DAVID L BUHLER portrait
  • Regents Professor, Political Science Department
801-581-7031

Education

  • Bachelor of Science, History, University of Utah
  • Bachelor of Science, Political Science, University of Utah
  • M.P.A., Marriott School of Management, Brigham Young University
  • PhD., Political Science, University of Utah. Project: Dissertation, “The Decline in State Funding of Higher Education in the United States.”

Biography

Dave Buhler was appointed by the Utah Board of Regents as a Regents Professor in 2019.  He has been teaching Political Science and Public Adminstration at the University of Utah since Spring Semester 2020.  Currently he is teaching four American Politics courses: POLS 3160 Campaign Management, POLS 3170 Interest Groups, POLS 5100 Advanced American National Government, and POLS 5245 Utah Politics.

Buhler has served in higher education and government most of his adult life.  He was Utah Commissioner of Higher Education from 2012-2019, and Associate Commissioner of Higher Education 2000-2012.  He taught as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah from 1990-2006.  He was Executive Director of the Utah Department of Commerce from 1989-1992, and served on the staffs of Governor Norman Bangerter 1985-1988 and Senator Orrin Hatch 1979-1984.  He also served twelve years as an elected official, as a Utah State Senator (1995-1998) and Salt Lake City Council Member (2000-2007).