She teaches, researches, and publishes on interest groups, lobbying, and policymaking. She is the co-author of several books,including the APSA award-winning Lobbying and Policy Change: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Why (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and Meeting at Grand Central: Understanding the Social and Evolutionary Roots of Cooperation (Princeton University Press, 2012). Professor Leech is a widely consulted expert on interviewing methods in the social sciences. Before embarking on an academic career, she was a newspaper editor. She holds a bachelor s degree from Northwestern University s Medill School of Journalism and a PhD in political science from Texas A&M University.