Lauren C. Bell is the James L. Miller Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost and Dean of Academic Affairs at Randolph-Macon College. Previously, she served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow (1997-98) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and as a United States Supreme Court fellow (2006-07) at the United States Sentencing Commission. She is a past president (2021-22) of the National Capital Area Political Science Association.

Dr. Bell is the author of Transatlantic Majoritarianism: How Migration, Murder, and Modernity Transformed Nineteenth Century Legislatures (forthcoming in 2025 from Clemson University Press), Filibustering in the U.S. Senate (Cambria Press, 2011), Warring Factions: Interest Groups, Money, and the New Politics of Senate Confirmation (The Ohio State University Press, 2002) and The U.S. Congress, A Simulation for Students (Cengage, 2nd ed. 2022) as well as co-author of Slingshot: The Defeat of Eric Cantor (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2015) and Perspectives on Political Communication: A Case Approach (Allyn & Bacon, 2008), and co-editor of Civic Pedagogies: Teaching Civic Engagement in an Era of Divisive Politics (Palgrave McMillan, 2024). In addition, her scholarship has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including The Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, The Journal of Legislative Studies, the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Social Science Quarterly, Judicature, Political Studies Review, and the Journal of the Society for American Music.

Dr. Bell is a three-time winner of Randolph-Macon College’s Thomas Branch Award for Excellence in Teaching (2002, 2004, 2019), and in 2017 was recognized as one of ten national Outstanding First-Year Advocates by the National Resource Center on the First Year Experience and Students in Transition. 

Dr. Karen M. Kedrowski is Director of the Director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, co-Director of the Center for Cyclone Civics and Professor of Political Science at Iowa State University. 

Dr. Kedrowski earned her Bachelor of Arts degree, Magna cum Laude, from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where she majored in Political Science, French, and History. She then earned her MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of Oklahoma, Norman. 

Kedrowski’s research agenda focuses primarily on women and politics and civic engagement. She is the author, coauthor, or co-editor of five books and more than 60 book chapters, book reviews, journal articles, encyclopedia entries, and blog posts.  She also leads Iowa State’s voter engagement efforts, which have earned several national recognitions. In addition, Dr. Kedrowski is frequently interviewed by local, regional, national, and international news organizations. 

Dr. Kedrowski’s most recent books are Walking a Gendered Tightrope: Theresa May and Nancy Pelosi as Legislative Leaders (2023, Michigan) and The Palgrave Handbook of Fashion and Politics (2024), co-edited with Lori Poloni-Staudinger, Candice Ortbals, and J. Cherie Strachan. Her current projects focus on intersectionality and public policy and rural politics. 

Prior to coming to Iowa State, Kedrowski spent 24 years at Winthrop University, in Rock Hill, SC. Kedrowski held many leadership positions during her career there, including as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. She received Winthrop’s highest honor, Distinguished Professor, in 2011. 

Elizabeth I. Dorssom is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lincoln University of Missouri. She is the author of Missouri Politics: Government in the Show-Me State, which examines Missouri’s political tradition through a comparative lens. 

Dr. Dorssom’s research focuses on legislative politics, state government, and public policy, with an emphasis on how institutionalization, information, and professionalism shape policy adoption and feedback at both the state and federal levels. Her scholarship has appeared in Political Behavior, Social Science Quarterly, and Political Science Educator, and her research has been featured in 3 Streams Blog, Political Science Today, and The Academic Minute. She also contributes to edited volumes, including Teaching Experimental Political Science (Edward Elgar, 2024) and Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond (APSA, 2022).

A dedicated teacher and mentor, Dr. Dorssom regularly offers courses in American National Government, American State and Local Government, Legislative Politics, Public Policy, and Political Behavior. She has earned multiple honors for teaching excellence, including the Standout Faculty Member Award (ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, 2025), Michael Brintnall Teaching and Learning Award (APSA, 2024), Award for Teaching Excellence – Junior Faculty (Lincoln University, 2024), the Missouri Excellence in Political Science Teaching Award (University of Missouri, 2022), and the Excellence in Teaching Award (Graduate Professional Council, University of Missouri, 2022).

Amanda L. Wintersieck, Ph.D., is an associate professor of political science and Director of the Institute for Democracy, Pluralism and Community Empowerment at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research interests lie in political behavior and political communication. Specifically, she is interested in the effects of political campaigns on voters’ evaluations of candidates, on the role the media plays in citizen’s vote choice and the conditions that advantage a candidate’s campaign. Her current research focuses on the role of news media and the impact of the electoral context in political campaigns. Her work has appeared in a variety of scholarly journals including Political Communication; American Politics Research; Politics, Groups, & Identities; Political Research Quarterly; and The Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review.

