Dr. Melody Rose

Melody Rose is the Founder and Director of The Center for Women, Politics, and Policy.  She is also the Chair of the Division of Political Science at Portland State University.  The Center houses NEW Leadership™ Oregon and Teens Lead, which offers public service leadership training programs to college- and high school-aged women in Oregon. Her research is focused on the descriptive and substantive representation of women in American government, and she has authored a number of books, articles, and chapters on the presidency, social policy, women & politics, and elections. Her third book, Hillary Clinton’s Race for the White House:  Gender Politics and the Media on the Campaign Trail (with Regina Lawrence) was published in 2009 by Lynne Rienner Publishers. She is a regular political analyst on local, state, and national media on matters of elections, voting, party systems, and women’s political action.  In 2007, she was chosen as one of Portland’s “100 Most Powerful Women.”  She currently serves on the Portland City Club Board of Governors, and recently won the 2008 PSU Alumni Association’s Distinguished Faculty award for excellence in research, teaching and community engagement.

Dr. Melody Ellis Valdini

Melody Ellis Valdini is an assistant professor of political science at Portland State University, as well as a member of the NEW Leadership™ Oregon board of advisors. Her research is focused on building a greater understanding of institutions that affect the representation of women in legislatures around the world, with specific attention given to the effects of electoral system variables such as intraparty competition, the nomination strategies of political parties, and information shortcuts employed by both voters and party elites.

Dr. Lindsay Benstead

Lindsay Benstead is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Portland State University where she teaches courses on Middle East and North African politics.  Her working book project, entitled Legislative Connections: Why Diverse Patterns of Parliamentary Clientelism Stabilizes Authoritarian Governance in Morocco, Algeria, and the Arab World, examines the relationship between electoral and parliamentary institutions, access to clientelistic benefits for ordinary citizens, and popular attitudes and behaviors conducive to the development of democracy. Prof. Benstead also examines gender-related dimensions of legislatures, public opinion, and survey methodology in the Middle East. One of her projects seeks to understand why popular perceptions of women as good political leaders vary across Middle Eastern societies and assesses whether gender quotas which increase the formal representation of women also produce higher levels of social popular support for gender equity.  Prof. Benstead is also working on a field experiment testing the impact of interviewer gender on gender-related attitudinal indicators in Moroccan social surveys.

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