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Widely known as an expert in gender in politics, Jennifer Lawless took the ultimate step in political participation by running for Congress in 2006 in Rhode Island. That experience inspired her to show her students that civic engagement is critical for a healthy democracy. Jen is the Commonwealth professor of politics at the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the UVA faculty, she was a professor of government at American University and the director of the Women & Politics Institute. Before that, she was an assistant and then associate professor at Brown. Her research focuses on political ambition, campaigns and elections, and media and politics. She is the author or coauthor of six books, including Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era (with Danny Hayes) and It Still Takes a Candidate: Why Women Don't Run for Office (with Richard L. Fox). Her research, which has been supported by the National Science Foundation, has appeared in numerous academic journals, and is regularly cited in the popular press. She is an associate editor of the American Journal of Politics Science and holds an appointment as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Jen graduated from Union College with a BA in political science, and Stanford University with an MA and PhD in political science.