Meet our Faculty Affiliate: Amy D. Meli Monday, August 18, 2025The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is excited to announce the promotion of Amy D. Meli from CEL Research Affiliate to Faculty Affiliate.Dr. Meli is an assistant professor of political science at Hollins University in Roanoke, VA. Her research centers around interest groups and the way they influence the political system. Her research projects include an examination of the way involvement in interest groups influences interest group member political efficacy and affective polarization, the relationship between interest groups and the…

The CEL on "The Weekly" and "Staffer" Podcasts Tuesday, August 12, 2025Tom Wickham and Shuwanza Goff, two members of the Center for Effective Lawmaking’s (CEL) Board of Advisors, were recently featured on leading political podcasts, C-SPAN’s The Weekly and Staffer, offering their expert insights into the inner workings of Congress and public service.Tom Wickham is the former Parliamentarian of the U.S. House of Representatives, and currently serves as Senior Vice President of state and local policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. On this episode of The Weekly podcast – in which he credits CEL…

High Hurdles: Legislative Professionalism and the Effectiveness of Women State Legislators Thursday, August 7, 2025For numerical gains in American state legislatures to translate into substantive representation, women legislators need the ability to advocate for their constituents. In this forthcoming published paper in The Journal of Politics, Associate Professor Robert McGrath (George Mason University), Associate Professor Josh Ryan (Utah State University), and Assistant Professor Jatia Wrighten (Virginia Commonwealth University) examine the determinants of legislative effectiveness in state legislatures, theorizing that women in more professional legislatures will be subject to electoral selection mechanisms…

Effective Lawmaking and Legislative Negotiations Tuesday, July 22, 2025On Wednesday, July 9, the Center for Effective Lawmaking co-hosted a discussion panel on Capitol Hill with the Program on Legislative Negotiation (PLN) and the Partnership for a Secure America (PSA) entitled “A Guide to Effective Lawmaking and Legislative Negotiations.” Panelists discussed the importance of legislative negotiations and other keys to effective lawmaking on Capitol Hill. The panel featured CEL Co-Director Craig Volden (University of Virginia), CEL Co-Director Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt University), PLN Director Bettina Poirier (American University), and PLN Co-Founder Chris Bertram (American University), who…

CEL Co-Hosts "Capitol Connections" Event Wednesday, July 16, 2025On Tuesday, July 8, the Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) co-hosted a networking reception titled “Capitol Connections: A UVA & Batten School Networking Mixer.” Taking place at the Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar in Washington, D.C., the event brought together 130 current and prospective students, alumni, faculty, and staff of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and the University of Virginia more broadly. Participants connected with new and familiar people, while hearing how bipartisan leadership is shaping the future…

Meet our new Advisory Board Member: Leigh Ann Caldwell The Center for Effective Lawmaking is excited to welcome Leigh Ann Caldwell to our Board of Advisors.Ms. Caldwell is the Chief Washington Correspondent for Puck News and is an Emmy Award–winning veteran of various news outlets covering politics and policy on Capitol Hill. Previously, she was a senior reporter at The Washington Post, where she was co-author of The Post’s Early 202 and an anchor for Washington Post Live. Before joining The Post in 2022, she was a correspondent at NBC News.…

Prior Experience and State Legislative Effectiveness Tuesday, June 24, 2025How do the prior experiences of lawmakers shape their performance in office? Representatives who have held prior elected office or professional backgrounds in relevant fields—specifically law, government, or politics—seem to have an advantage in winning elections. It is unclear whether those experiences help them become more effective legislators. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly based on a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, Associate Professor Eric Hansen at Loyola University Chicago and Professor Sarah Treul (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) at the University of North Carolina at…

Monday, June 23, 2025Members of Congress enter their roles with various policies they hope to implement, but passing legislation is difficult. Lawmakers spend their tenure navigating complex procedures and institutional barriers created by the legislative process and the separation of powers. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Assistant Professor Erinn Lauterbach (Villanova University and Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate) and Associate Professor Melinda Ritchie (The Ohio State University) investigate how members of the House of Representatives leverage their comparative advantages to shape and pass legislation. To achieve this, the authors merged…

Measuring Partisanship and Representation in Online Congressional Communication The rise of online communication and social media has created new ways for elected officials to communicate with their constituents, but also enabled the diffusion of polarizing partisan rhetoric. How have members of Congress responded to these opportunities? This is the subject of a Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper from Associate Professor (and CEL Faculty Affiliate) Michael Kistner, Ph.D. candidates Robert Alvarez, Lucas Lothamer, and Maya Fitch (all of the University of Houston), as well as post-doctoral researcher Michael Heseltine…

Getting what you pay for: Resource allocations and legislative success Thursday, May 28, 2025Members of Congress run for office with a variety of goals they hope to achieve if elected. How members go about achieving these goals is constrained by numerous institutional factors. Yet there exist two areas in which members are afforded broad discretion: the allocation of their time and budget. In this published paper in Legislative Studies Quarterly, Emily Cottle Ommundsen, Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi (and Center for Effective Lawmaking Faculty Affiliate), assess the personal…