2023 – 2024 Elections

Sunshine Hillygus (BA, University of Arkansas; PhD, Stanford University) is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy and Director of the Initiative on Survey Methodology at Duke University, where she has worked since 2009. From 2003-09, she taught at Harvard University, where was founding director of the Program on Survey Research.

Sunshine’s research and teaching focus on American public opinion and survey methodology, including data quality, nonresponse, questionnaire design, longitudinal surveys, and mode effects. Sunshine has received multiple grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has authored dozens of journal articles and three books, including Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action (Cambridge University Press, 2020). She has served on numerous editorial boards as well as methodology panels for the National Academy of Sciences and the NSF. Since 2018, she has served as associate PI of the American National Election Study.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

A longtime member of AAPOR, Sunshine has served the organization in key roles: AAPOR Task Force on 2020 Pre-Election Polling; Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of AAPOR Journals (2019-20); POQ Advisory Committee (2011-20 and Committee Chair, 2018-20); POQ Editorial Board (since 2008); editor of the POQ Special Issue on the 2008 Presidential Election; AAPOR Book Award Committee (2011, 2016); AAPOR Nominations Committee (2018); and AAPOR Award Committee (2022). Leadership experience in other associations includes serving on the Executive Council for the Midwest Political Science Association (2014-17) and Southern Political Science Association (2014-17).

In Sunshine’s view, AAPOR’s greatest strengths is the rich cross-fertilization that occurs across individuals from academia, government, and industry. Such collaborations have been central to her own professional experiences. For example, she served on the U.S. Census Bureau Scientific Advisory Committee (2012-18) and the ASA 2020 Census Data Quality Taskforce. She has organized multiple interdisciplinary, cross-sector conferences on survey methodology, including the 2018 International Total Survey Error Workshop and the NSF-funded 2021 Workshop on the Future of Survey Research. Interactions and partnerships with survey industry professionals have shaped her substantive research on the nature, dynamics, and measurement of public opinion and fueled her interdisciplinary methodological research.

Sunshine believes that collaborative connections within and among these sectors will be critical for addressing the challenges facing the survey industry. As AAPOR Vice President/President-Elect, this perspective would animate Sunshine’s efforts and work with the Executive Council to increase public trust in the survey industry, promote transparency in survey methods, tackle response quality issues in the industry, and foster productive interactions in AAPOR’s diverse community of survey researchers.

Frauke Kreuter is a professor at the University of Maryland, where she directed the Joint Program in Survey Methodology from 2016 to 2020, and at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, where she is the Chair for Statistics and Data Science for the Social Sciences and Humanities. She co-founded and now co-directs the Data Science Centers at the University of Maryland and the University of Mannheim. Her research has been recognized by AAPOR with the Mitofsky Innovators Award and the Book Award.  She also received the American Statistical Association’s Link Lecture Award for “contributions to the U.S. federal statistical system’s ability to meet new data demands” and was elected an ASA fellow for “outstanding contributions to research in the field of survey methodology; for excellence in mentoring of junior researchers in social statistics and survey methodology; and for extensive international research collaborations.”

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Being able to cross (indeed, redefine) the boundaries between survey research, statistics, and social science has become ever more important and Frauke is committed to helping AAPOR – her favorite professional association — meet the exciting challenges posed by the many new data sources of an increasingly digital world.  Frauke is passionate about the need to work across diverse communities and has experience in both government and private sector settings. She led the statistical methods group at the German Institute for Employment Research (IAB) for about a decade and served on advisory boards in the U.S. federal statistical system, Germany’s GESIS, Statistics Sweden, and Statistics Canada. She also worked with Meta on privacy research, led in partnership with them the Global COVID Trends and Impact Survey, and consulted with other private sector organizations such as Westat, RTI, and Summit Consulting.  She would love to draw on these experiences to further diversify AAPOR’s membership and partner with other professional organizations to strengthen the infrastructure of our profession and bring AAPOR’s perspective to the larger world, which is of increasing urgency given the rapid growth of AI systems built without sufficient attention to data quality and the inclusion of all voices.

