Elizabeth A. Bennion

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ELIZABETH A. BENNION

Elizabeth A. Bennion, PhD, is Chancellor\'s Professor of Political Science and Director of Community Engagement at Indiana University South Bend. As Director of the American Democracy Project (since 2004), she connects campus and community through civic education programming, organizing non-partisan voter outreach initiatives including voter registration drives, a Civic Leadership Academy, non-partisan voter guides, and debates for municipal, county, state, and national political races. After joining the faculty in Bennion rose through the ranks as lecturer, assistant professor, associate professor, and professor. In 2021 she was named Chancellor\'s Professor - a distinction reserved for full professors with highly meritorious performance in all areas of faculty work, including teaching, research, and service. Finally, in 2023, she became Director of Community Engagement, responsible for promoting, celebrating, and assessing campus-community partnerships.Professor Bennion is a nine-time recipient of the Trustees\' Teaching Award, inductee of the all-IU Faculty Colloquium for Excellence in Teaching, and recipient of the all-IU W. George Pinnell Award for Outstanding Service and the campus\'s highest award: The Lundquist Award.Professor Bennion\'s role as a civic educator has been recognized through resolutions and awards from the Alumni Association, City Council, League of Women Voters, Chamber of Commerce, Indiana Campus Compact, Capital Area Political Science Association, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, American Political Science Association, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation of St. Joseph County. Her scholarship is published in multiple books, academic journals, and newsletters. Her 80+ published works include large-scale, voter registration/mobilization field experiments, best practice guides to promoting and assessing civic engagement, three books on teaching civic engagement, and a book on teaching experimental political science.Bennion\'s work focuses on producing informed and engaged citizens. This is a goal she furthered through her work hosting PBS Michiana\'s weekly public affairs TV program Politically Speaking from 20••••25. Her civic engagement activities also include serving as Director of Voter Services for the League of Women Voters of the South Bend Area and as President of the Indiana Debate Commission. Her personal, professional, and mentoring relationships demonstrate a longstanding commitment to working with people from diverse socioeconomic, political, and ideological backgrounds.