2024 – 2025 Elections

Ronald E. Langley, Ph.D., is part of the research data team for the Kentucky HEALing Communities Study at the University of Kentucky. Prior to this he served 24 years at the University of Kentucky Survey Research Center, including 23 years as Director (1998 – 2020).  Prior to joining SRC, Dr. Langley was a faculty member in UK’s Department of Political Science. He has been Principal Investigator on more than 100 projects over the past 25 years.  His research interests involve investigating the effects of public opinion on public policy, particularly macroeconomic and health policy, and his work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. He was the 2016 recipient of Association of Academic Survey Research Organization’s Kennedy Achievement Award for service and leadership and more recently was honored as the 2020 MAPOR Fellow.

Experience:

Ron has long been involved in AAPOR’s governance. He has been an active member and conference participant since 1996.  He has served on the AAPOR Code Review Committee, the By-Laws Review Committee, the Policy Impact Award Committee, the AAPOR Award Committee, the Conference Abstract Review Committee, the Transparency Initiative Coordinating Committee, and for ten years on the Standards Committee which led to serving on AAPOR’s Executive Council in 2014-2015 as Standards Committee Associate Chair and Chair.  He was also a member of AAPOR’s Task Force on Refusals, the joint AAPOR/ASA Data Falsification Task Force, and coordinated AAPOR’s response to the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding the federal government’s proposed changes to the Common Rule. More recently he served on the Project Progress Committee to advise the Executive Council on whether to move to self-management and then assisted with the transition. Ron’s main role with the transition was helping get the new HR committee up and running.

While AAPOR is his main affiliation, Ron has also served the survey and public opinion research community as Chairman of the National Network of State Polls (2000-2008), a founding member and President (2009-2010) of AASRO and five years on MAPOR’s Executive Council as an at-large member and as President (2017-2018).

As Vice President/President-Elect Ron would work with Council to continue to promote ethical standards and transparency in our methods, further promote and protect our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and explore ways for AAPOR to provide more support and value to our membership – particularly student and early career members. AAPOR will also need to be proactive in responding to potential threats and opportunities to our profession with the rapid expansion/availability of Artificial Intelligence tools.

Jordon Peugh has been conducting research for more than two decades and is currently Chief Business Officer at SSRS. In this role, she directs research execution, innovation, and strategy. Before SSRS, she led research teams at GfK, Knowledge Networks, and Harris Interactive. She has also conducted research at the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services and CASA at Columbia University. She started her training with a Master’s degree in Sociology from NYU.

Jordon has twice been elected to AAPOR’s Executive Council, as Communications Chair (2014-16) and Secretary-Treasurer (2017-19). Jordon has served on the Education, Finance, and Nominations Committees. Most recently, Jordon served as the Co-Chair of the AAPOR Project Progress and Transition Committee. This Committee was tasked with making a recommendation for whether AAPOR should pursue self-management and with supporting that transition.

Jordon’s experiences in AAPOR have been wide and deep. She has intimate knowledge of the history of AAPOR, insight into how AAPOR is currently structured, and a strong point of view on how AAPOR can remain a thriving organization for the future.

Experience:

If Jordon has the honor of being elected, her presidency will prioritize AAPOR’s continued relevancy, rigor, and inclusiveness. She will seek to be outward facing, supporting AAPOR as the voice of our profession, and inwardly focused, shoring up AAPOR’s management structure and finances.

Since Jordon first served on council in 2015, the industry has experienced growing complexity in research design, continued challenges with the rising costs of research, amplified concerns about data quality, and uncertainty about the impact of AI. And, AAPOR itself has expanded membership, created new affinity groups, moved to self-management, and revamped our conference structure. Jordon has the depth of experience in the research industry and with AAPOR to help us tackle these challenges.

As Chief Business Officer at SSRS, Jordon works to ensure research operations are running efficiently, identify and prepare for growth, lead a diverse set of professionals, and manage budgets. These are key skills for an AAPOR President, as we continue to stabilize self-management and ensure a healthy revenue picture for the organization.

While serving as Communications Chair, Jordon helped lead AAPOR’s response to the 2016 election polling missteps and addressed the impact of changes to the TCPA. Having navigated these circumstances, Jordon is ideally equipped to support AAPOR through the unexpected challenges that are a staple of our industry.

Jordon was responsible for AAPOR’s budget during her tenure as Secretary-Treasurer. Having an intimate understanding of AAPOR’s finances and historical practices gives Jordon an immediate advantage in a successful presidency.

As Co-Chair of the Project Progress/Transition Committee, Jordon worked to identify needs in the move to self-management. She brought together a diverse group to help AAPOR prepare for the transition. She was an effective Co-Chair due to her ability to think strategically about the organization, anticipate challenges, and engage the support of a wide variety of volunteers – critical qualities in an AAPOR president.

Jordon is uniquely suited for this role and she is excited about the opportunity to serve this organization that has meant so much to our profession and to her personally.