Peyton Craighill has been an active member of AAPOR since joining as a graduate student in 1999 and has attended and presented at nearly every conference since. Peyton began serving AAPOR as the co-chair of the Heritage Committee at its inception in 2003 through 2006. Peyton served as Program Chair for both the DC Chapter (2004-06) and NYC Chapter (2008-2010). Peyton has served the Executive Committee as Communications Chair from 2012-2014, and on the Conference Committee from 2014-2019 to help plan and organize conference sessions. He has assisted intermittently as a manuscript reviewer for POQ beginning in 2007 and as an abstract reviewer for annual conferences. Peyton’s professional career began as a graduate assistant on the Star-Ledger/Eagleton Poll at Rutgers University. After graduate school Peyton worked at the Pew Research Center, ABC News, Greenberg Quinlin Rosner, The Washington Post, and currently at the U.S. State Department in the Office of Opinion Research.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Peyton has had a varied career in survey research, working primarily on domestic social and political polling at The Pew Research Center, ABC News, GQR and The Washington Post from 2001 to 2015. Peyton has since pivoted to international polling, managing research in Europe and Eurasia for the U.S. State Department’s Office of Opinion Research. In each of these positions, Peyton has had to manage resources carefully to prioritize the highest quality research.  Peyton would like to bring that care and stewardship to AAPOR’s Executive Council as Secretary-Treasurer. Through an evolving career, AAPOR has been the constant professional presence for Peyton.  AAPOR’s financial health has been the linchpin to the Organization’s success, predicated on meeting the needs of the modern research community yet maintaining a grounding to the history of our discipline. Peyton would welcome the opportunity to serve AAPOR in a new way and help maintain that financial success. Peyton would like to find ways for AAPOR to expand access and resources for new researchers, as well as uphold transparency and setting appropriate standards for the research industry.

Ricki Jarmon is a Vice President in Abt Associates Digital and Data Services Division (DDS). In this role, he oversees the data capture and survey (DCS) group as well as the day-to-day operations of all modes of data collection including, phone, web, mail, and in-person data collection projects.  His primary focus has been designing and implementing methods to reach underserved and hard-to-find populations. Ricki brings more than 30 years of experience and expertise in survey methodology and implementation. He has co-authored more than 25 papers/presentations on data collection methods, including use of smartphones for daily diary collection and methods used to track hard to reach respondents in underserved communities.  He has served on numerous AAPOR positions, including as a member of the JSSAM Advisory Committee, the Sirken Award Liaison, the Chair of the Inclusive Voices Award, and Chair of the Innovators Award. He is now serving his third year of a three-year term as AAPOR’s Councilor at Large.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Mr. Jarmon started his volunteer work more than 30 years ago where in the 1980s he served on United Way of Philadelphia’s central allocations committee. This committee was responsible for allocation of funds to various non-profit organizations across Philadelphia.  At the time he was the youngest person to serve on this committee. He continued his volunteer work in the 1990s as one of the founders of the Pioneer Valley Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual (PVGLB) youth project located in Northampton, MA. This volunteer organization served as a resource for GLBT+ youth and families.  In addition, during this time Mr. Jarmon served on the board of Northampton Pride for which he sat on the finance committee. Currently Mr. Jarmon is serving in his final year as one of AAPOR’s three Councilors at Large. During his time as councilor at large he has had the opportunity to review and provide input on the finances of AAPOR. This experience would provide him the opportunity to quickly get up to speed in the role of Associate Treasurer.  Also, in his current role as Vice President of Abt Associates’ Data Capture Group, a significant part of his responsibilities is the oversight of pricing for external clients and along with oversight for internal administration budgets.

If elected to Associate Secretary Treasurer, Mr. Jarmon plans to bring his background in financial governance to this role. He would work with the Executive Council to identify potential cost savings along with identifying additional income streams, e.g., fundraising events around specific AAPOR initiatives. In addition, he would bring his twenty-plus years in personal investment strategies to this role.

Ricki’s background with finance and investment along with his current experience with AAPOR’s finances makes him well suited to be AAPOR’s next Associate Treasurer. He thanks the membership for their consideration.

René Bautista is Associate Director of the Statistics and Methodology department at NORC at the University of Chicago, where he is co-Principal Investigator and Director of the General Social Survey (GSS). During his tenure at NORC, he has contributed to the design and execution of major government- and privately funded projects, covering qualitative and quantitative aspects. With a Ph.D. in Survey Research and Methodology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he regularly teaches at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.

René has served AAPOR in key leadership roles, including as Standards Committee Chair (2018-20) and Associate Editor of Public Opinion Quarterly (2016-20). He currently is a board member of the European Survey Research Association and an active member of sister organizations including the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research, the World Association for Public Opinion Research, and the American Statistical Association.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

René Bautista’s professional experience at NORC has provided him with an excellent understanding of critical topics in the survey industry. Whether it is the continually evolving methods of data collection, a growing distrust of surveys, or issues in communicating and interpreting findings, his work has supported clients, the public, the media, and academics alike.

Bautista’s service to AAPOR has afforded him similar opportunities to engage with a range of stakeholders. For example, as associate editor of Public Opinion Quarterly, he worked with authors, peer reviewers, and editors-in-chief throughout the publication process to ensure a fair and diverse representation of scholarly public opinion research. During his term as Standards Committee Chair, he worked to ensure not only the AAPOR community and the public provided input on professional standards, but also that these concerns were addressed and AAPOR principles were upheld. As Standards Chair, Bautista supported AAPOR’s Executive Council to review and update (1) the Code of Professional Ethics and Practices and (2) the Conduct Policy.

