Leslie Schwindt-Bayer received her BA at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1996. She earned her Master’s degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona in 1999 and her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Arizona in 2003. Professor Schwindt-Bayer joined the Rice faculty in 2013. She currently serves as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education in the Dean of Undergraduates Office and holds the Thomas Cooke and Mary Elizabeth Edwards Chair in Government and Democracy. Her research focuses on comparative politics, legislatures, representation, Latin America, and gender and politics. She was a U.S. Fulbright Fellow in Colombia in 2003, and in Fall 2008, was a Visiting Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Professor Schwindt-Bayer is the author of Political Power and Women’s Representation in Latin America (Oxford University Press 2010), co-author of The Gendered Effects of Electoral Institutions: Political Engagement and Participation (Oxford University Press 2012), co-author of Clarity of Responsibility, Accountability and Corruption (Cambridge University Press 2016), and editor of Gender and Representation in Latin America (Oxford University Press 2018). She has written numerous articles published in journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Latin American Research Review, Electoral Studies, Politics & Gender, and Perspectives on Politics.