Ipek Bilgen is a Principal Research Methodologist at NORC at the University of Chicago. Bilgen is also the Deputy Director of NORC’s Center for Panel Survey Sciences and Chief Methodologist of NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel. Additionally, she directed web and emerging technologies strategic initiative and has designed numerous mixed mode studies during her time at NORC. She has over 18 years of experience in the field of survey research methods and received both her Ph.D. and M.S. from the Survey Research and Methodology Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Bilgen is currently teaching Survey Methodology and Survey Questionnaire Design courses at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago.

Bilgen is also serving as Associate Editor of Public Opinion Quarterly. In the past, she has served on AAPOR Executive Council as Membership and Chapter Relations Chair. She also chaired AAPOR’s Data and AMS Transition Committee and served on numerous AAPOR committees. Moreover, she has served on Midwest Assoc. for Public Opinion Research’s Executive Council as President, Vice President, Conference Chair, and Secretary Treasurer.

Experience:

Bilgen’s long term tenure at NORC has allowed her to plan, monitor, and manage budgets of numerous projects with different levels of complexity. This experience has encouraged her to think critically and strategically about resource and budget allocation and management. She is also well-versed in various areas of survey research due to her educational background, her extensive experience at NORC, and her service to the AAPOR and MAPOR communities. Her long-term involvement in the survey research field has also provided her with an in-depth understanding of the current and future issues and challenges our field and organization is facing.

Bilgen’s long-term service to AAPOR has allowed her to learn about the organization’s budget structure as well as revenue and expense sources. Her experience at NORC helped her learn and examine how to efficiently oversee complicated budgets and identify opportunities of growth through cost saving and revenue generating programs as well as data driven investigation of multi-year budgets.

Bilgen is specifically interested in finding innovative approaches to expand opportunities for students and early-career members, as well as allocating resources to diversify our membership. She believes her background and long-term service to AAPOR and MAPOR prepared her to take on the Associate Secretary-Treasurer position.

Tamara Terry is the Director of Academic Research Engagement at RTI International with over 20 years of experience in survey research data collection, project management, leading and developing research teams and providing senior level consultation for enhanced project performance. Tamara has been an active member of AAPOR for 15 years. She was appointed as the first Inclusion and Equity Chair, has served as the Membership and Chapter Relations Chair, and has served on many committees including the Communications committee, Diversity Coordinating Committee, History committee, 75th anniversary planning committee, Transition working group, Conference Committee, Nominations Committee and several award committees. Tamara has served as SAPOR Vice President/President and helped plan events at AAPOR to engage conference attendees, increase membership and awareness, and enhanced regional chapter relationships. Tamara regularly presents at the annual meetings for professional associations.

Experience:

My 15 years of experience and exposure to many roles within AAPOR has helped prepare me for this position. More specifically, my prior 2 terms on the AAPOR Executive Council have provided me the opportunity to gain insight into the role of Associate Secretary/Treasurer as well as provide strong leadership and guidance to our AAPOR community.

Additionally, in my professional role I am responsible for engaging and providing excellent service to our clients which includes strong project and budget management. I am confident that I can monitor AAPOR’s financial health, coordinate and oversee the efforts of the Investment and Sponsorship subcommittees and record the minutes for Council meetings. ‎ Ms. Terry is involved in supporting the development of research proposals and provides higher level management and support for study design, strategic project planning, and all additional aspects of data collection management. Throughout her career she has worked on federal, state and foundation research projects across a wide range of topics including education, health, environmental science, equity, and registries. In her current role, she is responsible for executing programs and initiatives with universities, including RTI’s founding universities, the UNC System and Duke University; co-develop strategy for academic research engagement programs, such as the RTI University Scholars Program; and lead conference and sponsorship planning.

On a more personal note, I have a profound desire to improve the human condition and impact the lives of people by turning knowledge into practice. If elected as the Secretary/Treasurer, I will have a unique opportunity to be of service and provide a higher level of support to the AAPOR community.

Stephen Blumberg is the Director of the Division of Health Interview Statistics at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a position he has held since 2017.  This Division collects, processes, analyzes, and distributes household survey data from the National Health Interview Survey, the National Survey of Family Growth, and the new NCHS Rapid Surveys System.  Prior to assuming this role, Blumberg was senior scientist and lead statistician for the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs and the National Survey of Children’s Health.  He was a member of the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology (FCSM) from 2020-2022, co-chaired the Tenth Conference on Health Survey Research Methods (in 2011), and served as Chair (for 14 years) of the NCHS Research Ethics Review Board.  He has also regularly published on the prevalence and characteristics of wireless-only households.  Blumberg has a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

Experience:

Since attending his first AAPOR conference in Montréal in 2001, Stephen Blumberg has considered AAPOR to be his professional “home,” and he has missed only one conference since then (to celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary). His service to AAPOR has included two years on Executive Council as Associate Chair and Chair of the Standards Committee, during which he navigated AAPOR through the investigation and subsequent censure of Strategic Vision LLC, which led to the creation of the AAPOR Transparency Initiative.  Blumberg’s leadership roles also include terms as President of DC-AAPOR, Chair of the AAPOR Financial Oversight Committee, and Chair of the AAPOR Archives Committee.  He was a member of the Task Force on Cell Phone Surveying Guidelines, Task Force on Online Panel Surveys, Strategic Planning Task Force, and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Governance of AAPOR’s Journals.  Blumberg has been recognized by AAPOR with the Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award and the AAPOR Public Service Award, and by DC-AAPOR with its annual Outstanding Achievement Award.