The opportunity to serve AAPOR in the past has given Bautista a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities the association faces, both now and in the future (for instance, discussions of nonresponse, sample representativeness, future of the polling industry, the role of social media in opinion research, administrative data, and adaptation of data collection protocols in response to societal changes). Bautista is prepared to support AAPOR as Councilor-at-Large, representing Council on established task forces, committees, and special projects. He is particularly interested in finding ways to support early-career practitioners and to keep bringing together different perspectives in public opinion research, especially as the field continues to evolve on so many fronts.

Michael Dimock has worked at the Pew Research Center for 23 years, serving as President since 2014. In this role, he is responsible for strategy, operations, finance and long-range planning for the roughly $48M, 165-person organization. Dimock served as Vice President of Research coordinating research investments and content strategy, and Director of the Center’s political survey unit following Andy Kohut’s retirement.  Dimock’s tenure as president has focused on expanding the Center’s international survey portfolio, founding the “Data Labs” data science initiative, launching the Center’s DEI Initiative, building the American Trends Panel, generating high-quality and high-impact studies of underrepresented populations in the US, and expanding digital and communications capacities to amplify the Center’s impact on the civic dialogue. Prior to joining Pew, Dimock was Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University, earned his PhD in Political Science at UC San Diego in 1996 and BA in Political Science from the University of Houston in 1990. He lives with his spouse and son in Northern Virginia, and has been a member of AAPOR and DC-AAPOR since 2000.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

With a background in academic research, applied research, communication and nonprofit leadership, Dimock brings a range of capacities to the Councilor At Large position. In particular, Dimock’s career has focused on the challenges of communicating nuanced information clearly to general audiences and earning the trust of consumers in an era where skepticism of “experts” is an understandable default for many. Public opinion is the hardest science; translating peoples’ inner states into capturable data is the hardest measurement task, and survey consumers have strong, though often incomplete, instincts about how to interpret that data. AAPOR plays a key role in both advancing the science of measurement and advancing the credibility, accessibility and influence of our work in civil society. It also plays a role in developing and diversifying the next generation of talent and building bridges with related fields and stakeholder groups. If elected to an at large council seat, Dimock would actively collaborate with leadership and the chairs of communications, education, standards, inclusion & equity and membership to support the entire range of AAPOR’s strategic goals and mission.

Bob Torongo is a Senior Vice President at Ipsos Public Affairs and leads the Ipsos Policy Research teams and Strategic Growth teams. He is based in Washington, DC. Primarily, Bob works with federal agencies, policy organizations, and universities on designing and implementing statistical research. Bob has designed and conducted surveys across a diverse array of topic areas. Bringing depth of experience in survey research, his expertise includes sample design, estimation, survey methods, and survey operations; and, he has published numerous papers and articles on statistical methods and survey research techniques. Bob has served on the AAPOR Sponsorship subcommittee, Abstract Review committee, and Virtual Conference committee. Bob is also a member of the Insights Association and serves on the Insights Association Government Affairs Committee. Bob is a two-time David Ogilvy Award winner, and a member of the Faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Public Policy.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Bob is excited to be considered for the position of Associate Communications Chair. In order to achieve success in this role, he plans to draw upon extensive experience in developing and executing effective communication strategies, as well as a deep understanding of the public opinion research field. Bob plans to work closely with the AAPOR Executive Committee, members, and other stakeholders to develop and propose a comprehensive communications plan that leverages the latest technologies and strategies to reach the AAPOR’s target audience.

The following are some of the key initiatives Bob plans to propose as the Associate Communications Chair for AAPOR:

Developing a strong digital presence for AAPOR: Bob plans to work to improve AAPOR’s website, social media presence, and other digital assets to increase the organization’s reach and engagement. This will include creating and curating high-quality content that showcases AAPOR’s research, findings, and other activities.

Enhancing the AAPOR’s messaging and branding: Bob plans to work with the Executive Committee to develop a clear and consistent messaging strategy that effectively communicates AAPOR’s agenda to members, stakeholders, and ally organizations. He also plans to work to ensure that the AAPOR’s brand is strong and recognizable.

Building partnerships and alliances: Bob plans to seek out partnerships and alliances with organizations and individuals that share the AAPOR’s goals and mission. This will help to increase AAPOR’s reach and impact.

Increasing member engagement: Bob plans to work to increase member engagement and participation in AAPOR activities. This will include developing new member initiatives and leveraging existing ones to increase member engagement and participation.

