Abbylin H. Sellers is the Edward L. Gaylord Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University in the School of Public Policy. She teaches welfare policy and the core curriculum courses on great books and foundations of American constitutionalism, which lay a foundation for effective public policy solutions being guided by moral and ethical principles.

Before joining Pepperdine University, she was a professor of American Politics at Azusa Pacific University where she taught courses on the constitutional presidency, Congress and the legislative process, women and the political process, civil discourse in an age of political polarization, and served as a faculty fellow in the Honors College teaching American democracy for the Honors College. Sellers was awarded the university’s highest honor for teaching, the Teaching Excellence award in 2017.

Her research focuses on welfare policy, political behavior, and immigrant entrepreneurship, with her work appearing in Political Psychology; Politics, Groups, and Identities; Presidential Studies Quarterly; and the Journal of Military History.  Her co-authored work has been recognized by the American Political Science Association for “Best Paper” for the Representation and Electoral Systems section in 2018. Sellers was awarded as a 2022-2023 Fulbright Scholar to teach American constitutionalism and the constitutional presidency in Japan at Yokohama National University and Hosei University (Tokyo). She annually serves on the summer faculty for the James Madison Foundation’s Summer Institute in Washington, DC.

Sellers earned her B.A. from Westmont College, M.A. in public policy from Regent University, and Ph.D. in political science from Claremont Graduate University.