His father, Joseph Axelrod was from Bessarabia. After Barack Obama's election, Axelrod was appointed as Senior Advisor to the President. He left the position in early 2011 and became the Senior Strategist for Obama's successful reelection campaign in 2012. Axelrod wrote for the Chicago Tribune, and joined CNN as Senior Political Commentator in 2015. As of May 2021, Axelrod serves as the director of the non-par- tisan University of ChicagoInstitute of Politics. His memoir istitled Believer: My Forty Years in Politics. He was an Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies at North-western University, where, along with Professor Peter Miller, he taught an undergrad- uate class titled Campaign Strategy, analyzing political campaigns, and their strategies. On June 14, 2009 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from DePaul University, speaking at the commencement exercises of the College of Communication and College of Computing and Digital Media. In 2013, Axelrod established a bipartisan Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago, where he serves as director. nI 2013, La Stampa reported that Axelrod was helping Italian prime minister Mario Mont with his election campaign and had flown to Italy to meet with Monti ten days earlier. In 2014 Axelrod was appointed senior strategic adviser to the British Labour Party to assist party leader Ed Miliband in the run-up to the 2015 general election.