AP-NORC Center Experts

Cathy leads research teams focused on efficiently producing high quality economic data. Cathy has 45 years of experience managing all aspects of survey research for data collection projects including sample selection, listing, screening, questionnaire development, focus groups, cognitive interviewing, pilot testing, systems development and testing, remote and in-person training, data collection, records abstraction, reporting, data preparation, data delivery, and documentation.

She has developed training and mentoring programs that have resulted in improved data quality, designed strategies that maintain or increase response rates, and implemented quality improvement programs that have increased the quality and efficiency of NORC’s data collection processes.

Cathy was a special issue guest editor of Housing Policy Debate, published in 2010. She has also co-authored scholarly papers addressing survey methodology and poverty-related issues; these papers have been presented at the following conferences: American Association for Public Opinion Research, the Urban Affairs Association, Population Association of America, National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics, and the Society for Lifelong and Longitudinal Studies.

Since 2001 Cathy has managed the triennial Survey of Consumer Finances, which collects data about household finances from a dual frame sample; these uniquely comprehensive high-quality data are considered the gold standard in wealth measurement. She also managed the design and decade long data collection of the Resident Relocation project, focused on collecting data from residents in poor urban settings.

Cathy was a member of the NORC IRB between 2000 and 2021. She initiated and since 2015 has overseen the committee examining field data collection challenges and opportunities. Cathy has been the co-chair of NORC’s Working Paper Series since it was first established in 2014. She helped to develop NORC’s proprietary tool ProofPoint, a dashboard designed to examine data anomalies and measure data quality.

Prior to joining NORC in 1987, Cathy worked as director of Telephone Operations at the Rand Corporation and director of the Telephone Center at UCLA’s Institute for Social Science Research.

Dan is a senior fellow in NORC’s Economics, Justice & Society department and a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. He served previously as the project director of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) program and principal investigator for the 1998 Cohort of the NLSY at NORC. His research focuses on labor economics, economics demography, urban economics, and applied econometrics. He is a fellow of the Society of Labor Economists.

Dan’s papers have appeared in the top journals in economics, statistics, and demography. He has served on panels for the Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Science, and has served as a consultant for the New Zealand and Australian governments. Before joining the Harris School, he was on faculty at the University of Kentucky and Syracuse University. He held visiting appointments at the University of Chicago, Australian National University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Dan’s research has received funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Small Business Administration, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Census Bureau, the Milgrom Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and several private companies.