Sarah James is an assistant professor of political science at Gonzaga University. She has a PhD in Government and Social Policy from Harvard University. She was the Arleen Carlson & Edna Nelson Graduate Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a fellow in the Multidisciplinary Program on Inequality and Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. James has published in State Politics and Policy Quarterly, The Russel Sage Journal for the Social Sciences, and College Teaching. James also has a M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from Boston University. She has extensive experience in public K-12 education, first as a teacher, then as a high school principal, and she currently serves on the board of trustees for a Boston charter school.