Councilors-at-Large play a crucial role in AAPOR. They provide comprehensive and wide-ranging perspectives on public opinion research and survey methods, offer strategic guidance and advice based on extensive experience within the field and within AAPOR, and act as liaisons to task forces and external entities. Their responsibilities include adapting to diverse roles, responding to issues as they arise, understanding member concerns, and assisting AAPOR in fulfilling its mission. Stephen Blumberg’s experience inside and outside the organization – from directing major federal surveys to upholding AAPOR’s ideals and standards, and from chapter governance to AAPOR’s finances – have prepared him well for a Councilor-at-Large role.

Dawn V. Nelson’s survey research career spans over four decades, including 25 years at the U.S. Census Bureau where Dawn has held various roles of increasing responsibility. In 2015 Dawn joined the senior leadership of the Center for Survey Measurement and played an integral role in its 2018 transformation into the Center for Behavioral Science Methods. As an Assistant Center Chief, Dawn held oversight responsibility for half of the Center’s staff as well as half of the large and rapidly changing project roster, demonstrating her ability to navigate and lead in evolving research environments. Dawn’s commitment to the field extends beyond her professional roles. Dawn is an active member of national AAPOR, a past president of DC-AAPOR, and a past Secretary-Treasurer of the American Statistical Association’s Social Statistics Section. Dawn holds a master’s degree in applied Survey Research from the University of Michigan. Her personal life is rooted in Deale, MD, where she resides with her husband Chad, their son Connor (when he’s home from college), and their two BIG Saint Bernard puppies.

Experience:

Dawn’s journey with AAPOR began at the 1989 conference when she served as a registration desk and book exhibit student volunteer. Since then, Dawn has been an active and dedicated member, attending every annual conference (2024 will be her 36th consecutive conference) and serving on numerous committees and various leadership capacities. Notably, Dawn has held three Executive Council positions: Conference Chair, Secretary-Treasurer, and Membership and Chapter Relations.

Dawn’s service to committee work includes Conference Operations, Endowment, Future of AAPOR Finances, History, Nominations, and multiple award committees (Mitofsky Innovators, Sudman Student Paper, and Public Service Award committee).

As for local chapters – – shortly after moving to the Washington DC area in 1992, Dawn joined the DC-AAPOR chapter and became their newsletter editor the following year. Dawn served as the Chapter President in 2002-03 and sat on their program and student paper competition committees from 2003-07. Dawn’s breadth of experience and leadership in survey methodology, her dedication and passion to AAPOR public service, along with her deep understanding of AAPOR’s history and values, make her well-suited to the responsibilities of the Councilor-at-large position.

Nicole Lee is a Program Manager in the Center for Health Data and Surveillance at RTI International. She has over 12 years of experience in survey research, managing primarily community health and health surveillance surveys using mixed-mode data collection methodologies and address-based sample designs. She has previously held positions at Abt SRBI and Abt Associates as well as Baruch College Survey Research. Nicole has served AAPOR in various capacities, including as Communications Committee member (2017 – 2019), Chair of the Public Service Award Committee (2020), Nominations Committee member (2021), and as President of SAPOR (2020). Her other service experience includes volunteering as a mentor with her alma mater Baruch College, serving as Co-Chair of the Membership Engagement and Connection Committee and Co-Chair of the RTI Pride (LGBTQ+) Employee Resource Group. Nicole was a 2015 recipient of the Burns “Bud” Roper Fellow Award.

Experience:

Nicole has experience serving AAPOR in various roles, serving the LGBTQIA+ community of RTI, and volunteering her time as a mentor for her alma mater. She will apply these experiences to the position of AAPOR Associate Communications Chair and bring a project management framework to the operations of the Communications Committee.

Given that 2024 is an election year, these are some of the initiatives Nicole would propose as Associate Communications Chair:

1) Build upon AAPOR’s digital presence and ability to produce timely messages with AAPOR members, the public, and media outlets that showcase AAPOR’s research.

2) Expand AAPOR’s Public Opinion Podcast by producing content relevant to understanding surveys, particularly public opinion polls, and featuring experts in the industry to help educate the public and the media about analyzing news articles and reports that cite survey data.

3) Understand AAPOR members’ needs and preferences to target communication for increasing membership engagement. Identify ways to increase the open rate of the AAPOR newsletter and AAPOR emails so that we can ensure important information is being circulated amongst the membership and that the content is relevant.

Kathleen Weldon is Director of Data Operations and Communications at Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University.  Kathleen graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in English and in 2000 joined Harvard Opinion Research Program, writing questionnaires and reports.

