Position Title
Executive Director, University of California Center Sacramento
Christopher Witko is Executive Director of the University of California Center Sacramento (UCCS). Prior to joining UCCS, Witko helped build Penn State's new School of Public Policy as its Associate Director. He also served as a professor of public policy and political science, and director of a program designed to create employment and professional development opportunities for graduate students in the humanities and social sciences. Prior to Penn State, Witko was faculty member and MPA Program Director at the University of South Carolina, and a faculty member at Saint Louis University and Sacramento State.
Witko’s research on state and national politics and public policy has appeared in leading political science, public policy, and public administration journals. His most recent coauthored book, Hijacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence (2021) won the Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the Best Book on U.S national policy from the American Political Science Association. The New Economic Populism: How States Respond to Economic Inequality won the State Politics and Policy Section's Virginia Gray best book award. Witko has been part of research teams funded by the Russell Sage Foundation and the Norwegian Research Council. Witko holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a Master of Arts from SUNY Albany, and a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Plattsburgh.