Cindy Rosenthal

Cindy Simon Rosenthal combines her professional academic interests with a commitment to public service.  She serves as director and curator of the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma and as professor of political science.  Professor Rosenthal has written on public leadership and women in politics.

She was reelected to a third term as Norman’s mayor in April 2013 and is its first popularly elected woman mayor.  As mayor she represents the city in metropolitan area and statewide efforts.  She served  as vice president and executive board member of the Oklahoma Municipal League, a member of the steering committee of the Regional Transit Dialogue, and as representative to the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments.  Mayor Rosenthal has championed environmental awareness and energy efficiency throughout the city, spearheaded Norman’s inclusive community initiative, and been an advocate for the arts and culture in downtown Norman. She began her public service as the council member from Ward 4.

Mayor Rosenthal won the 2009 Distinguished Public Service Award, which is given annually by the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration to a public servant whose career exhibits the highest standards of excellence, dedication and accomplishment. In 2010, she was honored by the Journal Record as Woman of the Year and has twice been recognized by the Journal Record as one of 50 women making a difference in Oklahoma.

Her professional accomplishments include co-authorship with Regents’ Professor Ron Peters of the book, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the New American Politics (Oxford University Press, 2010.)  Professor Rosenthal is the editor of Women Transforming Congress (University of Oklahoma Press, 2002) and author of When Women Lead (Oxford University Press, 1998).  Her work also has appeared in Political Research Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, and Politics & Gender. In 1996, the Women and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association recognized her dissertation as the best in the field of women in politics, and she also won the Sophonisba Breckinridge Award, given for the best paper on women and politics at the Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting.

 In 2002, she was named the Carlisle Mabrey and Lurleen Mabrey Presidential Professor at OU, and the Oklahoma Political Science Association recognized her as the Outstanding Oklahoma Political Scientist of the Year in 2000.