In 2014 Kathleen joined the Roper Center. One of her first projects was a series of over fifty Huffington Post articles on historical polling. She currently leads data communications and educational efforts, creating video, text, and visual assets for the Center and planning social media campaigns. Kathleen also conducts Roper Center’s data provider outreach.

Kathleen has served as on the AAPOR Public Opinion Ad Hoc Committee (chair), History Committee, and Communications Committee, Social Media Subcommittee. She has also served as Council Member, NEAAPOR, and Councilor-at-Large, NYAAPOR. Over the past year, she has been part of the AAPOR Working Group on Public Opinion and Democracy.

Experience:

Kathleen recognizes the importance of the role of Communications Chair and is honored to be considered as a candidate. Polls may be the voice of the people, but AAPOR is the voice of the polls. Should she be elected, she would focus on a few key areas:

• Expert Referral Resource: Expanding the program of expert resource recommendations for journalists and fact-checking organizations
• Diversity and Inclusivity: Ensuring that AAPOR’s communications efforts reflect diversity of identities, experiences, and viewpoints
• Content Diversification: Increasing current efforts to create new types of content and embrace new platforms and outlets, including the AAPOR podcast and Tiktok
• Internet Information Evaluation: Evaluating gaps in information on polling across widely used platforms like YouTube and Wikipedia to guide content development
• Relationships within AAPOR: Regularly connecting with chapters, affinity groups and other committees to evaluate changing communications needs

Kathleen brings to the role of Communications Chair her experience with translating information about polling into accessible language tailored for various audience and with creating communications plans that serve the diverse needs on a large organization.

Effective communication demands brevity. Kathleen therefore recommends that those interested in learning more about her career visit her LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-weldon-31003022/

Dr. Morgan Earp is the Deputy Director for the Division of Research & Methodology at the US National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).  Prior to coming to NCHS, she worked as a Research Statistician at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011-2020), and as a Mathematical Statistician at the US National Agricultural Statistics Service (2006-2011). Morgan has taught graduate courses in quantitative research and survey methodology at the George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University since 2010.   She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Quantitative Research Methods with a concentration in Qualitative Research Methods from the University of Denver (2007).

Morgan’s research focuses on nonresponse bias, measurement error, psychometrics, total survey error, and equity.  Morgan has published papers in the Journal of Official Statistics on the use of regression trees to model nonresponse.  She’s been an active member of AAPOR since 2009 and ASA since 2008.  She is also a member of DC-AAPOR, PAPOR, and the Washington Statistical Society (WSS).  She has regularly presented research at a variety of conferences including AAPOR, JSM, ESRA, ITSEW, FCSM, and ICES.

Experience:

Morgan has organized conferences for ASA, FCSM, DC-AAPOR, and WSS, and she has also assisted with planning different aspects of the AAPOR conference.  Morgan has organized topic contributed sessions for AAPOR, ESRA, and FCSM, and she has successfully organized multiple invited sessions for JSM.   Morgan would be honored to serve as the AAPOR Conference Chair for the 81^st Annual Conference in 2026.  She is excited to apply her local and national leadership experience toward building a vibrant and engaging conference, and she looks forward to working together to develop a vision and collaborative agenda that inspires and cultivates innovation, inclusion, and introspection, so we can continue to flourish both as a field and as an organization.

Morgan was recently nominated to serve on the FCSM (2024-2026) and has regularly served the federal statistical and survey methods research community in a variety of leadership roles since 2009:

• Co-organized the FCSM workshop “How To Do Survey Nonresponse Bias Analyses in Household and Establishment Surveys” (2009)
• Served on the Interagency Council on Statistical Policy (ICSP)’s Trust Working Group (2011-2013)
• Served as DC-AAPOR Program Chair (2012)
• Organized the first DC-AAPOR & WSS Review Preview Conference (2012)
• Served as the DC-AAPOR President (2015)
• Co-authored sections of the FCSM report “Evaluating Survey Questions: An Inventory of Methods” (2016)
• Served as the ASA Government Statistics Section (GSS) Program Chair (2016)
• Served as the ASA Social Statistics Section (SSS) Publications Officer (2016-2018)
• Served on the AAPOR Executive Council as the Membership  & Chapter Relations Associate Chair and Chair (2016-2018)
• Served on the WSS Morris Hansen Lecture Committee (2015-2019) and served as Chair in 2018
• Served on the FCSM Nonresponse Bias (NRB) Subcommittee (2017 to 2023), served as Co-Chair from 2020 to 2023, and co-authored two reports: “A Systematic Review of Nonresponse Bias Studies in Federally Sponsored Surveys” (2020) and “Best Practices for Nonresponse Bias Reporting” (2023)
• Served as the ASA Survey Research Methods Section (SRMS) Chair (2020)
• Served as the AAPOR Membership Database Subcommittee Co-Chair (2019 – 2023)
• Served on the ASA/AAPOR Monroe Sirken Award Nomination Committee (2020-2023)

Dr. Emilia Peytcheva is a senior survey methodologist at RTI International and an adjunct assistant professor at the University of North Carolina.  She teaches courses on questionnaire design, cross-cultural survey methods, and introduction to survey methodology at the University of North Carolina and the ISR Summer Institute at the University of Michigan.  She has published in Public Opinion Quarterly, the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, the Journal of Official Statistics, and Survey Research Methods, among others. Her main research areas are measurement error in cross-cultural surveys and nonresponse bias.

