AP-NORC Center Experts

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Marjorie Connelly

Senior Fellow
AP-NORC
Phone: (917) 930-2306

​​​Marjorie is a senior fellow with The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. She spent more than 30 years at The New York Times, working in its News Survey department. Her final position there was editor of the department, in charge of the coverage and use of public opinion research for the national and international editions of The New York Times and nytimes.com.

She specialized in analysis of Election Day exit polls, surveys of the New York metropolitan area, and international polls. She managed the surveys of special populations including people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, family members of 9/11 victims, teenagers, business executives, and baseball players.

Marjorie was a member of the executive council of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in 2011–2013 and 2021–2023. She served as president of the New York Chapter of AAPOR in 2010–2011.

Marjorie received the NY-AAPOR Harry W. O’Neill Outstanding Achievement Award in June 2022 and its Distinguished Service Award in June 2013. She was also the recipient of New York Times Publisher Awards for a trio of polls before the 2004 Republican National Convention in September 2004 and the biennial Portrait of the Electorate in December 1998.

Marjorie Connelly

Senior Fellow
AP-NORC
(917) 930-2306

​​​Marjorie is a senior fellow with The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. She spent more than 30 years at The New York Times, working in its News Survey department. Her final position there was editor of the department, in charge of the coverage and use of public opinion research for the national and international editions of The New York Times and nytimes.com.

She specialized in analysis of Election Day exit polls, surveys of the New York metropolitan area, and international polls. She managed the surveys of special populations including people displaced by Hurricane Katrina, family members of 9/11 victims, teenagers, business executives, and baseball players.

Marjorie was a member of the executive council of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) in 2011–2013 and 2021–2023. She served as president of the New York Chapter of AAPOR in 2010–2011.

Marjorie received the NY-AAPOR Harry W. O’Neill Outstanding Achievement Award in June 2022 and its Distinguished Service Award in June 2013. She was also the recipient of New York Times Publisher Awards for a trio of polls before the 2004 Republican National Convention in September 2004 and the biennial Portrait of the Electorate in December 1998.

Micah Sjoblom

Vice President
Economics, Justice & Society
Phone: (312) 759-4028

Micah is a vice president in the Economics, Justice, and Society department at NORC. He collaborates with department leadership to facilitate and direct department functions including recruitment and staffing, business development, and financial management. In addition to his department leadership role, Micah currently serves as the chair of NORC’s Institutional Review Board.

Micah has more than 25 years of experience working in research and survey management, with particular expertise in the lifecycle management of large-scale cross-sectional and panel surveys utilizing responsive design and multimode technical solutions to facilitate data collection. Micah’s responsibilities include the development and implementation of project management tools and indicators; the enhancement of training and oversight programs for large data collection teams (> 150 staff); and the promotion of measurement and monitoring techniques pertaining to quality assurance and process improvement across project tasks, milestones, and deliverables.

At NORC, Micah has led activities on several national surveys including data collection efforts for programs funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the National Science Foundation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Agency for Children and Families, and the U.S. Census Bureau. For over 20 years, Micah has worked on the Survey of Consumer Finances, currently serving as senior advisor. Sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Survey of Consumer Finances collects detailed measures of wealth, including information on the assets, liabilities, and demographic characteristics of U.S. households. Micah also recently served as the director of field operations for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of the Medicare population conducted for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Micah also plays a critical role in the development of effective teams and the promotion of knowledge-sharing across management and operational teams within NORC. This includes cultivating internal functional teams and building external partnerships to design effective and responsive research operations, while also fostering opportunities for staff growth and exploration through the development of innovative solutions. As an example of this collaborative exchange, Micah served as project director for NORC’s role in the Chicago COVID Contact Tracing Corps, leading a team of resource navigators trained to provide critical services and resources to Chicago residents in need during the pandemic.

Micah Sjoblom

Vice President
Economics, Justice & Society
(312) 759-4028

Micah is a vice president in the Economics, Justice, and Society department at NORC. He collaborates with department leadership to facilitate and direct department functions including recruitment and staffing, business development, and financial management. In addition to his department leadership role, Micah currently serves as the chair of NORC’s Institutional Review Board.

Micah has more than 25 years of experience working in research and survey management, with particular expertise in the lifecycle management of large-scale cross-sectional and panel surveys utilizing responsive design and multimode technical solutions to facilitate data collection. Micah’s responsibilities include the development and implementation of project management tools and indicators; the enhancement of training and oversight programs for large data collection teams (> 150 staff); and the promotion of measurement and monitoring techniques pertaining to quality assurance and process improvement across project tasks, milestones, and deliverables.

