Professor Ryane McAuliffe Straus received her B.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1995 and her M.A. (2000) and Ph.D. (2005) from the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include race and ethnicity, urban politics, and public policy, with a particular interest in urban education policy. She offers courses in American Politics, Education Politics, Urban Politics, Public Policy, and Racial and Ethnic Politics. Her dissertation on the use of magnet schools to desegregate the Los Angeles Unified School District was funded by UC ACCORD (University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity), and her publications include “Reconstructing Los Angeles Magnet Schools: Representations in Newspapers” in the Peabody Journal of Education (2004), “Measuring Multi-Ethnic Integration” in Education and Urban Society (forthcoming) and several encyclopedia articles on education. Professor Straus holds membership in the American Political Science Association and regional professional associations. Dr. Straus is the History and Political Science department’s internship coordinator, and also the editor of The Journal of Undergraduate Research.