Chuck Shuttles is the Chief Panel Officer at HyphaMetrics (a media measurement startup) and has held positions at Nielsen, Abt SRBI, GfK, Symphony Advanced Media, and Comscore. He brings 20+ years of experience in behavioral measurement strategies, panel operations, and research methodology. Shuttles began volunteering for AAPOR since helping organize the Cell Phone Surveying Task Force in 2007. Since then, he led the launch AAPOR’s Online Education Subcommittee (2008), chaired the Education Committee (2011-2013), Professional Development Education (2011), and has served on several other committees (Bylaws Review, Conference Steering, Book Award, Nominations, and Transparency Initiative Steering). Most recently, he co-created and taught “Budgeting 101: ‘Hands On’ Budget Development for Public Opinion Research Projects” for short courses at AAPOR, MAPOR, DC-AAPOR (forthcoming), and as a webinar (forthcoming).  He is also active with DC-AAPOR (e.g., At-Large Council Member, 2017-2020).

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Chuck has a long personal and professional history of seeking out new opportunities and learning to optimize resources during times of change. AAPOR is in its “sophomore year” of a major change to self-management. Chuck writes, “I’ve learned to embrace change since moving from where I grew up in rural New Mexico to make new opportunities in South Carolina, Florida, and (now) Maryland and doing the same professionally in six different companies. I’ve learned that after major changes it’s important to take stock in what is and is not working as well as hoped.”

If elected Communications Chair, he would work with the AAPOR staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the overall internal/external communications strategy, identify which initiatives need additional resources, and continued push to streamline member communications to be as effective as possible.  Additionally, given the upcoming election cycle, Shuttles would focus on AAPOR’s continued prominence as a resource to the public and journalists in understanding election research (e.g., development of journalist resources via the Journalist Education Subcommittee, providing points of contact for media to experts within our membership, publicizing AAPOR statements, etc.).  Finally, based on his many years of working on the Education Committee, Chuck knows the value of finding the right balance of the Communications Committee’s volunteer workload by effectively working with AAPOR’s Communications and Marketing Director.

Dr. Gina Walejko is a senior researcher at Google. Before this, she was a survey methodologist at the Census Bureau for seven years. She has taught survey methodology courses for the University of Maryland and the International Program in Survey and Data Science. Her research has appeared in publications including Science and Public Opinion Quarterly. Gina has served AAPOR and the Washington-Baltimore Chapter of AAPOR (DC-AAPOR) since 2012. She currently co-chairs the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology Advisory Committee, and has chaired the Membership and Chapter Relations Committee’s Awards Subcommittee. She was elected DC-AAPOR Program Chair (2013) and President (2016).

Gina is also an active member of the American Statistical Association. She was elected Government Statistics Section Program Chair (2017), Survey Research Methods Section Secretary (2021), and has served as a Committee on Women in Statistics officer since 2020.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Dr. Gina Walejko has organized several conferences while serving in elected positions. In 2013 while DC-AAPOR Program Chair, she organized both the DC-AAPOR & Washington Statistical Society Summer Conference and the Public Opinion Quarterly Special Issue Conference. In 2016, she assisted with the biannual DC-AAPOR and Roper Center Election Post-Mortem while DC-AAPOR President. In 2017, she organized the ASA Government Statistics Section (GSS) program of events while GSS Program Chair. She currently serves as ASA Committee of Women in Statistics Vice-Chair. Through this position, she has been appointed to the conference committee for the Conference on Women in Statistics and Data Science (WSDS).

Gina also has organized workshops and conferences at her day jobs. At the Census Bureau, she co-organized two “Summer at Census” multi-day workshops designed to educate staff on advanced statistical techniques. At Google, Gina coordinated five virtual trainings aimed at increasing internal researchers’ knowledge of survey methods and statistics topics. She is currently co-organizing a 3-day virtual conference focused on survey statistics and methodology for all Google researchers.

Gina would be honored to serve as AAPOR Conference Chair for the 80th Annual Conference in 2025. Post-presidential election year conferences bring exciting conference programming opportunities. Gina would aim for cohesive panels and a plenary session that stimulates the wide range of conference attendees. In addition to organizing invigorating programming, Gina would focus on creating a conference environment where new and seasoned attendees can meet, network, brainstorm, work together, and enjoy each other’s company.

If selected for the position, Gina would welcome AAPOR members’ feedback on previous conference experiences. She considers it critical to build a conference for diverse attendees with different academic traditions, career stages, backgrounds, and life experiences.

Kyley McGeeney is a Research Scientist at Meta on the Demography and Survey Science team. In this role she conducts quantitative and qualitative research to inform Meta strategy. She was previously the Vice President of Survey Methods at PSB where she led research for the 2020 Census Integrated Communications Campaign. Prior to joining PSB, McGeeney worked over a decade as a methodologist at Pew Research Center and Gallup. Her past work includes the AAPOR 2016 Election Polling report and publications studying sampling frames and data collection protocol.

