Stephen Maynard Caliendo is associate professor of Political Science at North Central College. After graduating with a B.A. in English and Political Science from Clarion University in 1993, he earned a Ph.D. in political science from Purdue University in 1998, and focuses his research in the areas of political communication and political psychology. With Charlton D. McIlwain (New York University), he is co-director of The Project on Race in Political Communication (RaceProject.org) and co-editor of the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Race and Ethnicity. Caliendo's book Teachers Matter (Praeger 2000) examines the effects of political socialization on attitudes toward American political institutions. With McIlwain, he is completing work on Race Appeal, the first book from the Race Project. Caliendo's research has been presented at major conferences and published in The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, The Journal of Black Studies, and The Journal of Research and Science Teaching. He has authored or co-authored numerous entries in specialized encyclopedias and is political analyst for CBS2 Chicago and WDCB public radio. He has provided analysis for dozens of other international, national, state and local media outlets.