This interview appeared in the Spring 2020 Letters & Science magazine.
Jeff Lyons (Political Science, ’78) got hooked on politics at age 12, canvassing for his father, an Evanston, IL doctor who ran for alderman (and won). In 2014, Jeff developed the concept for, and was the initial funder of, the Elections Research Center— a hub of faculty experts positioning UW-Madison as a leader in the study of American elections. Jeff and his wife Susanne also created the Abner J. Mikva Scholarship, in honor of the of the now-deceased U.S. representative, chief judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and White House counsel, whose leadership, values and championing of civic involvement were an inspiration to the couple. The UW scholarships go to students who have completed the Mikva Challenge, a Chicago-based program that helps high school students discover their political voices.
Jeff: I grew up in Evanston, IL. I thought I’d go into politics after graduation from UW-Madison. Instead I spent much of my career at Charles Schwab in various marketing and senior management roles. But politics stayed an extremely strong interest of mine.
Susanne: I grew up on Long Island, NY. My interests were more in the arts and languages. I worked in financial services (Fidelity Investments, Schwab and Visa) and retired in 2007. Since then, I have served on a number of boards, including the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
Jeff: She’s being modest. Susanne served on the USOPC board for the last 9 years. When the previous CEO stepped down in 2018, she became the interim CEO. In 2019, she became the Chair of the USOPC.
Susanne: Yes—I travel quite a bit around the world, supporting Team USA and helping to make sports safer for athletes. We also do a lot of traveling for fun.
Jeff: My favorite trips are bicycling vacations. I love traveling where you are actively experiencing the beauty and cultural opportunities of a place up close.
Susanne: At home we play a lot of Scrabble and do crossword puzzles. Jeff has a slight edge in Scrabble. “Scrabble to the death,” as we call it.
Jeff: When I think back on my time at UW-Madison, the best parts were just hanging with friends—sharing a pitcher on the Union Terrace, having a Plaza burger, hiking at Devil’s Lake, or going to sporting events.
I was always interested in the analytical side of politics. Polls, trends, what was important to the electorate. I now follow various blogs, like Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight.com. Every election I set up a pool where friends wager a nominal amount to predict various outcomes in the election.
Susanne: To his dismay, Jeff has never won the pool.
Jeff: When Ab Mikva ran for Congress in 1976, I worked on his campaign from Madison. Ab was an inspiring individual, a magnet for a lot of youth at the time. I had enrolled in a course on electoral politics, taught by Henry Hart. For our class project, my good friend George Broder and I decided we were going to try and convince UW-Madison students from the 10th Congressional District in Illinois to register and vote by absentee ballot. It was quite a task. We first had to convince the Registrar’s Office of the value of our research and allow us to identify students from the North Shore. Ha! Privacy then was not quite the same concern as today. We believe our efforts got about 300 people to vote absentee. The election turned out to be the closest of any congressional campaign that year—and Ab won by 201 votes.
Susanne: Fun fact: Ab Mikva married us!
Jeff: He was very close with my parents. He said, back in the 70s, he’d preside over my wedding. Twenty years later, I took him up on it.
After retiring from government, Ab and his wife, Zoe, set up the Mikva Challenge to get youth more involved in politics and civic issues. I wanted to honor Ab because of the impact he had on my life and so many others. With help from the Nicholas Match [which raised more than $100 million for UW-Madison scholarships], Susanne and I created an endowed scholarship for UW-bound students, from minority backgrounds and with financial need, who had completed the Mikva Challenge in high school. Susanne and I both believe that diversity is a source of strength. People from diverse backgrounds bring innovative ideas and fresh perspectives.
Susanne: Jeff is invested in doing things to make a difference. Often, I’ll think that Jeff is just watching a football game and then he’ll come to me with a fully fleshed-out idea, like putting UW’s name behind election expertise.
Jeff: At the time I was thinking: What can we do to strengthen our political science department? I wrote a proposal on how we could create a brand around the study of electoral politics, with the goal of attracting and retaining key faculty, funding graduate research, and drawing media attention to UW’s scholarly work on elections. David Canon (department chair at the time) agreed with the idea—and in 2014, the Elections Research Center was up and running.
Susanne: We are both very proud of what the ERC has accomplished.
Jeff: Yes, through Barry Burden’s (ERC Director and the Lyons Family Chair in Electoral Politics) leadership, the UW is becoming known as a hub for research and learning about U.S. elections.