At NORC, Micah has led activities on several national surveys including data collection efforts for programs funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the National Science Foundation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Agency for Children and Families, and the U.S. Census Bureau. For over 20 years, Micah has worked on the Survey of Consumer Finances, currently serving as senior advisor. Sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Survey of Consumer Finances collects detailed measures of wealth, including information on the assets, liabilities, and demographic characteristics of U.S. households. Micah also recently served as the director of field operations for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of the Medicare population conducted for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Micah also plays a critical role in the development of effective teams and the promotion of knowledge-sharing across management and operational teams within NORC. This includes cultivating internal functional teams and building external partnerships to design effective and responsive research operations, while also fostering opportunities for staff growth and exploration through the development of innovative solutions. As an example of this collaborative exchange, Micah served as project director for NORC’s role in the Chicago COVID Contact Tracing Corps, leading a team of resource navigators trained to provide critical services and resources to Chicago residents in need during the pandemic.

Michael Greenstone

Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, University of Chicago; Director, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago
Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago

Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. In addition, he serves as the founding director of the University’s Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth and the director of the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He was previously the director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics.

He is an elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a Carnegie Fellow (aka the “Brainy Award”), and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Formerly, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT and directed The Hamilton Project.

Greenstone’s research, which has influenced policy in the United States and globally, is focused on the global energy challenge that requires all societies to balance the needs for inexpensive and reliable energy, protection of the public’s health from air pollution, and minimizing the damages from climate change. Recently, his research has helped lead to the United States Government quadrupling its estimate of the damages from climate change, the adoption of pollution markets in India, and the use of machine learning techniques to target environmental inspections. As a co-director of the Climate Impact Lab, he is producing empirically grounded estimates of the local and global impacts of climate change. He created the Air QualityLife Index® that converts air pollution concentrations into their impact on life expectancy and co-founded Climate Vault, a 501(c)(3) that uses markets to allow institutions and people to reduce their carbon footprint and foster innovation in carbon dioxide removal.

Greenstone received a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.A. in Economics with High Honors from Swarthmore College.

Michael Greenstone

Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, University of Chicago; Director, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago
Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago

Michael Greenstone is the Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. In addition, he serves as the founding director of the University’s Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth and the director of the interdisciplinary Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. He was previously the director of the Becker Friedman Institute for Economics.

He is an elected member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a Carnegie Fellow (aka the “Brainy Award”), and a former editor of the Journal of Political Economy. Formerly, Greenstone was the 3M Professor of Environmental Economics at MIT and directed The Hamilton Project.

Greenstone’s research, which has influenced policy in the United States and globally, is focused on the global energy challenge that requires all societies to balance the needs for inexpensive and reliable energy, protection of the public’s health from air pollution, and minimizing the damages from climate change. Recently, his research has helped lead to the United States Government quadrupling its estimate of the damages from climate change, the adoption of pollution markets in India, and the use of machine learning techniques to target environmental inspections. As a co-director of the Climate Impact Lab, he is producing empirically grounded estimates of the local and global impacts of climate change. He created the Air QualityLife Index® that converts air pollution concentrations into their impact on life expectancy and co-founded Climate Vault, a 501(c)(3) that uses markets to allow institutions and people to reduce their carbon footprint and foster innovation in carbon dioxide removal.

Greenstone received a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University and a B.A. in Economics with High Honors from Swarthmore College.

Michelle Strollo

Senior Vice President
Health Care Programs
Phone: (301) 634-9537

Michelle is an executive and mission-driven organizational leader with 25 years of experience developing, running, and studying publicly financed, health care programs. Michelle is a senior vice president leading NORC’s Health Care Programs department where she provides corporate leadership for an annual $40M portfolio of over 20 projects. She brings research and technical expertise, management skills, and extensive experience supporting a wide range of Federal, State, and nonprofit health agencies’ needs to ensure the successful execution of projects.

Michelle has corporate oversight responsibility for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey – NORC’s largest field study, deploying a team of 220 field interviewers nationwide to conduct over 35,000 surveys annually on the health and health care experiences of over 14,000 Medicare beneficiaries.

Michelle also oversees NORC’s work in Medicaid and Marketplace coverage and has directed a number of projects involving data collection and monitoring, operational support, and technical assistance. Key projects include the CMS Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office’s Financial Alignment Initiative – a demonstration to test alternative approaches to providing integrated service delivery and payment models for individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid and the Nationwide Adult Medicaid CAHPS survey – the first-of-its kind national patient experience survey of adults in the Medicaid fee-for-service and managed care delivery systems.