Emilia has been involved in AAPOR since 2001.  She has served in different roles on multiple AAPOR committees – the Standards Committee, the Nominations Committee, the Conference Planning Committee, the AAPOR Award Committee, the Education Committee, and the Seymour Sudman Student Paper Award Committee.  Emilia has served on the AAPOR Refusal Conversion Task Force and was among the first members of the Transparency Initiative, launched in 2009.  She has previously served on Council as the Education Committee Chair.

Experience:

Dr. Peytcheva has served on the AAPOR Conference Planning Committee from 2018 to 2022 and has been actively involved with different AAPOR awards committees throughout the years.  Under her leadership on AAPOR’s Executive Council, the Education Committee started a 3-step outreach program to attract more students to the survey methodology field through Survey Fest, AAPOR for a day, and participation in the Diversity Program at the Summer Institute, University of Michigan.

In her role as the AAPOR Short Course Committee Chair (2018-2020), Emilia organized monthly online and annual in-person short courses.  She has also co-organized multiple trainings and workshops at her employer and for other organizations.  Most recently, she served as a planning advisor for the OPRE’s 2023 Methods Meeting.

Emilia will be honored to serve as AAPOR’s Conference Chair for the 81st Annual Conference in 2026.  Working closely with the Conference Planning Committee and the Executive Council, she will plan for a conference that brings together a diverse range of professionals, and specifically, attracting more first-time attendees.  In addition to a stimulating conference program focused on innovations in the field, Emilia will emphasize the community-building aspect of the conference through a variety of new networking, brainstorming and social activities.  If selected for the position, Emilia will reflect AAPOR members’ feedback from previous conferences to organize an event that promotes learning, inclusion and mentorship, and contributes to membership retention.

Kelly Foster is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Applied Social Research Lab (ASRL) at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Kelly’s background and education is multi-disciplinary, holding a MS in Applied Sociology from Clemson University (2003) and a PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Georgia (2011). Her entrée into the world of survey research began in 2003 when she accepted her first professional survey research position at an academic survey research center. In 2005, Kelly was part of AAPOR’s inaugural class of Burns “Bud” Roper fellows and has been an active part of AAPOR, SAPOR, and AASRO since that time.

Kelly has served on AAPOR executive council as membership and chapter relations chair as well as on the sponsorship subcommittee; SAPOR executive council as conference chair, vice-president, and president; and AASRO executive council as secretary/membership chair and later as AASRO conference host. Her time as MCR chair for AAPOR allowed Kelly to get to know the many different disciplines, clients, and members that AAPOR represents and shaped her views particularly on intersectionality in professional settings.

Experience:

Kelly has 20 years’ experience as an educator and survey research professional. Throughout her career, Kelly has served in multiple executive council roles with AAPOR, SAPOR, and AASRO, providing her with a deep understanding of the commitment required to serve our profession. As the director of an academic survey research center, she is dedicated to education and its role in professionalization and the future of survey research. Kelly teaches graduate courses in survey research methodology and data analysis, and she serves as a mentor to junior faculty embarking on research projects involving survey data collection. In these roles, Kelly must stay aware of evolutions and innovations in the field, making her well-prepared to collaborate with education subcommittees to lead AAPOR’s educational efforts.

If elected to the position of Education Associate Chair, Kelly would build upon the extensive work already undertaken to diversify AAPOR’s webinar offerings in both topics and represented educators as well as expanding efforts towards professional education particularly with students and junior research professionals. Kelly has a proven track record of collaboration, recognizing the importance of working closely with other committees and subcommittees to achieve common goals. AAPOR’s educational components not only benefit its members but are also crucial for journalists and the broader public as they seek to understand the profession and the work produced. Kelly is committed not only working with AAPOR subcommittees to plan webinars and short courses that our members need but also to journalist education, which will be particularly important to prioritize in this election year. Finally, as a career educator, Kelly will emphasize engagement and education among junior survey research professionals through expanded efforts at the annual meeting and with year-round education efforts for both current students and new professionals.

Dr. Ashley Koning (PhD, Rutgers University) is an assistant research professor at Rutgers’ Eagleton Institute of Politics and is the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling. She leads a team of faculty, staff, and students in conducting survey research on various topics both state and nationwide. She regularly provides commentary in state, national, and international media. Ashley also teaches a survey research course at Rutgers and has authored book chapters and articles on public opinion.

