Elizabeth Matto named as new Eagleton Institute director

Elizabeth Matto has been named as the new director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University, the university announced today. She assumed the role on September 1, succeeding John Farmer Jr., who stepped down earlier this year after four years leading the political science institute.

“At a moment of such import for the future of our democracy, I can’t think of a person more ideally suited to taking on the leadership of Eagleton than Elizabeth, who has already done so much as both a scholar and practitioner in helping young people recognize the urgency of their own engagement in civic and political life,” Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway said in a statement.

Before being named as director, Matto led the institute’s Center for Youth Political Participation, and has been a member of the institute’s faculty for 16 years.

Farmer, a former state attorney general who served as acting governor for 90 minutes in 2002, was named to lead the institute in 2019 after the legendary Ruth Mandel stepped down; Mandel, who had been director for 24 years, died a year later. Farmer’s decision to step down does not appear to have been publicly announced before today.