Empathy: I believe it is important to see the world from other individuals’ perspectives. Doing so builds bridges between people and helps better understand the motivations behind their behavior. Plus, wouldn’t it be nice if more people did that for us?

    Optimism: I believe every great leader is endowed with optimism, the belief that, while challenges will arise, we have the capacity to overcome them through focus and determination. It’s better than the alternative, right?

  • Standards

    Work Hard: Every successful individual knows how to work hard. I will bring the same focus, determination, and effort that it took to work in Congress and get a Ph.D. to your organization.

    Collaborate Meaningfully: As someone who has collaborated on teaching, news articles, and academic journal articles, I will enjoy working with talented and motivated individuals at your organization to produce products we can be proud of.

    Keep Growing: As a lifelong student, I believe in a growth mindset where we can always learn something new and improve on what we can do now. I will bring this growth mindset to your organization, where I will remain flexible and eager to learn more.

  • Promise

    Help At Every Opportunity: It doesn’t matter where or when, but at some point, we all need a helping hand. I believe in helping people on challenges big and small.

    Empower Those Around Me: There is nothing better than an encouraging word or letting people know you believe in them. To get the best out of people I believe in supporting them, empowering them to take chances, and fostering creativity.

    Pay It Forward: No one is successful on their own. I believe in giving to the next group, what so many have given to me. This is not only a requirement but it’s necessary.

Skills

  • R

    Proficient

  • Python

    Intermediate

  • Qualtrics

    Familiar

  • SQL

    Learning

Methodological Training

  • Causal Inference

    Dissertation and Published Research

  • Survey Methodology

    Conducted Two Nationally Representative Surveys Using Lucid

  • Machine Learning

    Class and Experience

  • Network Analysis

    Two Classes

  • Text Analysis

    Working Paper

  • Data Collection & Database Maintenance

    Published Research

  • Experimental Research

    Traditional & Conjoint Analysis

  • Web Scraping

    Election Data, Parliamentary Data, Campaign Finance Data, Lexis Nexus

Experience

View My Experience Based Resume Here

Publications

  1. Amlani, Sharif, and Spencer Kiesel. “How much do vaccinated Americans dislike the unvaccinated? We measured.” Washington Post, January 27, 2022.

  2. Amlani, Sharif, Ross Butters, and Spencer Kiesel. “With Nearly 800,000 U.S.Covid Deaths, What’s Keeping People from Getting Vaccinated? Their Own Social Circles.” Washington Post, December 14, 2021.

  3. Amlani, Sharif & Samuel Collitt (2021). “The Impact of Vote-By-Mail Policy on Turnout and Vote Share in the 2020 Election.” Election Law Journal.

  4. Amlani, Sharif & Carlos Algara. “Partisanship & Nationalization in American Elections: Evidence from Presidential, Senatorial, & Gubernatorial Elections in the U.S. Counties, 1872–2020.” Electoral Studies 73 (October 1, 2021): 102387.

  5. Rocca, Michael, Sharif Amlani, Lisa Sanchez, & Julia Hellwege (2015). “Crony Capitalism, Corruption and the Economy in the State of New Mexico.” Thornburg Foundation.

  6. Amlani, Sharif (2015). “Cosponsorship in Congress: Does the Number Matter?” The Journal of Politics and International Affairs 9.1: 120‑139.