Ashley has been a member of AAPOR for over a decade. She has received the 2012 AAPOR Student Travel Award, the 2015 AASRO John Tarnai Memorial Scholarship, the 2015 AAPOR Student Poster Award, and the 2016 AAPOR Burns “Bud” Roper Fellow Award. She has served on various AAPOR committees, as well as on two regional chapters – NYAAPOR and then PANJAAPOR, including as president for the latter, over the past several years. She is currently AASRO’s vice president/president-elect.

Experience:

Ashley has spent almost her entire professional career working within academic polling organizations. Educating others through and about survey research is at the heart of what she does. She values AAPOR’s commitment to education, which is why AAPOR has been her professional “home” since she was a graduate student.

Ashley took on educational initiatives within the AAPOR community early on, establishing a student liaison position on NYAAPOR’s council and reviving its student research competition. She then led efforts to combine the NYAAPOR and PANJAAPOR student events into one larger, virtual competition, subsequently boosting submissions, attendance, and accessibility for students. Ashley was also a member of the AAPOR Student Conference Award and Burns “Bud” Roper Fellow Award Committee for the past several years. She now serves on the Committee on Public Opinion and Democracy, tasked with creating actionable steps towards AAPOR’s goals of educating the public, press, and policymakers about public opinion.

Ashley’s priorities for the Education Committee would focus on expanding learning opportunities, reach, and representation. With another unprecedented election year in 2024, AAPOR should be at the forefront of public conversations about polling, how it works, and how it should be interpreted and used. This would support and expand upon missions within Education’s subcommittees and create opportunities for AAPOR to embark on more public-facing educational endeavors, including reviving primers on topics like pre-election polling, special journal issues, webinars, and/or short courses. She would also prioritize explorations of long-term attitudinal trends on today’s most pertinent issues as a way to better inform the democratic process. Ashley would furthermore continue efforts to diversify AAPOR membership, for both professionals and students, ensuring this diversity is not just seen but also heard in those who represent and educate on behalf of AAPOR.

Dr. Anna Sandoval Giron is an independent consultant for UX and qualitive research projects. Before this she was a Senior UX Researcher in Monetization Ecosystem Team at Meta. Prior to joining Meta Dr. Sandoval Giron spent six years at the U.S. Census Bureau as a social science research analyst in the Center for Behavioral Science Methods and as a supervisory social science analyst in the Integrated Partnerships and Communications Program of the Decennial Census. She has also held positions at the American Institutes for Research, the National Center for Health Statistics, and as an Assistant Professor at Simmons University in Boston, MA.

Anna’s main research interests center in hard-to-count populations and historically undercounted people particularly those who do not speak English well. She has conducted research in the United States and in Central America, with diverse and complex populations. As part of her commitment to diversity & inclusion Anna regularly speaks to college classes at minority servicing institutions. Many of these talks are to small groups of minority students who have never thought of engaging in a career in survey research.

Experience:

Anna has served on the Inclusion & Equity Committee as the subcommittee chair for Awards and Nominations since 2022. In this role she represented IEC on several AAPOR award committees such as the Nominations Committee (2022), AAPOR Inclusive Voices Award Committee (2023), Chair of the AAPOR Inclusive Voices Award (2024), Book Award Committee (2024), and The AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement (2024). Anna involvement in AAPOR affinity groups started in 2016 as a founding member of the Cross-cultural and Multilingual Research Affinity Group followed by active participation in HIS-AAPOR, and QUALPOR. The involvement in groups within AAPOR and the efforts to create more inclusive environments has given her a unique perspective on the amazing strides AAPOR has made towards the equity and inclusion goals and at the same time understand the spaces were work still needs to happen.

Anna has two primary goals in this role, first, to increase membership by recruiting and mentoring new members into the Inclusion & Equity Committee. Second, to continue the work that previous committee chairs tirelessly to bring the values of Inclusion and Equity across the whole AAPOR organization and continue to collaborate with other committees and AAPOR leadership.

Luis Tipan’s career as Director of Statistical Weighting at SSRS and in Public Opinion has taken him on a unique path of Inclusivity Work. He believes equal access and representativeness are essential beyond conducting good research–they are key values in promoting equity. At SSRS Luis works with diverse, hard-to-reach groups, domestically and internationally. He is consistently a voice for his community: for AAPOR’s Affinity Groups and Honorary Lifetime Members (HLMs) as Chair of Affinity Groups and HLMs through the Inclusion and Equity Committee; for the Hispanic community as Co-Chair of HISP-AAPOR; for PA and NJ’s AAPOR membership as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chair at PA/NJ AAPOR; and for his classmates as flag bearer at the commencement ceremony of the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to the US, he lived in Quito, Ecuador, where he worked with the City Mayor on community development projects. Luis values community-led policy and has presented research in that area.

Experience:

Luis is grateful for and cherishes the opportunity to continue collaborating with his AAPOR family on DEIJAE projects he’s had the pleasure of working on for years. He is excited to see what else AAPOR can achieve by working together.

Recently, Luis worked with AAPOR’s council to initiate an effort for AAPOR’s Honorary Lifetime Members (HLMs) to have official roles within leadership. Thanks to this effort, HLMs will now have a platform in the Executive Council. HLMs are AAPOR’s lifeblood.

