The Robert A. Fox Leadership Program (also known as Fox Leadership) at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) is an educational initiative to prepare students for future leadership roles. ¹

In 2019, Fox Leadership co-sponsored the Election Science, Reform, and Administration (ESRA) conference, which was hosted that year by UPenn. ESRA is an annual forum that invites mostly left-of-center academics, tech developers, and think tank staffers to share papers on alleged challenges that local election offices face. ^{2 3}

Background

The Robert A. Fox Leadership Program was founded in 1999 by University of Pennsylvania graduates Robert A. Fox and Penny Fox, and as of 2025, was administered by UPenn’s School of Arts and Sciences (SAS). ⁴

Activities

The Robert A. Fox Leadership Program runs multiple fellowship programs, all of which fall under the two categories of Fox Research Fellowships and Fox Service Fellowships. The Research Fellowships place students under the tutelage of on-campus scholars or invite them to intern at major think tanks like the Brookings Institution, with the goal of acquainting students with the challenges of public policy research and advocacy. The Service Fellowships place students with nonprofit and public interest groups; as of 2025, the programs had a stated focus on “food insecurity, racial justice, and youth empowerment.” ⁵

Fox Leadership’s Summer Fellowship runs for eight to ten weeks and has students engaged in full-time work, for which they receive a stipend for the duration of the program. Fellows are placed in workplaces depending on their interests, from Congressional offices to New York corporate offices to nonprofit groups and local public sector organizations. Students are tasked with completing “research-intensive projects.” ^{6 7}

Its Spring and Fall Fellowships are similar but are only part-time, run from eight to twelve weeks, and have fewer collaborating organizations. ^{8 9}

In 2019, UPenn hosted the conference for Election Science, Reform, and Administration (ESRA), an annual forum that invites mostly left-of-center academics, tech developers, and think tank staffers to share papers on alleged challenges that local election offices face. Fox Leadership co-sponsored the event along with the Penn Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies (PORES), the MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Democracy Fund. ESRA speakers tend to focus on left-coded topics such as “misinformation” about the election system, methods to combat voters’ distrust of election officials, vote-by-mail, racism, gerrymandering, and ranked-choice voting experiments. ^{2 3}

Presentations at the 2019 conference covered topics such as voter turnout in Texas, automatic voter registration, the effect of internet availability on online registration rates, party allegiance, ranked-choice voting, vote-by-mail’s effect on citizens conducting independent research, mobile voting, Americans’ trust in voting technology, felon “disenfranchisement” and the restoration of felon voting rights, and the “durable deterring effects of strict photo identification laws.” ¹⁰

Associated Organizations

Partners and collaborators of the Fox Leadership Program’s fellowship initiatives include Children’s Healthcare is a Legal Duty (CHILD USA), Girls Inc., the National Urban League, the Nutritional Development Services, and the Share Food Program. ⁷

Leadership

As of 2025, Stephanie Perry was the executive director of the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program as well as the executive director of PORES. She was previously the manager of polling at NBC News. ¹¹

1. “Fox Leadership Program.” Community Engagement and Research Core – Announcements, February 15, 2018. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://cear-itmat-upenn.org/name-of-organization-4/.
2. “About.” Election Science, Reform, and Administration Conference. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://esra-conference.org/about.
3. “About the 2019 Conference.” Election Science, Reform, and Administration Conference. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://esra-conference.org/2019-conference.
4. “Mission and History.” Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/node/356.
5. “Fellowships.” Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/fellowships.
6. “Fow Leadership Fellowship.” University of Pennsylvania – Career Services. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://careerservices.upenn.edu/resources/fox-leadership-fellowship/.
7. “Summer Fellowships.” Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/fellowships/summer-fellowships.
8. “Spring Fellowships.” Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/fellowships/spring-fellowships.
9. “Fall Fellowships.” Robert A. Fox Leadership Program. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/fellowships/fall-fellowships.
10. “2019 Program.” Election Science, Reform, & Administration Conference. Accessed September 22, 2025. https://esra-conference.org/2019-conference/program.
11. “Stephanie Perry.” Robert A. Fox Leadership. Accessed September 21, 2025. https://foxleadership.upenn.edu/people/stephanie-perry.