McGeeney earned her Master of Professional Studies degree in Applied Statistics at Cornell University. She serves as Secretary/Treasurer for the Board of Directors of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and has previously served on the AAPOR Executive Council as Education Chair, on the DC-AAPOR Executive Council as the 2020 Program Chair, and as the Chair of the Online Education Subcommittee of the AAPOR Education Committee.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Kyley has attended the AAPOR Annual Conference since 2011 and served the AAPOR community in numerous ways over that period. She served on the AAPOR Executive Council as Education Committee Chair and Associate Chair, where she organized AAPOR’s webinars, short courses, and SurveyFest. She was Chair of the AAPOR Online Education Subcommittee and the DC-AAPOR Program Chair, organizing short courses and workshops. She is the Secretary/Treasurer on the Board of Directors of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and was Chair of the Roper Center’s Mitofsky Award Dinner for two years. Apart from professional organizations, she served on the Board of Directors of the Lilabean Association for Pediatric Brain Cancer, where she chaired and helped plan their annual Fall Ball.

Her plans for the conference are twofold: continue to focus on the future of the industry and foster the community-building aspects of the event. This means continuing programming on newer data collection methods, as well as advanced techniques for analyzing these data. Since the industry is changing rapidly there is a need to be as proactive as possible in this pursuit.

The conference is as much about bringing people together as it is about learning new things. For many, AAPOR is the only time they can connect with other people in our industry. This builds on the theme of the 2023 Annual Conference, Working Together, but goes beyond professional collaboration to the social connections that make our industry so strong. There should be more small group events, such as round table discussions of research topics and social opportunities such as offsite activities. McGeeney will also explore alternative dining formats to large banquet style meals, such as box lunches and randomized small groups (similar to the “random digit dining” of the past).

Florian Keusch is Professor of Social Data Science and Methodology at the University of Mannheim, Germany, and Adjunct Research Professor in the University of Maryland’s Joint Program in Survey Methodology. With an MSc in Business and a PhD in Social and Economic Sciences from WU Vienna University of Economics, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow in the Michigan Program in Survey Methodology. Florian studies how to best combine traditional survey methods with novel forms of data collection (e.g., passive measurement from smartphone and wearable sensors).

Florian has been an AAPOR member since 2010 when he attended his first AAPOR conference in Chicago, and he has presented at all annual conferences since then. He has reviewed abstracts, moderated sessions, and was a member of the student poster award jury twice. Since 2016, he has served on the AAPOR Online Education Subcommittee and has served as the chair since 2021. Since 2020, he is an Associate Editor of POQ.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Florian has more than 15 years of experience as an educator and educational administrator making him an ideal candidate for Associate Education Chair. He has taught courses in survey methodology and data science in undergraduate and graduate programs at universities in the U.S., Germany, and Austria. In addition, he regularly teaches courses for working professionals in continuing education programs, including the International Program in Survey and Data Science (IPSDS), the University of Michigan Summer Institute in Survey Research Techniques, the Harvard Medical School Global Clinical Scholars Research Training Program, the GESIS Summer School, and for the World Bank. For AAPOR, he has presented webinars and given in-person short courses at the annual conference. His experience as an instructor provides him with an excellent perspective on the current needs of students and working professionals from very diverse backgrounds and prepares him well in developing AAPOR’s educational offerings in a rapidly changing environment.

Florian has been part of the Online Education Subcommittee for the past six years and has led the Subcommittee since 2021. Where webinars were primarily a revenue source, they now are a more inclusive program that balances the need for continuing education on traditional survey methodology topics (e.g., sampling, questionnaire design) with bringing in new voices and ideas from speakers underrepresented in our field. With the decision to make all webinars free for AAPOR members in 2023, the program is now a genuine membership benefit. This change will hopefully provide an additional boost to membership numbers as it provides another incentive to become an AAPOR member. Florian is committed to further expanding the reach of AAPOR’s educational program and strengthening the collaboration between the different subcommittees, thereby making AAPOR the place for all people in the survey and polling community to meet and learn from each other year-round.

Eran Ben-Porath (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Executive Vice President and Chief Research Officer at SSRS, where he oversees dozens of survey projects annually on behalf of clients in academia, nonprofit organizations, and news media. His responsibilities range from overseeing the methodological aspects of research, such as sample design and questionnaire development, to keeping projects on schedule and on budget. He specializes in managing complex mixed-mode and mixed-sample projects, involving hard-to-reach or underrepresented populations. He has coauthored numerous publications, with a focus on research methodology.

Eran also regularly teaches at Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, and is part of CBS News’ Exit Poll and Decision Desk Units.

