Melissa Deckman, PhD, is the Louis L. Goldstein Professor of Public Affairs at Washington College and chairs the board of PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute. Her areas of specialty include religion, gender and conservative political movements in American politics.  The author or co-author of more than a dozen scholarly articles and five books, her latest book, Tea Party Women: Mama Grizzlies, Grassroots Activists, and the Changing Face of the American Right, was published by NYU Press in 2016.  She is also co-author of Women and Politics: Paths to Power and Political Influence (Rowman & Littlefield Updated 3rd edition 2017) with Julie Dolan and Michele Swers.   Her first book, School Board Battles: The Christian Right in Local Politics, won the American Political Science Association’s Hubert Morken Award for the best work on religion and politics.