
Dr. Susan MacManus
Distinguished University Professor Emerita – USF
Dr. Susan MacManus, who received her M.A. from the University of Michigan and Ph.D. from Florida State University, is the Distinguished University Professor Emerita (political science) in the Department of Government and International Affairs, School of Interglobal Studies, University of South Florida. For many years she served as political analyst for WFLA-TV (Tampa NBC affiliate). Since 2016, she has been the political analyst for WFTS-TV—ABC Action News (Tampa ABC affiliate). MacManus is author of Florida’s Minority Trailblazers: The Men and Women Who Changed the Face of Florida Government (University Press of Florida, 2017), Young v. Old: Generational Combat in the 21st Century? (Westview, 1996) and Targeting Senior Voters (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). She served as Chair of the Florida Elections Commission from 1999 to 2003 and helped the Collins Center For Public Policy, Inc. draft Florida’s Help America Vote Act state plan (voter, election official, and poll worker education section) required by Congress to qualify for federal funding under the Help America Vote Act. MacManus was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, in 1989, received USF’s Distinguished Research Scholar Award in 1991, and was honored as the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society’s USF Artist/Scholar in 1997 and designated as a Distinguished University Professor in 1999. She received the first biennial Diane Blair award for “Outstanding Achievement in Politics and Government” from the Southern Political Science Association in 2001. In March 2002, the Florida Political Science Association gave her its Manning Dauer Distinguished Florida Political Science Award. She has been a Reubin O’D. Askew Fellow of the Florida Institute of Government since 1995.