Eran chaired AAPOR’s Short Course Committee from 2009 to 2014. He has served as a member of the Standards Committee, the Transparency Initiative Subcommittee, and Survey Practice’s editorial board.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Understanding how to produce reliable and useful data is an ever-changing never-ending challenge that Eran faces daily in his work at SSRS. As Education Chair, he would combine the daily experience of leading large-scale research projects with his longstanding involvement with AAPOR. His six years on the Education Committee afforded him a front-row view into its workings and importance. As Short Course Committee Chair, he expanded offerings each year to encompass multiple facets of survey research at varying levels of proficiency. Through his years in Standards and the Transparency Initiative Subcommittee, he grew to appreciate the complexity of the current survey research environment and the urgent need to train colleagues on the practical and ethical implications of what we do.

AAPOR’s education platforms provide a solid foundation to train researchers to respond to current challenges and new opportunities in the field. Eran would focus on two key areas:

• Improving representativeness and representation in survey research: As public opinion researchers, we are tasked with ensuring our work accurately reflects the public in question. To do so, we need the tools necessary to reach all groups, including those typically underrepresented in surveys, and strengthen the infrastructure by which their voices are heard. With the input of the Inclusion and Equity Committee, our webinars and courses can be geared toward helping researchers achieve this goal.
• Breaking methodological barriers: Survey research is growing in complexity, as new methods are introduced and mixed-methods approaches become the norm. It is essential that researchers are versed in multiple methodologies, understanding their benefits and limitations. The education committee can use its platforms, along with AAPOR’s publications, to keep promoting methodological cross-pollination from within and outside of the discipline.

Eva Aizpurua, PhD, is an experienced survey methodologist with a broad range of experience across academia, the private sector, and non-profit organizations. As a Senior Survey Methodologist at NatCen, she focuses on developing optimal designs for social surveys undergoing redesign. Previously, Eva worked as a Research Scientist on the Demography & Survey Science team at Meta. She has also held Research Fellow positions at the European Social Survey Headquarters and Trinity College Dublin, and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa. Since 2020, Eva has served as an Associate Editor for Survey Practice, AAPOR’s e-journal.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Eva is honored to run for Associate Inclusion and Equity Committee Chair. Her journey with AAPOR began in 2016 when she received a Student Travel Award to attend the annual conference in Austin. Since then, she has had the opportunity to engage with the organization on multiple levels and to work closely with other AAPOR colleagues.

Eva has served on the Seymour Sudman Student Paper Award Committee, the Book Award Committee, and most recently, the Inclusive Voices Award Committee. Being part of a committee that recognizes the importance of data that sheds light on understudied and underserved populations has been particularly rewarding.

Her experience as a member of the Membership and Chapter Relations Diversity Subcommittee from 2018 to 2021 provided her with a deeper understanding of the work that AAPOR is doing to promote and support equity. She is confident that her experience and commitment to promoting inclusion make her a valuable candidate for the Associate Inclusion and Equity Committee Chair. She has been inspired by the people she has met at AAPOR and believes that a culture of inclusion not only strengthens the organization, but also allows AAPOR to better serve a diverse membership and public.

Her plans for this position include working closely with the Inclusion and Equity Subcommittees to support their efforts to create and promote an inclusive environment, diversify AAPOR’s membership, attract and retain talent from underrepresented groups, and build a more diverse pipeline of future public opinion researchers.

Sunghee Lee is Research Associate Professor and Acting Director of the Michigan Program in Survey and Data Science (MPSDS) at the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR). As a survey methodologist, her career has evolved around improving data quality through inclusivity. Quality of data can be assessed from two angles: representation and measurement. Lacking or inadequate representation and measurement properties of any given data impact inclusivity. As this has profound implications for equity in social programs and policy decisions, she has focused on  these two data quality angles using the Total Survey Error framework identifying and addressing error sources that affect inclusivity, including coverage, nonresponse, translation, question order and response style, often vis-à-vis cultural norms. This passion is fully reflected in her publication record, employment history and professional activities within and outside of AAPOR.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Beside the research focused on inclusivity with implications for equity, Sunghee has furthered her interest of educating next generation through her appointment at MPSDS and the Joint Program in Survey Methodology. She has been actively engaged in the campus-wide diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movement at the University of Michigan by taking a leadership role in various working groups. Most recently, she has served as a Faculty Ally for Diversity in Graduate Education on behalf of MPSDS and has been awarded the Faculty Allies Diversity Grant from Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School for the academic years 2020 through 2023, which has funded MPSDS community building activities as well as research and professional development seminars around the topics of DEI. Importantly, she leads ISR Summer Institute Diversity Fellowship Program designed to increase awareness about and interest in survey and data science as a career path for diverse undergraduate students. With AAPOR, she has chaired Faculty-Student Diversity Pipeline Award, served on and been an active member of the Asian American Pacific Islander Research & Affinity Group, Cross-cultural and multilingual research affinity group and HISP-AAPOR. Besides AAPOR, I have been an active member of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the Korean International Statistical Society within ASA. These experiences in research, education and professional societies have provided broad perspectives critical to be successful for the position of Associate Inclusion and Equity Committee Chair.