Dr. Jeremy L. Bowling is an Assistant Professor-in-Residence of Political Science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He teaches courses on a variety of political science subjects, including economic policy, research methods, media and politics, and introductory courses on American politics, Nevada politics, international politics, and comparative politics.  He instructs graduate students in best teaching and learning best practices, oversees the department's Graduate Instructor Program, and is a liaison for the local high schools' concurrent enrollment courses about American politics.

Dr. Bowling’s research centers on cooperation theory and foreign policy, including institutional causes of political cooperation, the effect of gender on foreign policy leader decision making, and the effect of cooperation on conflict. Recently, he has focused on teaching and learning in political science, presenting at conference on the practice of teaching large sections and using simulations in the classroom.  His most recent publications appear in Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, PS: Political Science and Politics, and the Journal of Political Science Education.

Chapman Rackaway, Ph.D. is an experienced higher education professional with a passion for engaged, high-impact education.  Over two decades as a faculty member at Fort Hays State University, the University of West Georgia, and Radford University, Rackaway has developed a portfolio of creative and engaged teaching, scholarship, program design, and civic engagement.  Rackaway has published in The Journal of Politics, The Journal of Political Science Education, and PS: Political Science and Politics and the books Communicating Politics Online, Civic Failure and its Threat to American Democracy: Operator Error, co-editor of Parties Under Pressure (with Laurie Rice) and The Unorthodox Presidency of Donald Trump (with Paul Rutledge), co-author of Primary Elections and American Politics: The Unintended Consequences of Progressive Era Reform (with Joseph Romance) and other publications on political electioneering organizations and political communication.  Rackaway’s civic engagement leadership includes being a Civic Fellow and member of the National Steering Committee of the AASCU American Democracy Project, Deputy Editor of the eJournal of Public Affairs, and an active member of the American Political Science Association Teaching and Learning and Civic Engagement sections.  

Rackaway is also a frequently sought expert on political matters, commenting in media stories from local news affiliates to the New York Times.  Dr. Rackaway’s professional portfolio can be found at www.chapmanrackaway.com. Rackaway lives in Pulaski County, Virginia, with his wife and their two youngest children.  In his time away from work, Rackaway enjoys motorsports, golf, and music.   

Diana Owen is Professor in the Communication, Culture, and Technology graduate program and Director of the Civic Education Research Lab (CERL) at Georgetown University. A political scientist, her current research program explores how civic education prepares young people for citizenship in the digital age. She has published widely in the fields of media and politics, elections and voting behavior, political engagement, civic education, and political socialization.  She is the author of Media Messages in American Presidential Elections, New Media and American Politics (with Richard Davis), and American Government and Politics in the Information Age (with David Paletz and Timothy Cook). She is the co-editor of The Internet and Politics: Citizens, Voters, and Activists, Making a Difference: The Internet and Elections in Comparative Perspective, and Internet Election Campaigns in the United States, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.  Dr. Owen has conducted studies funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for Civic Education, Virginia Civics, the Bill of Rights Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the U.S. Department of State, Storyful/News Corp, and Google. She was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow and is the President-Elect of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. She is the recent recipient of the Daniel Roselle Award from the Middle States Council for the Social Studies and a Faculty Fellowship from the Meiji University Exchange Program.

Dr. Austin Trantham is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Saint Leo University.  He  offers courses in American Politics, Political Philosophy, and Legal Studies, in addition to teaching in the University Explorations and Honors programs. 

His research agenda is multi-faceted, concerning aspects of presidential and gubernatorial politics from historical, modern, and comparative perspectives. Dr. Trantham has secondary interests in civic engagement, political rhetoric, public policy, and campaigns and elections. His  work appears in Social Science Quarterly, The Commonwealth Review of Political Science, Political Science Quarterly, Party Politics, and the Journal of Political Science Education. 

He is active within the Florida Political Science Association, currently serving as Second Vice President, Editor of The Political Scientist, the organization's semi-annual newsletter, and American National Politics Section Chair.   

Dr. Trantham holds his Ph.D. and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Kentucky, where he also earned a Graduate Certificate in College Teaching and Learning. Prior to doctoral studies, he earned an M.A. in Political Science from the School of Public Affairs at American University, and completed his B.A. with Honors in Political Science at Austin College.

Darrell Carter is Visiting Assistant Professor at Purdue University who teaches American Government and Foreign Policy. His research interests focus on international organizations, international political economy and East Asia. In his teaching he works to improve civic knowledge and engagement. He uses active learning, especially simulations, to help de-mystify the policy process and make it more accessible. He also helps students prepare for the Civic Literacy exam.

William O’Brochta, Ph.D., is assistant professor of political science at Texas Lutheran University. His research seeks to understand how identity and representation shape relationships between political elites and the public and when these interactions turn violent, with a special focus on developing nations. He also studies ways to more effectively introduce students to social science research and civic engagement opportunities. He teaches courses in American, comparative, and international politics, policy, and research design and methods. His work has been published in the British Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, and the Journal of Political Science Education, among other outlets.