The co-directors of Southern Opinion Research are:

Patrick Cotter

Patrick R. Cotter is a widely published scholar in the field of survey research and is on the political science faculty at the University of Alabama, where he has taught since 1978. From 1980-1987, Cotter served as co-director of the Capstone Poll, the University of Alabama's survey research unit.

Dr. Cotter is the co-author of the Alabama Political Almanac and Disconnected: Public Opinion and Politics in Alabama, published by Vision Press. He has also written numerous articles and book chapters about politics in Alabama and the South.

Jim Stovall

Jim Stovall is a former newspaper reporter and editor who has worked for the Bristol (Tenn.-Va.) Herald Courier, Knoxville News-Sentinel, Birmingham New, Tuscaloosa News and Chicago Tribune. He is a professor of mass communication at the Emory and Henry College in Emory, Va. Before coming to Emory and Henry in 2003, he was a professor of journalism at the University of Alabama for 25 years. From 1983-1987 he was co-director of the Capstone Poll.

Dr. Stovall is the co-author of the Alabama Political Almanac and Disconnected: Public Opinion and Politics in Alabama, published by Vision Press. He has also authored or co-authored the following books: Writing for the Mass Media, (the fifth edition published in 2002 by Allyn and Bacon); On-line Editing (second edition, published by Kendall-Hunt); Web Journalism: Practice and Promise of a New Medium (Allyn and Bacon, 2003); and Journalism: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (Allyn and Bacon, 2005). He is the managing director of JPROF.com, a web site devoted to the teaching of journalism.