AAPOR Announces Recipient of 2026 Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement
05/15/2026
The AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement is the association’s lifetime achievement award and is given for an outstanding contribution to the field of public opinion research, including advances in theory, empirical research, and methods; improvements in ethical standards; and promotion of understanding among the public, media and/or policymakers.
We are pleased to announce the winner of this year’s AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement: Mollyann Brodie.
Mollyann Brodie is a scholar, a mentor, and a defining presence in public opinion research over the past three decades.
As Executive Director of Public Opinion and Survey Research at KFF, she has built a body of work that has become the nation’s definitive source for public opinion on health—earning the confidence of policymakers, journalists, and the public alike.
The world would simply know less about what Americans think, want, and experience in the healthcare system without her contributions.
Dr. Brodie’s work spans some of the most consequential health policy moments of recent decades. Under her direction, the KFF Health Tracking Poll documented the arc of the public’s opinions and experiences of the Affordable Care Act, providing an irreplaceable record of how sweeping legislation lands with ordinary Americans.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor became a critical resource for understanding the public’s views, access, uptake, and concerns about emerging vaccines. In each case, her vision produced research that went beyond poll numbers to tell the broader story of how Americans experienced major changes in health and health care.
Dr. Brodie’s career has been marked by a commitment to inclusion, both in her research and in her AAPOR service.
Under her leadership, KFF developed methodologically innovative surveys reaching immigrants, transgender adults, Hurricane Katrina evacuees, rural communities, and working-class Americans—populations whose voices too rarely appear in nationally representative data.
As AAPOR President in 2015–2016, she issued a call for greater diversity in the organization’s ranks and then did the hard work of following through, creating structures and pipelines that have since been institutionalized in AAPOR’s bylaws and infused in its culture.
Colleagues across the field attest to her generosity as a mentor: she has opened doors, made introductions, and invested in careers—particularly of women and people of color—with a consistency that has quietly shaped the composition of the profession.
AAPOR would not be the organization it is today without Molly’s contributions, and we are proud to honor her with the AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement.