Thessalia Merivaki is the Thomas S. Foley Distinguished Professor of Government and Director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Service and Public Policy at Washington State University, beginning in August 2026. Prior to this role, she was an Associate Professor at Georgetown University, with joint appointments at the McCourt School of Public Policy, the Center for Tech and Public Policy, and the Massive Data Institute. She is also the co-founder of the Digital Trust Lab, housed at the Massive Data Institute.
Since 2020, Merivaki has been a member of the Carter Center’s U.S. Elections Team, supporting work on local election administration, trust-building communications, and voting accessibility. In January 2026, she joined the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Non-Resident Fellows Program. During 2025, she was a senior fellow with the Election Integrity Project’s (EIP) fellowship cohort.
Her research focuses on four dimensions of democratic citizenship: (1) policy frameworks that mitigate or exacerbate fragmentation in information ecosystems; (2) mechanisms that shape individual-level opinion formation around electoral integrity, civic inclusion, and representation; (3) institutional frameworks that structure access to democratic processes; and (4) administrative frameworks that condition citizens’ right to be informed.
More specifically, Merivaki draws on theories of collaborative governance, democratic listening, and information integrity to examine how institutional design, administrative practices, and information ecosystems foster civic engagement, build trust in election integrity, inoculate against disinformation, and facilitate access to voting. Her scholarship has been featured in Social Science Quarterly, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, American Politics Research, PS: Political Science & Politics, Election Law Journal, Public Integrity, Policy Studies, Journal of Election Administration, Research and Practice, Social Science Research, as well as The Handbook of Election Administration, The Oxford Handbook of Election Integrity, and Political Communication.
Her work demonstrates how institutional design, variations in state and local administrative procedures, and the provision of information can complicate election administration, with disproportionate effects on underrepresented voters. In her book, The Administration of Voter Registration: Patterns and Variation Across and Within the American States (2021), Merivaki examines how voter registration policies create distinct challenges for election officials and voters, including barriers that can limit access to voting.
A significant area of Merivaki’s scholarship focuses on voter education and its role in building resilient electorates and election systems. Her research examines the work election officials undertake to inform voters and the resources available to help them effectively serve their communities. She explores these issues in Local Election Administrators in the United States: The Frontline of Democracy (2024), which she co-edited with leading scholars in the field of election administration.
As election denial has increasingly become part of political campaigns, Merivaki’s work also examines the vulnerabilities created by disinformation and fractured democratic discourse, particularly as AI-mediated information environments expand. Her current research explores how AI and generative AI are shaping the information ecosystem through two major projects: examining citizens’ attitudes toward AI-generated election communications and studying how election officials approach the ethical and responsible use of AI.
Given the growing use of generative AI tools by the public and government officials, Merivaki’s research examines the relationship between access, transparency, privacy, and trust in election administration. She co-authored the white paper Generative AI for Election Officials: Use Cases, Best Practices, and Ethical Guardrails, which provides a best-practices framework for election officials and operational guardrails for the use of AI in election administration.
Her full body of scholarship is available through her CV.
