Brigitte Seim is an associate professor in the Humphrey School's global policy area. She is a political scientist specializing in the political economy of global policy, with a focus on threats to democracy and accountability. Her research explores two critical areas: the disruption of accountability mechanisms in weak institutions and developing states, and the methodologies and data used to study global democracy and governance. 

Previously, Seim was a faculty member at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for the past nine years, where she held multiple positions including associate professor in the Department of Public Policy, Peter Thacher Grauer Scholar in Honors, adjunct associate professor of Global Studies, and adjunct associate professor of Political Science.

In addition to her academic role, she also managed experiments for the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project and co-led the Digital Society Project. For the 2023–2024 academic year, Seim was a fellow at the Office of Evaluation Sciences in the federal government's General Services Administration.

She earned her master's degree and PhD in political science from the University of California, San Diego, and her bachelor's degree at Stanford University.