About Me

Welcome!

I am a Dean and Professor of the School of Public Service at Boise State University. I was previously Professor and Department Chair in the Department of Political Science and Associate Dean for Experiential Learning at the College of Wooster. I completed my BA in political science at the University of Minnesota-Morris, and my MA and PhD degrees in Political Science at the University of Minnesota.

I research and teach courses focused on US politics - specifically in areas related to political psychology, gender politics, and media and politics.

I co-edited (with Monica C. Schneider) a book, The Political Psychology of Gender. I've also organized two conferences (also with Monica C. Schneider), Mentoring Conferences for New Research on Gender in Political Psychology, which led to a strong network of Gender and Political Psychology (GPP) scholars, who gathered most recently for a virtual conference in fall 2020. GPP recently awarded me their Mid-Career Impact Award. I have served as an elected member of the International Society for Political Psychology for Political Psychology's (ISPP) Governing Council, Program Chair for ISPP's Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal in July 2019, and work as a public scholar within the Scholars Strategy Network. I was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to extend my research on gendered political socialization to the Dutch context in spring 2021.

While my main research examines how gender stereotypes represent a barrier to women seeking political office, my current research examines early gender political socialization and focuses particularly on when and why young girls become less interested in politics than boys. Another stream of research examines how images of politics in media and social media - and particularly images that over- or under-represent women in Congress - affect citizen perceptions of government and representation.