Rachael v. Cobb, ph.d. is Chair and Associate Professor of Political Science at Suffolk University. Cobb specializes in U.S. elections, election administration, electoral politics, civic engagement, and political participation. In 2006, Professor Cobb received a grant from the United States Election Assistance Commission to establish the University Pollworkers Project, a nonpartisan program designed to recruit college students as poll workers as a response to reports of an estimated shortage of 500,000 poll workers nationwide. Since 2006, more than 500 students from the Greater Boston area have received training and worked as poll workers.