PULLMAN, Wash. — Lance T. LeLoup, a political science professor who has published extensively on the American presidency and Congress, has been named interim director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, effective immediately.
LeLoup, who joined the WSU faculty in 1996 as chair of the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, will continue in the chair’s role as well.
The institute honors the 49th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and current ambassador to Japan. Foley, a native of Spokane, represented eastern Washington in Congress from 1965 to 1995. He has donated his congressional papers to WSU, forming the nucleus of the institute that was founded in 1995.
“Professor LeLoup has been appointed to shepherd the institute through a transition period during which we will be seeking major public and private funding and expanding the scope of the institute’s program activities,” Barbara Couture, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, said.
Steven Stehr, the political science professor who led the institute during its first phase of development, will return to his full-time faculty position.
“As the institute’s charter director, Professor Stehr was responsible for establishing the Thomas S. Foley public policy internship program, awarding and distributing scholarships, developing partnerships with colleges across the university to establish adjunct professorships within the institute, and raising funds to support its programs,” Couture said.
To date, the institute has sponsored 77 internships, and has awarded 28 graduate fellowships and 22 scholarships. Since its inception, the institute and its affiliated programs have raised approximately $1.3 million in private gifts, and have received approximately $700,000 in grants to support program activities.
She indicated that during the coming year, the institute will seek external funding for endowed scholarships and fellowships, program activities and an appropriate facility to increase public and student access to the institute. Funding to attract distinguished scholars and public policy leaders to the institute’s programs will also be sought.
Just prior to coming to WSU, LeLoup had served as director of the Public Policy Research Centers at the University of Missouri-St. Louis from 1989-1996. He also served as chair of the political science department there and as director of the master’s degree program in public policy.
LeLoup has written numerous articles and books on Congress and legislative politics, including books on the presidency, on Congress and the budget, and on presidential-congressional relations. Just out is a book written with Steven A. Shull, “The President and Congress: Collaboration and Combat in National Policymaking,” published by Allyn and Bacon.
He has received a number of research grants including an award from the Everett Dirksen Center for Congressional Leadership. For many years he team-taught courses on congressional politics with a former member of Congress and colleague of Ambassador Foley. He has also served as legislative assistant to the minority leader of the Ohio Senate.
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