In the role of Associate Inclusion and Equity Committee Chair, she plans to emphasize the diversity of the AAPOR pipeline through building a partnership with undergraduate institutions and highlight the inclusive spirit of the AAPOR community by creating relevant opportunities for its members.

Bianca DiJulio is the Senior Manager of the Survey Research Program at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, overseeing survey data collection activities for Institute scientists, collaborators, and outside clients. She was formerly Associate Director for the Public Opinion and Survey Research Program at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) where she managed survey projects related to health care as well as polls with media partners, including the Washington Post and CNN. In service to AAPOR, Bianca has served on the MCR Database Subcommittee, Ad Hoc Committee on Governance of AAPOR’s Journals, Public Service Award Committee, and Nominations Committee. She also served AAPOR’s Pacific Chapter (PAPOR) as Membership Chair, Treasurer, and President. She currently serves on the International Field Directors & Technologies Conference organizing committee. She holds a Masters of Health Science in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Bianca’s professional experience and service to AAPOR and PAPOR have prepared her well for the role of Associate Membership & Chapter Relations Chair. Her work directing projects and collaborating with field houses and media partners at KFF provided significant exposure to the types of organizations within AAPOR and how AAPOR can bring together members from different professions. In Bianca’s current role leading a team and overseeing primarily federally funded data collection and recruitment activities, she is acutely aware of how important AAPOR is for those in organizations with fewer AAPOR-affiliated colleagues and how AAPOR fosters connections and provides methodological resources and an intellectual home. As PAPOR president, Bianca helped organize an off-site event at the AAPOR conference in Denver that celebrated the conference being in PAPOR’s region. Attracting 400+ attendees, this sparked a tradition of events celebrating other regional chapters, reinforcing the value of AAPOR’s chapters and the role they play in connecting members far and wide. In addition, her work on various AAPOR committees provides Bianca with visibility into Council operations.

Emerging from the depths of the pandemic, AAPOR has opportunities to restore membership levels and attract new members who can benefit from AAPOR’s offerings and make connections with colleagues. Bianca would work to foster geographical and organizational diversity, in addition to demographic diversity, to ensure that AAPOR serves members across its geographical reach and across the spectrum of organizations that have individuals engaged in survey work, including organizations and teams of various sizes. There are opportunities to further connect individuals across a variety of settings and help them find value in AAPOR and its chapters. At its core, AAPOR exists because of and in service to its members and Bianca can contribute greatly to supporting current and future members and the local chapters.

Ms. Lin-Freeman earned a BA in Economics from Washington and Lee University, and an MA in Applied Sociology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Over the last 20 years, she gained wide-ranging expertise in qualitative and quantitative research methods and project implementation. She is an independent consultant and founder of Trebuchet Research, a small business based in Austin, TX.

Since joining AAPOR in 2007, she has enjoyed attending the annual conference and volunteering in several committees, including the abstract review and award selection committees. She is an active member of Southern AAPOR (SAPOR) chapter and participates in several AAPOR affinity groups, including the Cross-Cultural and Multilingual Research Affinity Group, HISP-AAPOR, and Qualpor. In 2020, she helped establish the Asian-American or Pacific Islander (AAPI) Research and Affinity Group. She chaired the Sponsorship Committee (2020-22), raising in 2022 a record $232,000 in sponsorship and exhibits.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

As an active AAPOR member for over 15 years, Ms. Lin-Freeman has attended the annual conference, volunteered on several committees, and joined multiple affinity groups. She has been a member of two local chapters of AAPOR (DC-AAPOR and SAPOR). She believes in AAPOR’s mission and admires the supportive community that AAPOR creates. She’s excited to help amplify the reach of the organization and for the opportunity to cultivate relationships by serving in the membership and chapter relations (MCR) committee.

The experience chairing the Sponsorship Committee prepares her well for the Associate Membership & Chapter Relations Chair role. Specifically, the outreach and engagement strategies that worked in gaining sponsorships and exhibitors could be adapted to get and retain members. Another parallel is that the role involved ongoing communication with prospective sponsors and exhibitors, and supporting them in identifying the best selections to highlight their organization. Similarly, the experience gained engaging past sponsors could be relevant to developing strategies for retaining current members.

