AP-NORC Center Experts

Filter By:

Amelia Burke-Garcia

Director of the Center for Health Communication Science
Public Health
Phone: (301) 634-5437

Amelia is a seasoned health communications professional with 20 years of experience in health communication program planning, implementation, and evaluation. At NORC, she leads the organization’s Center for Health Communication Science and Digital Strategy and Outreach Program Area. In these roles, she designs and implements strategies that leverage the science of communication to influence behavior.

Over the course of her career, Burke-Garcia has spearheaded innovative communication programs and studies on a variety of health topics. Since 2020, she has overseen the award-winning How Right Now/Que Hacer Ahora campaign, which aims to increase people’s ability to cope and be resilient. Other prior work has included acting as director for CDC’s National Influenza Vaccination Campaign. She also has worked with MeetUp groups and the Waze mobile application to move people to action around flu vaccination and HIV testing, respectively. Finally, she has been examining the role of influencers in health communication and research for more than a decade and is now leading Health Communication AI, a portfolio of work that is examining how AI can be used as a tool to reimagine how we communicate health information and support people’s health and wellbeing.

She is the author of two books, Influencing Health: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Social Media Influencers, and Communicating through a Pandemic: A Chronicle of Experiences, Lessons Learned, and a Vision for the Future.

She has been highlighted by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy for her work in honor of Women’s History Month and has been named to VeryWellHealth.com’s list of 10 Modern Female Innovators Shaking Up Health Care.

She is a founding member of the Society for Health Communication and sits on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit Vaccinate Your Family.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and Humanistic Studies from McGill University, a master’s degree in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University, and a PhD in Communication from George Mason University.

Amelia Burke-Garcia

Director of the Center for Health Communication Science
Public Health
(301) 634-5437

Amelia is a seasoned health communications professional with 20 years of experience in health communication program planning, implementation, and evaluation. At NORC, she leads the organization’s Center for Health Communication Science and Digital Strategy and Outreach Program Area. In these roles, she designs and implements strategies that leverage the science of communication to influence behavior.

Over the course of her career, Burke-Garcia has spearheaded innovative communication programs and studies on a variety of health topics. Since 2020, she has overseen the award-winning How Right Now/Que Hacer Ahora campaign, which aims to increase people’s ability to cope and be resilient. Other prior work has included acting as director for CDC’s National Influenza Vaccination Campaign. She also has worked with MeetUp groups and the Waze mobile application to move people to action around flu vaccination and HIV testing, respectively. Finally, she has been examining the role of influencers in health communication and research for more than a decade and is now leading Health Communication AI, a portfolio of work that is examining how AI can be used as a tool to reimagine how we communicate health information and support people’s health and wellbeing.

She is the author of two books, Influencing Health: A Comprehensive Guide to Working with Social Media Influencers, and Communicating through a Pandemic: A Chronicle of Experiences, Lessons Learned, and a Vision for the Future.

She has been highlighted by U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy for her work in honor of Women’s History Month and has been named to VeryWellHealth.com’s list of 10 Modern Female Innovators Shaking Up Health Care.

She is a founding member of the Society for Health Communication and sits on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit Vaccinate Your Family.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies and Humanistic Studies from McGill University, a master’s degree in Communication, Culture, and Technology from Georgetown University, and a PhD in Communication from George Mason University.

John Roman

Director of Center on Public Safety & Justice
Economics, Justice, and Society
Phone: 202-695-0518

John is a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice & Society department at NORC at the University of Chicago where he also directs the Center on Public Safety and Justice. His research focuses on the economics of innovative crime and justice policies and programs, cost-benefit methodology, public private partnerships and systems reforms, including justice system interactions with substance abuse, public health, adolescent development, housing, workforce development, and education. Dr. Roman has conducted research on behalf of numerous federal agencies, including the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, state and local governments, and private foundations. In that capacity, he served as the Visiting Science Director at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (2017 – 2018).

John has served as the principal investigator for more than three dozen projects funded by federal and local governments and national and local philanthropies. Over the last three years, he led a task force of leading subject matter experts convened to investigate the comprehensiveness of the US firearms data infrastructure, with particular attention to the overlap of public health and criminal justice data. He is currently the principal investigator for a study of the financial cost of criminal victimization, which will estimate the harms from victimization in nine domains that include outcomes from public health (mortality, morbidity, and trauma), criminal justice (recidivism and repeat victimization) and workforce (employment and disability).

Prior to joining NORC in 2016, John completed a study on behalf of the National Institute of Justice and the UK Home Office, which led to the publication of a book, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control. John served as the principal investigator for a large project funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to develop an architecture for pay-for-success contracts. He served as the principal investigator on the evaluations of drug courts in Brooklyn (NY), Anchorage (AK), and Birmingham (AL) and prisoner reentry programs in St. Louis (MO), Baltimore (MD), and Chattanooga (TN). Earlier in his career, he served as the research project manager for several large federally funded evaluations, including the National Institute of Justice funded Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE), the Serious, Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), the Washington, DC Superior Drug Intervention Program, and Break the Cycle.

