The political science department is pleased to announce that Ph.D. candidate Casey LaFrance has been awarded a $5,000 dissertation grant by the National Association of Counties (NACo). This is the first time that NACo has had this dissertation grant program, and Casey is a leading recipient. Casey's dissertation is groundbreaking work on the politics and management accountability decisionmaking of county sheriffs, a powerful local politician and substantive county manager about which we know virtually nothing. Casey's research uses a quasi-experimental design to interview sheriffs and police chiefs in IL, WI, and IA to test their responses to various accountability challenges. It is a very promising line of research that will provide him with many years of research ahead.