Please visit my blog at www.ResearchDemystified.org. It provides useful links for students, powerpoints tied to Research Methods for Public Administrators (2nd edition), tools for designing research, and examples of current public administration research in the news that I find interesting along with commentary and discussion.My most recent book--Trailblazing Governors: Six Remarkable Women--is just being released. It tells the stories of six of the first women governors--Connecticut's Ella Grasso, Washington's Dixy Lee Ray, Kentucky's Martha Layne Collins, Vermont's Madeleine Kunin, and New Jersey's Christine Todd Whitman. Elected between 1974 and 1993, they are among the first nine women to breakthrough to this powerful political position. Based on interviews and their papers in archives, the book provides an insider's view of what it is like to be a governor and how to navigate the intersection of gender, leadership, and politics. Courage, intelligence, and integrity are their defining characteristics. It took me a long time to write this book. I have lived with the voices of these remarkable women in my head for over a decade and kept hearing: "for all the risk, it is worth daring to do something that seems a bit beyond your reach." I hope you will be as inspired by these women as I have been. I have set up a blog to support the Trailblazing Governors book: you can find it www.TrailblazingGovernors.net.Brief bio: Gail Johnson (MPA and PHD, University of Connecticut) has worked in several public agencies, including the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has taught in MPA programs for more than fifteen years, including Old Dominion University in Virginia and the Evergreen State College in Washington. She is the author of Her consulting work includes conducting Appreciative Inquiry Workshops for public agencies, designing program evlauation training programs for the World Bank, and a community assessment. Current activities: In my spare time when I am not teaching (currently an adjunct at Portland Community College), I work with my son on a buy local website--www.LokiLoka.com, and with a friend on a blog about traveling by public transit in the greater Puget Sound area--www.rebels-by-bus.net. Now that I am Portland, there will be new trips beyond the Puget Sound. I am also learning how to make pottey and enjoy taking photographs of birds, trees, and flowers--especially those found in my garden.Gail