Jim is a jack-of-all-trades in Illinois public affairs. He has been an Illinois legislator, statewide candidate, state agency director, senior aide to three unindicted Governors, Campaign Manager for U.S. Senate and Presidential Candidates, Professor, Newspaper Publisher and Columnist.

Jim received his BA, MA and PhD degrees in political science, with minors in economics, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Whenever kicked out of government or politics, Jim has taken refuge as a senior fellow at the University’s Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He has also taught in the American politics field at the U. of I. in both Urbana and Chicago, Knox College and Northern Illinois University.

Jim has been a “foreign expert” (visiting professor) with the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai, where he has taught courses in American politics on three different occasions in recent years. When in China, Jim has also been invited to give lectures at major universities throughout China, including at Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou and Northwestern (Xian) universities.

Jim is the author or co-author of seven books, including Illinois Politics (University of Illinois
Press, 2010) and Fixing Illinois (U. of I. Press, 2015). Jim recently completed a four-year term as member, then chair, of the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission. 

For the past decade, Jim has written a periodic column on “Understanding Illinois” which is distributed to the 400 newspaper members of the Illinois Press Association.

Illinois Politics on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Illinois-Politics-Citizens-James-Nowlan/dp/0252077024/ref=sr_1_2?crid=UD9Z2IQ3DX45&dchild=1&keywords=james+nowlan&qid=1635950897&s=books&sprefix=james+nowlan%2Caps%2C179&sr=1-2

Fixing Illinois Politics on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fixing-Illinois-Politics-Policy-Prairie/dp/0252079965/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&qid=1635950918&refinements=p_27%3AJames+D.+Nowlan&s=books&sr=1-3&text=James+D.+Nowlan