Lauren C. Bell

Dr. Lauren C. Bell is the inaugural James L. Miller Professor of Political Science and Special Assistant to the Provost at Randolph-Macon College, in Ashland, Virginia. Dr. Bell holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Wooster (Ohio) and Masters of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at The University of Oklahoma.  She is a former American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow (1997-98) on the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and a former United States Supreme Court fellow (2006-07) at the United States Sentencing Commission in Washington, DC. In Fall 2015, Dr. Bell was a short-term visiting scholar on the Faculty of Law at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Bell is the author of 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).

Dr. Bell actively promotes civic engagement and civic education for learners of all ages through her work as a member of the Board of Directors of Virginia Civics, Inc., in leadership roles with the American Political Science Association's Civic Engagement Section, and as a member of the American Bar Association's Public Education Advisory Commission. She is a frequent lecturer for non-partisan civic organizations; in October 2023 the Hanover County (Virginia) Rotary Club recognized her as a Paul Harris Fellow "in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world."

Dr. Bell joined the faculty at Randolph-Macon in Fall 1999 and served as Associate Dean of the College from Fall 2007 until Spring 2014 and as Dean of Academic Affairs from Fall 2014 until Spring 2022.  She is a three-time winner of the 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. In 2023, Dr. Bell was awarded the Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor Award, the highest honor Randolph-Macon College bestows upon its faculty members.