David R. Ayón is co-author of the new book Power Shift: How Latinos in California Transformed Politics in America. Senior Fellow of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles and faculty lecturer at Loyola Marymount University (where he teaches Politics of Mexico), Mr. Ayón is also Senior Strategist and Advisor to the Latino Decisions polling and research firm. Previously he was Senior Advisor to the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, twice a visiting research fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies of UC San Diego, and associate director of the California-Mexico Project of the USC School of International Relations.

Ayón is also a political analyst, writer and lecturer specializing in Latino Politics, U.S.-Mexico relations and politics in the United States and Mexico. His work has appeared in some fifteen edited books and reference works; Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, which he also serves on its editorial board; The American Prospect; the op-ed and Sunday Opinion pages of Los Angeles Times, and other publications. He has worked as analyst, consultant, and special producer for Spanish language television news during electoral cycles in the U.S. and in Mexico since 1992, and was a political analysis columnist in 2014-15 for Univision.com.

Educated at Princeton, Stanford and El Colegio de México, Ayón has taught courses on politics, U.S.-Latin American relations and Latino Studies at six colleges and universities, including two campuses of the University of California, Stanford and USC. He was a director of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation and co-chaired its Mexican American Leadership Initiative, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and its term membership committee.