1. Three words someone else would use to describe me are intense, passionate and optimistic.
2. My greatest professional influence is my PhD advisor and friend, John Lewis Gaddis.
3. My fondest memory is taking my small children to the beach for the first time.
4. The last book I read was by Gustave Flaubert.
5. If I could have dinner with anyone living or dead it would be Franklin Roosevelt.
6. Three things I can't live without are a good library, a comfortable café and my Blackberry.
7. The most pressing issue facing the world is absent leadership.
8. The most important lesson I ever learned was that achievement requires hard work.
9. My advice for those just starting out in this profession is to study and write about a topic that touches your soul. You need passion to succeed as a scholar and a writer.
10. My motto is: "Think big, read critically, write clearly."
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