Gretchen Helmke, born July 25, 1967, is an American political scientist and Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester, where she has served as chair of the Political Science department. She is renowned for her expertise on institutional instability, comparative politics, and the dynamics of institutions, courts, and democratization in Latin America, exploring how formal and informal institutions interact to enable democratic stability or breakdown, with applications to contemporary issues like democratic backsliding and parallels to U.S. political institutions such as courts and executive overreach. She received her B.A. (magna cum laude) from Washington University in St. Louis in 1990 and her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago in 1999. Helmke has authored and co-edited several influential books, including 'Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America' (2006, co-edited with Steven Levitsky), 'Competitive Authoritarianism: The Emergence and Dynamics of Hybrid Regimes' (2010, co-authored with Steven Levitsky), and 'Courts in Latin America' (2011, co-edited with Julio Ríos-Figueroa). Her scholarship has earned fellowships from institutions like the National Science Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, and she has been a visiting scholar at universities in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America. She has no known major controversies or legal issues in public records.