Promoting a sense of belonging across all membership is Luis’ primary mission. In the past two years Luis provided guidance on the creation of Two Affinity Groups: The Establishment Survey and The Black and African American Public Opinion Research groups. He also helped all Affinity Groups come together and assisted them with their outreach objectives such as ensuring that they had for the first time in history a table at the National Conference’s Welcome Reception.

Additionally, Luis plans to expand on his roles as subcommittee Chair of Inclusion & Equity, Co-Chair of HISP-AAPOR, and DEI Chair of PA/NJ AAPOR by nurturing an inclusive culture, creating strategic partnerships within AAPOR and non-AAPOR affiliates, and investing in education and in the research pipeline. This means investing in students, young professionals, and future AAPOR leaders.

In sum, the goal is to promote access for all members rather than rely on the power of a select few.

In 2019, Luis pioneered a DEI panel for AAPOR. Tamara Terry, visionary founder of AAPOR’s IEC, and Dalia Mogahed, widely recognized as one of the most influential Arab- and Muslim-women in the US, were honorary panelists for this landmark event. Since that event, highlighting the spirit of equitable access has been (and will be) at the core of Luis’ work. Having served on AAPOR’s Nominations Committee, he understands the importance of supporting leaders who recognize everyone’s strengths and who ensure that everyone has a voice.

Greg Holyk is a Staff UX Researcher and one of the leading survey experts at Google with 20+ years of experience in the survey industry. Greg previously was a Senior UX Researcher at Meta. Before joining the tech industry, Greg worked for years as a Research Analyst at Langer Research Associates, most notably on ABC News’ political and election polling. Prior to that, Greg spent 2 years as a Professor of Political Science at Washington & Lee University, where he taught courses in American Politics and Political Behavior. Greg is well-published, having authored papers in Public Opinion Quarterly, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and Political Science Quarterly. Throughout his career in academia and the private sector, Greg has been deeply involved in AAPOR, serving recently as program chair and president of the New York chapter, serving on AAPOR’s Membership & Chapter Relations Committee for two 3-year terms, and chairing this year’s Sirken Award committee.

Experience:

AAPOR has been a cornerstone in Greg’s professional life since he attended his first conference in New Orleans in 2008 and he has continued to deepen and strengthen his engagement with the organization since then. Within AAPOR, Greg spent 6 years serving on Membership & Chapter Relations, the committee he now hopes to lead. While serving on that committee, Greg’s leadership of the annual membership survey gave him key insights into membership trends on issues and needs related to conference format, webinars, the value of our journals, belonging to chapters, and diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. He has also served as president of one of AAPOR’s regional chapters – NYAAPOR – which provided him with a deep understanding of the needs and challenges chapters face in maintaining and growing membership, balancing online and in-person events, and engaging the next generation of survey professionals.

As chair of the Membership & Chapter Relations committee, Greg’s top priority would be to revitalize what it means to be an active member of a professional organization in our post-pandemic environment. The economic and work landscape has changed tremendously. AAPOR needs to continue to adapt to changing wants and needs, including providing state-of-the-art opportunities to connect online alongside still-important in-person events, and investing in features that provide real value to our members, such as opportunities to network, access to the latest survey research, online discussion forums, and supportive professional development opportunities. Greg would also focus on ways to attract and engage with students and early career survey professionals to establish AAPOR as their home organization.

Dakisha Locklear is a Research Services Manager at RTI International. She has more than 15 years of experience as a research data collection leader with a primary focus on production and quality-based project leadership. She has extensive experience in managing project data collection work flow for large complex projects with multiple stages, modes, and sampling frames. Including address-based sampling, random digit dialing, listed, and targeted population types. She also oversees projects that require institutional contacting, batch and interactive tracing processes.  For the past eight years Dakisha has been an active attendee and volunteer with AAPOR. In her service to AAPOR, she has served as an abstract reviewer, session chair and is currently the chair of the AAPOR History Subcommittee. She has also been strongly committed to serving AAPOR’s Southern Chapter (SAPOR). She served as SAPOR’s Conference Chair in 2020, Vice President in 2022, and President in 2023. She also enjoys presenting at AAPOR and International Field Directors and Technologies conferences on topics related to mitigating interviewer burden, process improvement, and data quality.

Experience:

With a background in managing data collection operations, Dakisha has a profound understanding of the actions necessary to support effective collaboration and clear communication between teams and stakeholders. The experience that she has gained through her service to AAPOR, SAPOR and volunteering within her community has strengthened her abilities to motivate and engage leaders to exceed expectations. Dakisha also has a passion for building professional relationships with industry experts as well as early career professionals and students. As President of SAPOR, she was able to use this passion to successfully launch the chapter’s first student and early career panel and networking event in the spring of 2023. She also had the opportunity to support SAPOR membership expansion and retention by providing resources on public opinion through conference panels and presentations. Throughout her roles within elected positions leading and supporting efforts to host and organize events for members and associates throughout the southern region has been achieved multiple times. As SAPOR’s 2020 Conference Chair due to the pandemic, she strategically led efforts to organize the chapter’s first all-virtual conference.

