Dr. Leslie Alm received his Ph.D. in Political Science and his M.A. in Educational Administration from Colorado State University. His B.S. in Engineering is from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He joined the faculty at Boise State University in 1991 where he has served as chair of both the Department of Political Science and the Department of Public Policy & Administration, director of the MPA graduate program, and a member of the University’s Northwest Accreditation team. His service outside of Boise State includes chairing the ABC-CLIO Editorial Board for American Government DataBase, serving on the Executive Council of the Western Social Sciences Association, and as a manuscript referee and editorial board member for numerous professional journals. Dr. Alm’s research on how science informs environmental policy has had significant impact on national policies. His other major interest is in the relationship between the United States and Canada with specific attention to borderlands issues. In 2011, Dr. Alm was named one of six inaugural Distinguished Professors at Boise State University, one of the highest honors that can be accorded to a faculty member.
Articles
Canada–US Border Communities: What the People Have to Say (with Ross E. Burkhart), American Review of Canadian Studies (2013)
This paper investigates the Canada-U.S. borderlands relationship along the two geographic corridors as bounded by...
Is Spotlighting Enough? Environmental NGOs and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (with Ross E. Burkhart), Canadian-American Public Policy (2006)
The initial questions of our survey questionnaire focused on whether ENGOs were familiar with the...
Scientists’ Perceptions of Objectivity and Advocacy: Making the Linkage of Science to Environmental Policy, Journal of Environmental Systems (2006)
There is no question that science plays a profound role in American public policymaking and...
The Mormon Question: Political Culture and Influence of Latter-Day Saints in Idaho (with Ross E. Burkhart, W. David Patton, and James B. Weatherby), Virginia Social Science Journal (2006)
Differences That Matter: Canada, the United States and Environmental Policymaking (with Ross E. Burkhart), AmeriQuests (2006)
Does the way Canada, as a nation state, approach international environmental policymaking make a difference...
Books
Turmoil in American Public Policy: Science, Democracy, and the Environment (with Ross E. Burkhart and Marc V. Simon), Faculty Authored Books (2010)
This book explores the intricacies of the science-policy linkage that pervades environmental policymaking in a...
Crossing Borders, Crossing Boundaries: The Role of Scientists in the U.S.-Canadian Acid Rain Debate, Faculty Authored Books (2000)
Examines the science-policy linkage that defined the policy debate over acid rain in the United...
Contributions to Books
Canadian Environmental Policy (with Ross Burkhart), Canadian Studies in the New Millennium (forthcoming) (2012)
Linear Correlation and Regression (with Susan G. Mason), Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration (2008)
The Policy Process and the American West: An Environmental Perspective, Environmental Politics and Policy in the West (2007)
Public policy making in the United States rests in a seemingly inexhaustible set of concepts...
Scientists, Politics, and Environmental Policymaking: The U.S.-Canadian Acid Rain Debate, Handbook of Global Environmental Policy and Administration (1999)
The culmination of separate and bilateral acid rain policies in Canada and the United States...
County Government and the Public Lands: A Review of the County Supremacy Movement in Four Western States (with Stephanie L. Witt), Public Lands Management in the West: Citizens, Interest Groups and Values (1997)
Presentations
Elite Interviewing: Canada-US Borderlands, SSPA’s Speaker Series, Boise State University (2012)
This presentation discusses the process of interviewing from a study on the Canada-U.S. borderlands relationship...
Canada/U.S. Borderlands: Thunder Bay, Duluth, and Sault Ste. Marie (with Ross Burkhart), Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (2011)
Canadian Environmental Policy: Past and Future (with Ross Burkhart), Western Social Science Association Annual Meeting (2011)