Lonna Atkeson

Dr. Lonna Rae Atkeson is a Professor, Regents' Lecturer and Director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy in the Political Science Department at the University of New Mexico. She is an internationally recognized expert in the area of campaigns, elections, election administration, public opinion, political behavior, survey methodology, gender, and race and ethnicity and has written several books, over 50 articles and book chapters, and dozens of technical reports, monographs, amicus curiae briefs and other works on these topics. Her research emphasizes the role contextual factors play in shaping attitudes and behaviors of political actors. She advocates for a data driven, applied political science, approach to election reform that encourages academics and practitioners to join together to exchange expertise to create an efficient, well managed, transparent, and a citizen focused election system. Most recently (2013) she published Evaluating Elections: Tools for Improvement with co-authors R. Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall that provides long-term strategies for election administrators to continually evaluate and improve elections. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the JEHT Foundation, the Galisano Foundation, the Bernalillo County Clerk, and the New Mexico Secretary of State. She received the Mentoring awards from the University of New Mexico and the Political Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association as well as the Jack Taylor Best in Government Award from Common Cause New Mexico and the Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Initiative in Promotion Election Integrity from Verified Voting New Mexico and United Voters of New Mexico for her work in Election Administration. She holds a BA in political science from the University of California, Riverside and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Colorado, Boulder.