Dan Schnur is a lecturer at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where he teaches courses in political communication and leadership. Schnur has also taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies.
He is the founder of the USC/L.A. Times political poll and currently hosts a webinar for the L.A. World Affairs Council.

Schnur worked on four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, serving as the national director of communications for the 2000 presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain. In 2010, Schnur was appointed chairman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission, where he implemented groundbreaking campaign finance disclosure requirements.

Schnur has been an advisor to the William and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Broad Education Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Irvine Foundation and the Public Policy Institute of California on a variety of political reform, K-12 education and workforce preparedness efforts.
Schnur is an active community leader, serving on the boards of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, the L.A. World Affairs Council, the Center for Asians United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE) and as a senior advisor to the Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) leadership training programs. He is the former Los Angeles director for the American Jewish Committee and is an advisor to the Los Angeles Jewish Federation.

Schnur’s commentaries have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times. He has been an analyst and political commentator for CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and National Public Radio. He writes weekly columns for the AllSides website and the L.A. Jewish Journal.

Schnur and his wife Cecile Ablack, an international communications consultant and former deputy mayor of Los Angeles, live in L.A.