Stella Rouse is an associate professor in the Department of Government and Politics and director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement. She earned her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University in 2008. Rouse's book, Latinos in the Legislative Process: Interests and Influence, published by Cambridge University Press, was named by Huffington Post as one of the "Best Political Science Books of 2013." She is a native of Colombia. When she was two years old, her parents immigrated to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where she grew up. Rouse fluently speaks, reads, and writes Spanish.