If elected, she would prioritize collaboration and communication between AAPOR and regional chapters to develop tailored strategies to amplify AAPOR’s reach. She would also encourage building relationships across local chapters and across other industry organizations, such as QRCA (Qualitative Research Consultants Association). She would propose ways to engage current members, their organizations, and their networks to attract new members.

She would also revisit the findings in the AAPOR Annual Report and work collaboratively to address the “Ongoing or Pending Issues/Goals” identified in the MCR Report section. She would focus on the drivers for membership retention, membership renewal, and reasons for lapsed membership. Finally, she would explore ways for connecting volunteers and committees with short-term, medium-term, and longer-term volunteering opportunities.

Andrew Mercer is a senior research methodologist at Pew Research Center where he develops methods for conducting rigorous, high-quality survey research in a world where nonresponse, big data and other nontraditional data sources are increasingly prevalent. His research focuses on data quality in probability-based and nonprobability online panels, mixed mode surveys, and the use of machine learning for survey inference. Andrew has over 20 years’ experience as a survey researcher. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a senior survey methodologist at Westat, and earlier managed a team of survey/CATI programmers at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. He has an M.S. and a PhD. in survey methodology from the University of Maryland.

Andrew has been an AAPOR member since 2012 and served on the AAPOR Standards Committee from 2018 to 2021. He also served on the recent AAPOR task force on Online Panels as well as the 2016 AAPOR task force on Evaluating Data Quality in Today’s Complex Environment.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Andrew is a leading expert in the field of public opinion research with deep knowledge of the kinds of online survey methods that are increasingly prevalent in election polling, the performance of which, for better or worse, heavily influences public perception and trust in the survey research more broadly. This kind of knowledge will be critically important for the next associate standards chair whose subsequent term as chair will encompass the 2024 U.S. presidential election. As standards chair, Andrew will use his expertise to help AAPOR rebuild public trust in surveys after the high-profile polling errors of 2016 and 2020.

At the same time, the committee’s responsibilities go far beyond election polls. In his two decades as a survey researcher, Andrew has developed broad experience across many different subfields ranging from public issue polling to large-scale federal surveys to academic research. As a methodologist, he has worked on the theoretical and statistical principles that underpin survey research. Having begun his career as a survey programmer, he also has a longstanding and deep appreciation for the nuts-and-bolts practicalities of day-to-day survey operations. This diversity of experience has made Andrew someone who is deeply principled but not dogmatic. It is this perspective that will inform his leadership on the standards committee and its work to ensure that AAPOR maintains its high standards for rigor and transparency amid the rapidly changing landscape of today’s survey field.

Ned English is a Principal Research Methodologist at NORC, where he has contributed to numerous studies, managed research projects, and led its Geographic Information Systems (GIS) group since 2002. English is considered a leader in address-based sampling (ABS) for single and multi-mode surveys, advising on studies across disciplines. He has also served as the lead methodologist on projects for clients such as the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Institute on Aging.

His work has been published in leading journals as well as book chapters and conference proceedings. English also teaches “GIS Applications in the Social Sciences” at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Prior to NORC, he worked as a GIS consultant implementing geospatial solutions for clients in the public and private sectors. He earned his M.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his B.S. in Geography from McGill University.

Please describe (1) how your background and experience prepare you for this position, and (2) your plans for your role in this position.

Ned is proud to have been actively involved in AAPOR for nearly 20 years, presenting regularly, serving on committees, and teaching short courses since attending his first conference in Phoenix in 2004. He has served on AAPOR’s Conference Committee and its Address-Based Sampling Task Force. He has chaired the Chapter Liaison Subcommittee of the Membership and Chapter Relations (MCR) Committee and acted as Communications-MCR Liaison. He also has served his local chapter, the Midwest Association for Public Opinion Research (MAPOR), as President, Conference Chair, and Secretary-Treasurer.

Notably, Ned has been a Standards Committee member for a total of eight years across multiple terms and has led the Standard Definitions Subcommittee since 2018. During this period the subcommittee has been hard at work updating AAPOR’s guidance for response rate calculations to better handle multi-mode designs and multiple frames. AAPOR members can expect several enhancements in the coming months related to the new Standard Definitions, including an updated response rate calculator and improved documentation. Standard Definitions is planning a webinar, content at the 2023 conference, as well as a series of videos to explain the new resources and AAPOR rates in general to researchers of all experience levels.

If elected to AAPOR Council, Ned plans to bring the same dissemination tools being implemented on Standard Definitions to the overall Standards Committee mission to enhance engagement across the membership. He would also focus on bringing new voices, including students, early career researchers, and members of underrepresented groups to the Standards Committee.

Ned says, “AAPOR has been my professional home for 20 years, with the relationships I have developed there a career highlight. It is an honor to be nominated for Associate Standards Chair, and I hope to be able to bring my experience and dedication to the role should I be fortunate enough to be elected.”