About the Staff, Fellows and Scholars

Jane Shaw shaw@popecenter.org Executive Vice President Jane S. Shaw joined the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in September 2006. She was previously director of communication and a senior fellow of PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. PERC is a nonprofit institute that seeks to improve environmental quality through markets. Shaw has been a frequent speaker and writer on environmental topics. With Michael Sanera she coauthored Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment (Regnery 1999). She coedited A Guide to Smart Growth: Shattering Myths and Providing Solutions (Heritage Foundation, 2000) with Ronald Utt. Earlier in her career, Shaw was a journalist. Before joining PERC in 1984, she was an associate economics editor of Business Week, working in New York City. Before that she was a correspondent for McGraw-Hill Publications in Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Shaw received her bachelor’s degree in English literature from Wellesley College. Shaw is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education, a national organization that promotes a better understanding of markets. She is a senior editor of Liberty magazine, editorial adviser to Econ Journal Watch, a member of the Editorial Advisory Panel of Regulation, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs (London).

George Leef georgeleef@popecenter.org Vice President for Research George Leef holds a bachelor of arts degree from Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin and a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law. He was a vice president of the John Locke Foundation and director of the Pope Center until the Pope Center became an independent entity in 2003. Previously, Leef was on the faculty of Northwood University in Midland, Michigan, where he taught courses in economics, business law, and logic. He has also worked as a policy adviser in the Michigan Senate, and since 1996 has served as book review editor of The Freeman. Leef is the author of Free Choice for Workers: A History of the Right to Work Movement (2005) and editor of Educating Teachers: The Best Minds Speak Out (2002). Leef has published widely, with articles and reviews appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Regulation, the Christian Science Monitor, the Detroit News, Raleigh News & Observer, the Cato Journal, and other publications. He has testified before committees in the U.S. House of Representatives and the legislatures of Michigan and North Carolina and has made numerous TV and radio appearances.

Jenna Ashley Robinson jarobinson@popecenter.org Outreach Coordinator Jenna Ashley Robinson joined the J.W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in January 2007. She was previously the E.A. Morris Fellowship Assistant at the John Locke Foundation, where she worked since 2001. Robinson graduated from NCSU in Political Science and French in May 2003 and has studied at the University of East Anglia School of American Studies in Norwich, England. She received her Master's Degree in Political Science from UNC-Chapel Hill in December 2005 and is a now PhD candidate in political science with a concentration in American Politics and a minor in Methods.

Jay Schalin jschalin@popecenter.org Writer/Researcher Jay Schalin joined the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in August 2007. He researches and writes about higher education issues, primarily in North Carolina, and oversees the center’s Web site and weekly newsletter, Clarion Call. A Philadelphia native, Schalin began working as a freelance journalist for the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey in 1994 and has also written for several other papers in New Jersey and Delaware. In 1998, he returned to school to complete his education, graduating from Richard Stockton College in New Jersey with a B.S. in computer science in 2001. After graduation, he was employed as a software engineer for Computer Sciences Corporation. Schalin is scheduled to receive his M.A. in economics from the University of Delaware in February 2008.

Carolyn Zahnow czahnow@popecenter.org Executive Assistant Carolyn Zahnow, executive assistant at the Pope Center, is a Raleigh, North Carolina, native who has experienced life in southern California as well as North Texas. These moves have made her all the more fond of her home state with its magnificent trees and wonderful citizens. With degrees in marketing management from San Diego City College and communications from North Carolina State University, Zahnow is blending her marketing skills with her writing abilities to assist in many areas at the Pope Center. Past working experiences include time spent with Nokia Mobile Phones in Texas, where she created internal communications programs, and a year of substitute teaching in the local school system in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. While in North Carolina, Zahnow worked at IBM in Research Triangle Park and at Cooper Tools in Apex. Zahnow joined the Pope Center in December 2006.

Alston Chase achase@popecenter.org Senior Fellow Alston Chase is a well-known scholar and writer who established a national reputation through his writing on environmental policy. His books include Playing God in Yellowstone (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich), In a Dark Wood: The Fight over Forests and the Myths of Nature (Houghton Mifflin), and Harvard and the Unabomber: The Education of an American Terrorist (W. W. Norton). The winner of several magazine awards, Chase has written on education, the history of ideas, and the environment for the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other newspapers and magazines. He has contributed scholarly papers to the Educational Record, the Rockefeller Foundation Working Papers, Academic Questions, and the National Science Foundation’s Division of Policy Research and Analysis. Chase, who lives in Montana, holds degrees from Harvard and Oxford and a Ph.D. from Princeton. He has taught at numerous colleges and universities including Harvard and Princeton. He served as chairman of the department of philosophy at Macalester College in Minnesota and has held fellowships at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs.

Jon Sanders jsanders@popecenter.org Policy Analyst Jon Sanders, a policy analyst and research editor at the John Locke Foundation, writes the Pope Center’s popular feature “Course of the Month” as well as a monthly column for the center. Sanders has been published in the Wall Street Journal, National Review, FrontPage Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Freeman, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and numerous newspapers in North Carolina. Sanders has been an adjunct instructor in economics at North Carolina State University. A native of Garner, North Carolina, he holds a master’s degree in economics with a minor in statistics and a bachelor’s degree in English literature and language from N.C. State.