John Roman

Director of Center on Public Safety & Justice
Economics, Justice, and Society
202-695-0518

John is a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice & Society department at NORC at the University of Chicago where he also directs the Center on Public Safety and Justice. His research focuses on the economics of innovative crime and justice policies and programs, cost-benefit methodology, public private partnerships and systems reforms, including justice system interactions with substance abuse, public health, adolescent development, housing, workforce development, and education. Dr. Roman has conducted research on behalf of numerous federal agencies, including the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, state and local governments, and private foundations. In that capacity, he served as the Visiting Science Director at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (2017 – 2018).

John has served as the principal investigator for more than three dozen projects funded by federal and local governments and national and local philanthropies. Over the last three years, he led a task force of leading subject matter experts convened to investigate the comprehensiveness of the US firearms data infrastructure, with particular attention to the overlap of public health and criminal justice data. He is currently the principal investigator for a study of the financial cost of criminal victimization, which will estimate the harms from victimization in nine domains that include outcomes from public health (mortality, morbidity, and trauma), criminal justice (recidivism and repeat victimization) and workforce (employment and disability).

Prior to joining NORC in 2016, John completed a study on behalf of the National Institute of Justice and the UK Home Office, which led to the publication of a book, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Crime Control. John served as the principal investigator for a large project funded by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to develop an architecture for pay-for-success contracts. He served as the principal investigator on the evaluations of drug courts in Brooklyn (NY), Anchorage (AK), and Birmingham (AL) and prisoner reentry programs in St. Louis (MO), Baltimore (MD), and Chattanooga (TN). Earlier in his career, he served as the research project manager for several large federally funded evaluations, including the National Institute of Justice funded Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE), the Serious, Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI), the Washington, DC Superior Drug Intervention Program, and Break the Cycle.

Trevor Tompson

Senior Fellow
NORC
Phone: (773) 256-6338

Trevor is a senior fellow in NORC’s Public Affairs & Media Research department. He has conducted hundreds of surveys on a wide range of topics, including politics and elections, racial attitudes, health care policy, technology, and sports and entertainment. He has conducted research in dozens of countries including the United States, the E.U., and countries such as Cuba, Russia, and Vietnam.

Trevor was one of the founders of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a partnership of AP and NORC that aims to combine the best of journalism and social science research to bring insights about important issues to policymakers and the public. He was also instrumental in creating the Media Insight Project, a partnership of AP, NORC, and the American Press Institute to better understand how people consume news. Trevor led the team at NORC that developed AP VoteCast, the next generation election survey data product developed as an alternative to the legacy U.S. media exit poll.

Prior to joining NORC, Trevor was global director of polling for AP, the world’s largest independent news agency, where he also served as polling editor and a senior analyst for political and elections coverage. He has also held positions with several other research companies and universities.

Trevor graduated with a degree in political science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and he received graduate level training in survey methodology, political science and political psychology at Northwestern University and The Ohio State University. Trevor’s work has been published in leading academic journals including Public Opinion Quarterly and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. His surveys have also been covered by media around the globe, including on every major national television newscast in the United States and on the front pages of hundreds of newspapers.

Trevor is a past member of the executive council of the World Association for Public Opinion Research and has held several other offices in professional organizations, including as a member of the professional standards committee of AAPOR.

Trevor Tompson

Senior Fellow
NORC
(773) 256-6338

Trevor is a senior fellow in NORC’s Public Affairs & Media Research department. He has conducted hundreds of surveys on a wide range of topics, including politics and elections, racial attitudes, health care policy, technology, and sports and entertainment. He has conducted research in dozens of countries including the United States, the E.U., and countries such as Cuba, Russia, and Vietnam.

Trevor was one of the founders of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, a partnership of AP and NORC that aims to combine the best of journalism and social science research to bring insights about important issues to policymakers and the public. He was also instrumental in creating the Media Insight Project, a partnership of AP, NORC, and the American Press Institute to better understand how people consume news. Trevor led the team at NORC that developed AP VoteCast, the next generation election survey data product developed as an alternative to the legacy U.S. media exit poll.

Prior to joining NORC, Trevor was global director of polling for AP, the world’s largest independent news agency, where he also served as polling editor and a senior analyst for political and elections coverage. He has also held positions with several other research companies and universities.

Trevor graduated with a degree in political science from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and he received graduate level training in survey methodology, political science and political psychology at Northwestern University and The Ohio State University. Trevor’s work has been published in leading academic journals including Public Opinion Quarterly and the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. His surveys have also been covered by media around the globe, including on every major national television newscast in the United States and on the front pages of hundreds of newspapers.

Trevor is a past member of the executive council of the World Association for Public Opinion Research and has held several other offices in professional organizations, including as a member of the professional standards committee of AAPOR.

