Derek Paulhus is a research and program associate in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, where he focuses on voting rights and elections. Previously, Paulhus taught English for Miami-Dade County public schools through Teach for America, and he cofounded an organizing group working on educational equity and the digital divide. He also interned with Amnesty International USA, the Center for International Policy, and the Law Office of the Public Defender for Broward County.
Paulhus graduated from Harvard University with honors with a BA in government and ethnicity, migration, and rights. While at Harvard, Paulhus cofounded the Harvard Votes Challenge, the university’s first campus-wide voter initiative, and chaired the Community Action Committee. His honors thesis examined voting trends and political and social perceptions to understand why voters in the Midwest swung from voting Democrat to Republican between the 2008 and 2016 elections.