Before joining NORC, Michelle was the first Director of Eligibility and Enrollment Policy and Operations for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, where she led a team of more than 40 staff to support policymaking and program operations for determining eligibility and enrolling individuals into marketplace coverage. Prior to her federal service, Michelle was Associate Director for Long-Term Care at the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance, where she managed operations and oversight of the District’s long-term care services programs including Medicaid home and community-based service waivers. She spent more than a decade conducting policy research on Medicare and Medicaid for the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Michelle Strollo

Senior Vice President
Health Care Programs
(301) 634-9537

Michelle is an executive and mission-driven organizational leader with 25 years of experience developing, running, and studying publicly financed, health care programs. Michelle is a senior vice president leading NORC’s Health Care Programs department where she provides corporate leadership for an annual $40M portfolio of over 20 projects. She brings research and technical expertise, management skills, and extensive experience supporting a wide range of Federal, State, and nonprofit health agencies’ needs to ensure the successful execution of projects.

Michelle has corporate oversight responsibility for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey – NORC’s largest field study, deploying a team of 220 field interviewers nationwide to conduct over 35,000 surveys annually on the health and health care experiences of over 14,000 Medicare beneficiaries.

Michelle also oversees NORC’s work in Medicaid and Marketplace coverage and has directed a number of projects involving data collection and monitoring, operational support, and technical assistance. Key projects include the CMS Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office’s Financial Alignment Initiative – a demonstration to test alternative approaches to providing integrated service delivery and payment models for individuals enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid and the Nationwide Adult Medicaid CAHPS survey – the first-of-its kind national patient experience survey of adults in the Medicaid fee-for-service and managed care delivery systems.

Before joining NORC, Michelle was the first Director of Eligibility and Enrollment Policy and Operations for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, where she led a team of more than 40 staff to support policymaking and program operations for determining eligibility and enrolling individuals into marketplace coverage. Prior to her federal service, Michelle was Associate Director for Long-Term Care at the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance, where she managed operations and oversight of the District’s long-term care services programs including Medicaid home and community-based service waivers. She spent more than a decade conducting policy research on Medicare and Medicaid for the Kaiser Family Foundation.

René Bautista

Principal Research Scientist
Methodology & Quantitative Social Sciences
Phone: (312) 357-3867

René is a principal research scientist in the Methodology & Quantitative Social Sciences 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. René’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.

René has provided statistical guidance to a variety of projects, including the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE), a project conducted on behalf of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE). His work in the NSECE has ranged from improving programming methodologies for data production to conducting latent class analyses to understand supply and demand of education services. René has extensive experience transitioning survey instruments into alternative modes of data collection, preserving measurement properties, comparability over time, and data quality. For example, René led the redesign of the National Survey of Children’s Health (2015) which evolved from a CATI instrument to a self-administered instrument (paper- and web-based) with a focus on maintaining measurement properties, given declining response rates in the telephone mode. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, René led the transitioning process to adapt the General Social Survey (GSS) from face-to-face to a multi-mode strategy, putting special care in preserving measurement properties, comparability over time, and data quality.

René has served as lead methodologist for activities impacting the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), studying how limited English proficiency (LEP) may impede access to healthcare. Also, René served as director for the Worker Voice Study, a survey commissioned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, aiming to collect information among 4,000 workers across the country. Previously, he worked at the Gallup Research Center at the University of Nebraska.

René Bautista

Principal Research Scientist
Methodology & Quantitative Social Sciences
(312) 357-3867

René is a principal research scientist in the Methodology & Quantitative Social Sciences 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. René’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.

René has provided statistical guidance to a variety of projects, including the National Survey of Early Care and Education (NSECE), a project conducted on behalf of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE). His work in the NSECE has ranged from improving programming methodologies for data production to conducting latent class analyses to understand supply and demand of education services. René has extensive experience transitioning survey instruments into alternative modes of data collection, preserving measurement properties, comparability over time, and data quality. For example, René led the redesign of the National Survey of Children’s Health (2015) which evolved from a CATI instrument to a self-administered instrument (paper- and web-based) with a focus on maintaining measurement properties, given declining response rates in the telephone mode. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, René led the transitioning process to adapt the General Social Survey (GSS) from face-to-face to a multi-mode strategy, putting special care in preserving measurement properties, comparability over time, and data quality.

René has served as lead methodologist for activities impacting the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), studying how limited English proficiency (LEP) may impede access to healthcare. Also, René served as director for the Worker Voice Study, a survey commissioned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management, aiming to collect information among 4,000 workers across the country. Previously, he worked at the Gallup Research Center at the University of Nebraska.