Lynne E. Ford is Associate Vice President for the Academic Experience and professor of political science at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. Ford earned her B.A. degree from The Pennsylvania State University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park. Her teaching and research interests are in American politics with an emphasis on women and politics, elections and voting behavior, and civic engagement. She is author of Women and Politics: The Pursuit of Equality and The Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics, which was named one of the top twenty reference books by the New York Public Library in 2009. She is also a coauthor of American Government & Politics Today. She serves on the editorial board for two political science journals and has served in a variety of leadership roles with the American Political Science Association and the Southern Political Science Association including the Status of Women Committee for both organizations and the APSA Departmental Services Committee.