Dr. Lisa McClain earned three degrees from the University of Texas, Austin: a B.A. with High Honors in History and Journalism; an M.A. in History; and a Ph.D. in History, with an emphasis on the Renaissance and the Reformation. Her dissertation title was "As One in Faith: The Reconstruction of Catholic Communities in Protestant England, 1559-1642". In 2001, she joined the faculty of the Department of History at Boise State University where she has also served as the Director of the Gender Studies Program.
In addition to her work on campus, Dr. McClain has been active in the community, perhaps most notably as a founding member and partner of the
Idaho Equal Access Collaborative (IEAC) whose mission is to assist women with disabilities who are seeking safety and protection from sexual assault and/or domestic violence through the collaborative efforts of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Disability organizations in Idaho. She has been featured as an expert in national blogs, and by the National Council for Research on Women on issues of violence and education in the Debate Kit on women’s issues used by the Obama and McCain campaigns in the last two nationally televised presidential debates in 2008.