Former Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar is joining the University of Pittsburgh as a visiting scholar and adjunct professor, campus officials announced Thursday.

She will work in Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy and Security and also teach as an adjunct in the university’s School of Law.

Boockvar’s work will focus on “election security, disinformation and other issues at the intersection of democracy and technology,” according to a news release from Pitt.

“She will bring a unique perspective to this role, having overseen Pennsylvania’s participation in the 2020 presidential election and the 6.9 million votes cast during it,” the release said.

Boockvar served as Pennsylvania’s top election official from January 2019 to February 2021. She resigned after her agency made an error that delayed a statewide vote on allowing survivors of decades-old sexual abuse to sue the perpetrators and institutions that hid those crimes.

Pitt’s announcement said Boockvar managed the implementation of sweeping election reforms that included allowing all Pennsylvanians to vote by mail. She also managed the certification and deployment of new voting systems statewide.

After leaving state government, Boockvar served as vice president of election operations for the Center for Internet Security, where she led election security initiatives and worked closely with federal, state and local government on election security practices, Pitt said.

Boockvar earned a law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, officials said.

“We are pleased to bring Kathy to the University of Pittsburgh,” said David Hickton, founding director of Pitt Cyber. “She has a career’s worth of leadership and experience in dealing with issues that are central to Pitt Cyber’s mission, and issues that are of paramount importance to preserving American democracy.”

Boockvar said Pitt Cyber is “widely recognized and respected as a leader in election security and disinformation issues” and she looks forward to joining it.