Dakisha is excited about the opportunity to continue to serve AAPOR as the Associate Membership and Chapter Relations Chair. She is eager to be involved with further developing membership benefits and assisting future members with appreciating the knowledge and influence that AAPOR’s community of survey researchers and resources will have to further deepen their insight into the industry. If elected, Dakisha will prioritize maintaining and strengthening alliances with each of the seven chapters. She understands how the progression of each chapter contributes to AAPOR’s mission of advancing science and providing opportunities to educate and collaborate with its members and the impact that their enthusiasm and innovation could have within their region.

Eran Ben-Porath is Chief Research Director and Executive Vice President at SSRS, where he oversees all aspects of survey design and implementation, from sampling methodology and questionnaire-design to weighting and quality assurance. These surveys generally relate to public policy, public health, and politics, with a focus on historically underrepresented populations. He is currently involved with SSRS’s ongoing election polling.

Throughout his 15-plus years at SSRS, Eran has worked to manage rapid transformations in public opinion research methodology. He has led efforts to transition multiple projects from RDD to predominantly multi-mode data-collection methodologies, specializing in ABS and multi-sample approaches.

Eran has served on AAPOR’s Standards Committee, its Transparency Initiative Subcommittee, and Survey Practice’s editorial board. Notably, he chaired AAPOR’s Short Course subcommittee from 2009-14. Eran earned his PhD in communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

Experience:

Eran’s vision for the Standards Committee is informed by years of leading polling and complex data-collection efforts during times of methodological transformation. Transitions in how survey research is conducted can disrupt trends, introduce complexities in mode effects, and raise concerns about data quality. However, these same transitions offer the opportunity to expand respondents’ access to surveys and remove barriers to participation. Eran’s work involves continuously assessing these challenges and opportunities as they relate to data representativeness and reliability. This is the experience he wishes to bring to the role of Standards Chair.

Having served on the Committee for several years, Eran believes Standards is entrusted with upholding and defining best-practices for our evolving field. In this spirit, he believes Standards should regularly consider and update the metrics needed to assess data-quality and indicators of transparency as they relate to reaching respondents, validating data, and ensuring respondent privacy.

As we enter an election year, Eran believes the Standards Committee should be ready to quickly address concerns raised surrounding polling practices. Ensuring that polling organizations adhere to AAPOR’s code is essential when the spotlight is sure to be turned once again on the field’s performance surrounding the election.

Lastly, the coming years will usher in more challenges associated with technological innovation. Survey researchers are already addressing the risk of fake respondents and bots taking part in online surveys. The introduction of readily-available AI technology further complicates things, particularly implicating researchers’ ability to distinguish between real and artificially-manufactured data. Eran would like to see AAPOR provide the field with normative guidance on the usage of AI in survey research as well as practices for addressing challenges generated by breaches of these norms.

Dr. Jenny Marlar is the Director of Survey Research at Gallup. Jenny provides methodological consulting across Gallup’s U.S. survey research, including the Gallup Panel and government and academic clients. She specializes in probability and non-probability panel research and self-administered survey design and implementation. She leads research initiatives exploring new technologies for survey data collection, such as wearables, text messaging, mobile applications, and AI. Prior to her current responsibilities, Jenny was a methodologist for the Gallup World Poll, where she led Gallup’s global employment metric research and authored numerous publicly released research articles and reports.

Jenny earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Survey Research and Methodology from the University of Nebraska. She has served on the AAPOR Standards Committee and Standard Definitions subcommittee since 2020. She was an AAPOR webinar presenter in 2018 and in 2023 was part of the AAPOR abstract review committee. Jenny is currently the MAPOR Conference Chair.

Experience:

While on the Standards Committee, Jenny has contributed to the Online Panel Task Force Report and the 10th edition of the Standard Definitions, and she is currently helping to develop an online response rate calculator. The Online Panel Taskforce report and updated Standard Definitions, under the leadership of the Chairs of these efforts, were important updates to reflect the growing complexity of sample frames and modes of data collection. In this vein, Jenny recognizes that methods will continue to evolve, and the work of the Standards Committee is never done. Jenny expects that non-probability sampling will likely become more widely used in the coming years. Further, Artificial Intelligence could significantly disrupt our industry and affect how we collect, analyze and report public opinion. If and when these changes happen, Jenny knows updated ethical standards and guidelines for transparent disclosure will be necessary for research professionals and to help to maintain public trust. At the same time, she understands the potential for member concerns with disclosing proprietary information and will work with membership and the Executive Council to find the right balance.

Jenny believes AAPOR’s Standards are critical to our field and should provide AAPOR members with the tools and resources they need to uphold standards within their own organizations and institutions. Jenny sees firsthand in her own work how valuable these resources can be when talking to clients, colleagues, and the public. Jenny looks forward to continuing to serve the Standards Committee and AAPOR, if elected.