Faculty and Staff Biographies

I joined the Indiana University Southeast (IUS) department of political science in the fall of 2010 and advanced to the rank of associate professor in the spring of 2016. Before coming to IUS, I earned my B.A. from Hastings College and my M.A. and Ph.D. in political science at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA. I teach an introductory course in American politics each semester at IUS along with upper-level classes in state politics, public policy-making, elections and voting, gender and politics, and senior seminar.

During my tenure at IUS, I have been the recipient of three highly selective campus-wide teaching awards and one IU-wide teaching award. In 2014, I received the Commitment to Innovation Award for my regularly scheduled field trip to the state capitol in Indianapolis. In the spring of 2015 and 2018, I was one of approximately eight faculty selected campus-wide for a Trustees’ Teaching Award. In 2018, I received a Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET) Innovate Award for an intensive writing assignment in my Voting, Elections and Public Opinion course.

In addition to my classroom duties, I am also the pre-law advisor for the IUS campus and the Political Science Program Coordinator.  

Besides teaching, I also maintain an active research agenda, which focuses on legislative behavior, campaign finance, and the under-representation of women in politics. Most recently, I published a textbook chapter on state and local government and an article on the electoral benefits of bill sponsorship and passage within the journal Social Science Quarterly. I also published two pieces on teaching in the 2015 edition of the IU Press book, “Quick Hits – Teaching Tips for Adjunct Faculty and Lecturers.” Prior to my tenure at IUS, I worked at the University of Kansas as part of a three- person evaluative team focused on increasing the number of adult learners who transition to post-secondary education after completing their GED.