I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bucknell University. I received my Ph.D. in American Politics from The Ohio State University in 2002.

My research focuses on American political institutions, with an emphasis on the U.S. Congress.  I have published work on both the modern and historical Congress addressing representation, institutional change, and electoral responsiveness.  I have explored related ideas in collaborative research on both the U.S. Supreme Court and election processes.

In my recent work, I examine party leadership organizations in the House.  Through a combination of archival research and quantitative analysis, I show that member participation in party organizations serves the collective goals of the party as well as the individual objectives of members, and I trace the ways that a polarizing and electorally competitive environment has changed the roles of participation.  These findings appear in my new book, Leadership Organizations in the House of Representatives:  Party Participation and Partisan Politics (University of Michigan Press, 2016).

At Bucknell, I teach a range of courses on political institutions.  Along with courses on Congress, the presidency, and the courts, I teach a senior seminar on legislative research and a team-taught course on mathematics and politics.  In 2012, I received Bucknell’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.