Virginia Gray, Robert Watson Winston Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Virginia Gray was educated at Hendrix College (B.A. with honors) and Washington University (M.A., Ph.D.) in St. Louis. Her graduate teaching experience includes seminars in interest groups, state politics, and public policy. She and David Lowery have collaborated on numerous research projects on state interest groups; their publications include The Population Ecology of Interest Representation: Lobbying Communities in the American States (University of Michigan Press, 1996) and articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, International Political Science Review, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, Public Choice, Publius, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, State and Local Government Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Journal of Public Policy, American Politics Research, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Political Behavior, and Party Politics. Their ongoing research (and numerous graduate assistants) has been funded by a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation and by a three-year grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, Professor Gray has published in The Journal of American History, Policy Studies Journal, Polity, The American Behavioral Scientist, Policy Studies Review, PS , and Daedalus and is the coeditor of the leading textbook on state politics, Politics in the American States . She has coauthored three books and several articles with graduate students at the University of Minnesota , where she previously taught. In her five years at UNC, she has co-authored articles and conference papers with ten graduate students. She has been a visiting professor at universities in Canada , Norway , and the People's Republic of China . Professor Gray also served as president of the Midwest Political Science Association in 2003-04. .