Faculty/Staff

Elizabeth C. Matto
Director, Youth Political Participation Program

Elizabeth Matto is an assistant research professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics and the Director of the Institute’s Youth Political Participation Program (YPPP). She earned her doctorate in American Politics at the George Washington University and, prior to her work at Eagleton, taught a variety of courses at Princeton University, Temple University, and the George Washington University.

As director of YPPP, Matto oversees the programs RU ReadyTM and RU Voting. RU ReadyTM is a civic engagement initiative designed to provide high school students with the tools and encouragement to be civically and politically engaged in their communities. RU Voting focuses upon engaging Rutgers students in local, state, and national elections. In the fall of 2010, Matto will pilot a series of focus groups of Rutgers students, gathering qualitative data about the nature and extent of students’ civic and political participation.

As co-principal investigator with Tim Vercellotti, Matto also is completing work on the research project “The Classroom-Kitchen Table Connection: The Effects of Political Discussion on Youth Knowledge and Efficacy”, funded by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).