I am an Assistant Professor in the Undergraduate College at National Louis University.

I received my Ph.D. from the University of Florida, and I held a two-year postdoctoral position at the Institute of Political Studies, Charles University in Prague.

My research spans themes of democratization, party system development, and electoral behavior. Regionally, I focus on Europe -- the European Union and the Eurasian space -- although a distinct stream of my research investigates how deep societal structures shape public policy preferences in the US. More recently, my work has looked at community engagement and youth political activism on the West side of Chicago. Currently, I lead an interdisciplinary team of educators in political science, community psychology, health, and community experts through the MappCivics.Youth Empowerment in Chicago project, committed to creating spaces for informed and educated youth citizenry.

My work has been published in the Journal of European Public Policy, Party Politics, European Union Politics, Politics & Policy, Studies in Comparative International Development, Mass Communication and Society, East European Politics, and East European Politics and Societies & Cultures, among others.

My teaching and research agendas have been sponsored by external grant-funding agencies, such as APSA - Growing Democracy Grants, APSA - the European Politics and Society section, NSF, EUSA, the Visegrad Fund in Bratislava, and EUROLAB - GESIS in Cologne (Germany).

My research profile can be accessed through ResearchGate, GoogleScholar, and ORCID ID.