Quentin Fulks (MA, `15) is back at SPA. The newly appointed director of the Campaign Management Institute (CMI) returns with a decade of high-impact campaign management experience. For over 30 years, CMI, part of SPA’s nationally recognized Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, has trained individuals for participation in local, state and federal political campaigns.

“SPA has always been a very special place to me,” said Fulks, who contributed to CMI as an adjunct professor under his predecessor, Candice Nelson. “It’s my alma mater. I share a lot of memories with my [mentor and colleague, SPA alum] Anne Caprara, who hired me for my second job in D.C. and brought me into CMI. . .  It's important to me that students understand how modern-day campaigns are occurring and changing, from the traditional, academic side. I jumped at the opportunity to bring fresh campaign ideas and real-world practices to the program.”

Fulks brings hard-earned lessons on the highs and lows of the campaign trail. He’s held campaign manager and deputy campaign manager roles on several high-impact bids, including Biden/ Harris 2024, Harris/Walz 2024, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.         

“You practice campaigns just as you practice medicine and other professions,” Fulks explained. You have to keep working and studying them to stay sharp, layering different tactics and methods to achieve desired results. They are brutally hard, but I don't think that they have to be misunderstood. I want to break down some of that stigma.”

New challenges include emerging artificial intelligence, complex digital campaigns, the evolving role of social media, and the expanding information environment from which the American people receive their news and the trust they have in it. Fulks is excited to see the program evolve, with special focus on building its culture, integrating alumni, and featuring big names among real-world practitioners, candidates, and elected officials.

“I think CMI, with its singular focus on campaign management, is unique within the academic space,” said Fulks. “It explores what it's like to be in every position on a campaign, including the candidate. We aim to bring in the best and the brightest from both sides of the aisle to talk to students about modern-day campaigning. That is what American University students deserve.”

Fulks mentioned the value of bringing in CMI graduates as speakers and looks forward to featuring more nationally recognized names. Fulks is also looking to grow the program, which is open to both undergraduates and graduate students, across three dimensions: on the AU campus, within D.C., and to non-AU students.

“In campaigns, the states are where the action happens, but in Washington, D.C., CMI enrollees have so much access to a diversity of thought from some of the best candidates and operatives in the country” said Fulks. “The levers of government are here, as well as many political consulting firms. I want to utilize this infrastructure. Both major parties have committees and advocacy organizations for every issue imaginable that work in tandem with their state partners/affiliates and the actual campaigns themselves. I want to take the students to those organizations to learn empirically how the process is done.”

Fulks delivered SPA’s 2015 graduate commencement speech, encouraging his peers to get out there and try to make a difference. “Barack Obama was president, but he was also on his way out when I gave that speech,” he said. “We needed to believe then that we could do the job. And that is still true today. I hope I share that with the students. This isn’t rocket science. It is an art, and a bit of luck. But they will leave CMI ready to do campaigns.”

Fulks’ hobbies include watch collecting, photography, and hanging out with his 11-year-old chocolate lab, Lincoln.      

For more information about the Campaign Management Institute, visit the website.