Profile:

PhD, Rochester, 1974. American legislative elections and institutions and campaign finance. In 2022 Powell received the Sinclair Legacy Award, which honors a lifetime of significant scholarship, from the Legislative Studies section of the American Political Science Association. In 2021 she received the Career Achievement Award from the State Politics and Policy section of APSA. In 2022 her paper "Estimating District Ideology for Constituents, General Election Voters and Primary Voters in State Legislative and Congressional Districts" won the Fett Award from the Legislative Studies section of APSA. In 2019 Powell testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, in regards to the effects of term limits, based on her co-authored book, Term Limits in the State Legislatures (co-authors John Carey and Richard G. Niemi; University of Michigan Press, 2000), and on her journal publications. Her most recent of four books, The Influence of Campaign Contributions in State Legislatures: The Effects of Institutions and Politics (University of Michigan Press, 2012) won the Fenno Prize, the best book award of the Legislative Studies Section of APSA, and was the inaugural winner of the Gray Prize, the best book award of the State Politics and Policy Section of APSA. She has served on the editorial boards of the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Journal of Politics.