Cindy Simon Rosenthal
Director and Curator, Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center, University of Oklahoma

Cindy Simon Rosenthal is director and curator of the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at The University of Oklahoma and associate professor of political science with a joint appointment to the women’s studies faculty. Professor Rosenthal has been a member of the Center faculty since 1998 and served as associate director, overseeing the Center’s undergraduate programs.  Under her leadership, the Center developed its highly successful N.E.W. (National Education for Women’s) Leadership, a program to encourage and empower undergraduate women to enter public service and politics.  N.E.W. Leadership has been honored three times by Oklahoma’s Journal-Record “Woman of the Year” celebration as a program “making a difference.”
    Professor Rosenthal’s research and teaching interests focus on women in politics, public sector and legislative leadership, state government and intergovernmental relations, and public policy issues involving gender inequality.  She recently edited Women Transforming Congress (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002) and is the author of When Women Lead  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).   In 1996, the Women & Politics Section of the American Political Science Association recognized her dissertation on institutional constraints and leadership styles of men and women in state legislatures as the best in the field of women in politics.  Her work has also been recognized with the Sophonisba Breckinridge Award given for the best paper on women and politics at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting. She contributed chapters to The Oklahoma Almanac of Politics (1998, 1999), Women and Elective Office (1998, 2005), and Women in Higher Education: Empowering Change (2002).  Her work also has appeared in Political Research Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Legislative Studies Quarterly, State Legislatures, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and  Women & Politics. She is an associate editor of APSA's Legislative Studies Section Newsletter.
    She serves as a member of the Norman City Council, representing Ward 4.
     Among her awards and honors, Professor Rosenthal was named the Carlisle Mabrey and Lurleen Mabrey Presidential Professor in 2002 and was named Outstanding Oklahoma Political Scientist of the Year in 2000 by the Oklahoma Political Science Association. 
    Professor Rosenthal holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, a masters in urban studies from Occidental College, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oklahoma.  From 1975 until 1991, she worked extensively with state legislatures -- first with Legis 50/ The Center for Legislative Improvement, later at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), and then finally as a consultant with several states on various management, personnel, and training projects.  She was on the NCSL senior management team and oversaw legislative management programs, state information services, and publications.
   

Contact Cindy Simon Rosenthal at csrosenthal@ou.edu.

Hannah Brenner
Coordinator, Civic Education and Leadership

      Hannah Brenner received a bachelor’s degree, with distinction, in American studies and a minor in women’s studies at University of Iowa. She completed her law degree at University of Iowa College of Law where she received numerous awards for academic achievement and public service.
      She has served as director of a rural program in Iowa for rape victim advocacy; executive director of the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice; and director of the Women’s Outreach Center at University of Oklahoma.
      She recently returned to the Appleseed Center on a part-time basis to coordinate the new Oklahoma Bullying Prevention Initiative, a coalition of nonprofit state organizations working to influence policy and ultimately reduce school bullying/harassment and its related problems like poor academic performance, future rates of incarceration, and suicide.
      In her part-time work for the Carl Albert Center, Hannah is responsible for coordinating the annual N.E.W. Leadership institute, developing new civic education programs, and fundraising. She also teaches for the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Oklahoma. 
      In her free time, Hannah enjoys renovating old homes, cooking great vegetarian food, and spending time with her two young boys. 
     

Contact Hannah Brenner by email at hbrenner@ou.edu.