Hello! I am Associate Professor of Political Science at Purdue University. Broadly speaking, my research centers on the intersections between law and politics. The overarching goal of my research is to improve our understanding of the role courts play in American politics and policymaking. To date, my research has been published at Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Public Administration Review, Journal of Law and Courts, Studies in American Political Development, Political Communication, and Policy Studies Journal, among others. My work has been featured in a number of popular press outlets, including The Washington Post, NPR, Vox, The Economist, and The New Yorker.

I am also founder and co-director of the Program on American Institutional Renewal (PAIR), a center at Purdue that fosters research and teaching on America’s governing institutions, and build links between academics and practitioners who are working to improve the functioning of our government. You can click here to read more about PAIR and its work.

Before coming to Purdue, I spent a year as Visiting Scholar in the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and two years as Visiting Scholar in the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri. I completed my Ph.D. at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs in 2017. Before that, I received a Bachelor’s degree in History and Teacher Education from the Missouri University of Science & Technology, and a Master’s degree in Political Science from Southern Illinois University.