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Senior Vice President

Eugene J. Alpert has been with The Washington Center since 1993. As Senior Vice President, Gene oversees the academic seminars and the more than forty associate faculty who teach the courses required of students in the internship program. He also works closely with The Washington Center’s liaisons, including those on the National Liaison Advisory Board who provide assistance and advice for specific TWC internship programs and academic seminars.

Every four years, Gene continues the tradition he started in 1984, when The Washington Center offered its first national political convention program. This prestigious program, which recently completed its seventh convention cycle, brought 500 students to Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul for the 2008 Democratic and Republican national conventions and over 700 students and faculty to Washington for the historic 2009 presidential inauguration.

Before joining TWC, Gene was an associate professor of political science at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. A faculty member for 17 years, he was chairman of the political science department, director of the master of liberal arts program, director of the TCU Washington Internship Program, and director of the university's self-study for SACS re-accreditation. He is the author of numerous articles pertaining to experiential education and the political process including "Conventional Wisdom: A Television Viewer's Guide to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions," published by C-SPAN and the contextual statement for the CAS Standards for Internship Programs.

Gene Alpert holds a Ph.D. and M.A. degree in political science from Michigan State University and a B.A. from the University of Rochester. In 1982, Alpert served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working in the area of media communications for the House and Senate leadership. He is a member of numerous professional associations and advisory committees, including the National Society for Experiential Education (past president); National Capital Area Political Science Association (former council member); American Political Science Association, the National Collegiate Honors Council and the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (alternate director). He has received awards of recognition for his contributions in experiential education from the National Society for Experiential Education, Furman University and, before joining the organization, The Washington Center. In 2011, he received the Leadership and Service Award from Loyola Marymount University’s Institute for Leadership Studies.