Jennifer Benz

Director
AP-NORC
Phone: (978) 595-7364

Jennifer Benz is the Director of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Benz is a political scientist whose research focuses on the connection between public policy and citizen engagement. Benz’s research includes numerous studies measuring awareness, understanding, and perceptions of public policy issues among the general public and targeted constituencies. She has a successful track record of distilling and packaging complex research for different audiences including journalists, policy makers, and the mass public.

Benz has managed and conducted survey research on a variety of topics including the public’s priorities and attitudes toward government, race and ethnicity, public health and health care, economic issues, news and media, international relations and defense, and environmental and energy policy. With training and experience in political science, social psychology, and public health, Benz’s research uses an interdisciplinary approach in both theory and method, and much of her research complements survey research with qualitative and experimental methods. Benz has also published research on the relationships between interest organizations, PACs, and public policy, with a particular focus on state-level politics and policy. Prior to joining the AP-NORC Center, Benz worked as a Research Scientist for NORC’s Public Health research department where her project work focuses on issues in health disparities, access to primary care, and the dissemination and evaluation of comparative effectiveness research (CER).

Her research has been published by Georgetown University Press, Health Affairs, State Politics and Policy, Publius, and the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, among others.

Jennifer Benz

Director
AP-NORC
(978) 595-7364

Jennifer Benz is the Director of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Benz is a political scientist whose research focuses on the connection between public policy and citizen engagement. Benz’s research includes numerous studies measuring awareness, understanding, and perceptions of public policy issues among the general public and targeted constituencies. She has a successful track record of distilling and packaging complex research for different audiences including journalists, policy makers, and the mass public.

Benz has managed and conducted survey research on a variety of topics including the public’s priorities and attitudes toward government, race and ethnicity, public health and health care, economic issues, news and media, international relations and defense, and environmental and energy policy. With training and experience in political science, social psychology, and public health, Benz’s research uses an interdisciplinary approach in both theory and method, and much of her research complements survey research with qualitative and experimental methods. Benz has also published research on the relationships between interest organizations, PACs, and public policy, with a particular focus on state-level politics and policy. Prior to joining the AP-NORC Center, Benz worked as a Research Scientist for NORC’s Public Health research department where her project work focuses on issues in health disparities, access to primary care, and the dissemination and evaluation of comparative effectiveness research (CER).

Her research has been published by Georgetown University Press, Health Affairs, State Politics and Policy, Publius, and the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice, among others.

David Sterrett

Principal Research Scientist
NORC
Phone: (312) 357-7031

David is a principal research scientist in The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. He has significant experience designing and managing complex multi-mode surveys and conducting research on survey methodology and public attitudes.

David led the methodological redesign of the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Associated Recreation and is the methodological lead for the 2027 National Survey. David is the project director for the 2026 National Recreational Boating Safety Survey for the U.S. Coast Guard and is leading a redesign of the survey methodology.

He helped develop the DASH study for the Advertising Research Foundation, and he is the project director for this study that provides benchmarks for how U.S. households connect to and consume TV and interact with and share streaming media.

David was the methodological lead for AP VoteCast from 2018 to 2024, and he helped design the novel approach to understanding the American electorate that combined a probability sample of registered voters with a large opt-in sample of registered voters.

He has also managed a number of projects featuring collaborations with researchers such as the UChicago Harris/AP-NORC Poll, the Media Insight Project with the American Press Institute, and the GenForward surveys for the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago.

David has published scholarly work in multiple peer-reviewed journals and has expertise in synthesizing complex social science research so that it is easily accessible for journalists and the public. He frequently presents at academic and survey research conferences and is actively involved with both AAPOR and MAPOR.

Prior to joining NORC, he spent four years conducting survey research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and five years working as a journalist in Chicago and San Diego.

David Sterrett

Principal Research Scientist
NORC
(312) 357-7031

David is a principal research scientist in The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. He has significant experience designing and managing complex multi-mode surveys and conducting research on survey methodology and public attitudes.

David led the methodological redesign of the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Associated Recreation and is the methodological lead for the 2027 National Survey. David is the project director for the 2026 National Recreational Boating Safety Survey for the U.S. Coast Guard and is leading a redesign of the survey methodology.

He helped develop the DASH study for the Advertising Research Foundation, and he is the project director for this study that provides benchmarks for how U.S. households connect to and consume TV and interact with and share streaming media.

David was the methodological lead for AP VoteCast from 2018 to 2024, and he helped design the novel approach to understanding the American electorate that combined a probability sample of registered voters with a large opt-in sample of registered voters.

He has also managed a number of projects featuring collaborations with researchers such as the UChicago Harris/AP-NORC Poll, the Media Insight Project with the American Press Institute, and the GenForward surveys for the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago.

David has published scholarly work in multiple peer-reviewed journals and has expertise in synthesizing complex social science research so that it is easily accessible for journalists and the public. He frequently presents at academic and survey research conferences and is actively involved with both AAPOR and MAPOR.

Prior to joining NORC, he spent four years conducting survey research at the University of Illinois at Chicago and five years working as a journalist in Chicago and San Diego.