Biography

SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor is an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Virginia Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where she specializes the U.S. Congress and political institutions. Her research focuses on Congressional leadership, institutional reform, and partisan communication. 

Gaynor's research has been published in Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and Electoral Studies, among others. She is an author of Congress Explained, a textbook on the U. S. Congress, and her current book project examines the role of congressional leadership in constituent communication. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the American Political Science Association. 

Gaynor worked in Congress for several years, first as a press secretary and speech writer for House and Senate leadership, and then as an APSA Public Service Fellow for the U.S. House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress. Prior to joining Batten, she was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. She received her PhD in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland and received her bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from the University of Alabama, with honors.