Aileen Cardona-Arroyo, PhD

Aileen Cardona-Arroyo, PhD, senior vice president, has 15 years of research experience. Since joining Hart, Aileen has worked in political research with campaigns and independent expenditures, including Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Senate Majority PAC, DCCC IE, and Priorities USA. She is a member of Hart’s NBC News polling team, and works with advocacy and nonprofit organizations, such as Fair Fight Action and the Center for American Progress. Aileen specializes in strategic messaging on policy issues and persuasive political communication to mobilize and expand the electorate, and she is an expert on Latino political behavior.

Previously, Aileen was a political science professor and director of Latino Studies at Pace University. She is a former Post-Doctoral Fellow at Southern Methodist University’s J.G. Tower Center for Political Studies, where she served as a bridge between academic researchers and policymakers and other stakeholders.

Aileen earned her PhD in government from Cornell University—becoming the first Puerto Rican to do so. She has extensive training in a diverse set of quantitative and qualitative research methods, including survey design, multi-variable regressions, experimental design, and content analysis. A native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, she is fully bilingual and received her BA in political science from the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras Campus. She resides in Washington, DC, with her husband and daughter.