Active Duty: Letters to Home From Iraq , the Longest 18 Months in the Life of a National Guard Soldier

Biographical sketch of JAMES D. NOWLAN Professor, politician, newspaper publisher, and senior aide to four Illinois governors, Jim Nowlan is the author of scholarly works and novels about American politics, public management, and social change. As of 2004, Nowlan became the first director of the new Civic Leadership Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where Nowlan has been associated throughout his life. Jim continues as a Senior Fellow at the University's Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Nowlan considers himself a jack-of-all-trades in government and politics. He is a former Illinois state agency director (on three occasions), member of the Illinois House of Representatives, and counselor to four Illinois governors (Ogilvie, Thompson, Edgar, Ryan). In his spare time, Nowlan publishes three weekly newspapers in central Illinois and operates a jazz bistro and store in his home village of Toulon, Illinois. In recognition of his work in the public arena, Jim received the 1994 award for "distinguished leadership as a public administrator" from the Illinois state capital chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, and the 1995 Ben C. Hubbard Award for Leadership in Education from the Illinois State University College of Education. Jim was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1968, at age 26. Four years later Governor Richard B. Ogilvie asked Jim to be his runningmate as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, when they were narrowly defeated. Former U.S. Senator Charles Percy asked Nowlan to manage his successful campaign for reelection to the U.S. Senate in 1978. The following year, U.S. Representative John B. Anderson called on Jim to organize his national campaign for the Republican nomination for President. Nowlan's planning work for Anderson was described as "brilliant" in the Washington Post book, Pursuit of the Presidency. Jim's most recent book is Glory, Darkness, Light: A History of the Union League Club of Chicago, published in 2004 by Northwestern University Press. His book Inside State Government is considered by many to be required reading for executives in Illinois state government. In a 1989 book, A New Game Plan for Illinois, Jim presented a specific, dramatic platform for Illinois in the 1990s. Nowlan and Samuel K. Gove are the authors of Illinois Politics and Government: The Expanding Metropolitan Frontier, published in 1996 by the University of Nebraska Press as part of their series on major state governments. Whenever Jim is kicked out of government and politics, he takes refuge in the academy. Jim has been on the faculty in political science and public management at the University of Illinois in both Urbana and Chicago, and has been a visiting professor at Knox College and several universities. Jim writes frequently for daily newspapers throughout Illinois and is a periodic columnist for Crain's Chicago Business aJason Adams is the author of 'Active Duty: Letters to Home From Iraq , the Longest 18 Months in the Life of a National Guard Soldier' with ISBN 9780970579065 and ISBN 0970579063.