AP-NORC Center Experts

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Kari L. Carris

Vice President
Health Sciences
Phone: (312) 759-4295

Kari L. Carris provides methodological expertise and managerial leadership to over 70 professional staff while also assisting with the development and oversight of NORC’s Health Sciences research portfolio. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she develops and directs complex data collection and analysis projects for various federal agencies, foundations, and academic institutions. Carris also has served as a member of NORC’s Institutional Review Board.

Carris has more than a decade of experience leading multidisciplinary teams in the design, development, and delivery of complex survey data and analytic products used by policy makers and researchers in the public health, criminal justice, and mental health arenas. Her expertise spans a range of data collection methodologies and modes, having directed large- and small-scale telephone, in-person, web, and self-administered survey projects. From 2008-2012, she led NORC’s innovative address-based sampling, multimode data collection effort for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health across the U.S. (REACH U.S.) Risk Factor Survey. Under her direction, NORC completed more than 25,000 interviews annually via telephone, mail, or in-person data collection protocols with adults from various racial and ethnic groups across the country to monitor progress and achievements of community-based interventions designed to eliminate health disparities.

Carris served as the Associate Project Director for the National Immunization Survey (NIS) from 2013-2014. Sponsored by CDC’s National Center for Infectious and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the NIS is an extensive landline/cell phone RDD survey that is designed to collect immunization data about young children and teenagers. She directed methodological research projects for the NIS to improve response rates, address informational needs related to childhood vaccination rates, and investigate the feasibility of emerging sampling and data collection approaches.

Kari L. Carris

Vice President
Health Sciences
(312) 759-4295

Kari L. Carris provides methodological expertise and managerial leadership to over 70 professional staff while also assisting with the development and oversight of NORC’s Health Sciences research portfolio. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she develops and directs complex data collection and analysis projects for various federal agencies, foundations, and academic institutions. Carris also has served as a member of NORC’s Institutional Review Board.

Carris has more than a decade of experience leading multidisciplinary teams in the design, development, and delivery of complex survey data and analytic products used by policy makers and researchers in the public health, criminal justice, and mental health arenas. Her expertise spans a range of data collection methodologies and modes, having directed large- and small-scale telephone, in-person, web, and self-administered survey projects. From 2008-2012, she led NORC’s innovative address-based sampling, multimode data collection effort for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health across the U.S. (REACH U.S.) Risk Factor Survey. Under her direction, NORC completed more than 25,000 interviews annually via telephone, mail, or in-person data collection protocols with adults from various racial and ethnic groups across the country to monitor progress and achievements of community-based interventions designed to eliminate health disparities.

Carris served as the Associate Project Director for the National Immunization Survey (NIS) from 2013-2014. Sponsored by CDC’s National Center for Infectious and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the NIS is an extensive landline/cell phone RDD survey that is designed to collect immunization data about young children and teenagers. She directed methodological research projects for the NIS to improve response rates, address informational needs related to childhood vaccination rates, and investigate the feasibility of emerging sampling and data collection approaches.

Lisa M. Blumerman

Senior Vice President
Economics, Justice, and Society
Phone: (301) 634-9352

Lisa Blumerman is the department head and senior vice president of Economics, Justice, and Society (EJS), where she focuses on a broad range of topics relating to critical economic and social issues. She is responsible for many of NORC’s largest-running surveys, engaging in policy analysis and evaluation research relating to the economy and the labor force, transportation and traffic safety, and crime and law enforcement.

Blumerman brings more than 20 years of experience, with more than half as a senior leader at the U.S. Census Bureau. She has extensive experience introducing new methodologies, techniques, and data into demographic, economic, and administrative data collections and products. She has provided leadership and strategic direction to large-scale statistical programs of national importance, and is a recognized expert in communicating the value, importance, and technical merit of those programs.

Most recently, Blumerman served as the Census Bureau’s director of the Office of Survey and Census Analytics, and from 2017 to 2018 as director of the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications. From 2014 to 2017 she was associate director of the Decennial Census Programs, where she provided executive leadership for three major programs within the Census Bureau: the 2020 Census, the American Community Survey, and the Geographic Programs. In this role, Blumerman was responsible for planning, developing, and testing the innovative design for the 2020 Census.

From 2008 to 2014, Blumerman served as director of the Governments Division, where she was responsible for the methodology, collection, processing, and dissemination of the Census of Governments and more than a dozen surveys conducted on behalf of other federal agencies. Earlier Census jobs include assistant director of Decennial Census Programs, director of the Center for Administrative Records and Research Applications, chief of the Governments Division, chief of the Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office, and deputy chief of the American Community Survey Office.

Before joining the Census Bureau, Blumerman served as a senior research analyst for the American Public Welfare Association.

Blumerman was awarded the 2018 U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Award for Exceptional Federal Service, and in 2017 she was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of twenty-five women leading data and analytics in the U.S. government. Blumerman is a recipient of the Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding public service and exceptional managerial achievement. Blumerman is a recognized public speaker in the field of government statistics and has given more than 100 presentations nationally and internationally. She has also authored and co-authored journal articles, working papers, and publications for national agencies.

Lisa M. Blumerman

Senior Vice President
Economics, Justice, and Society
(301) 634-9352

Lisa Blumerman is the department head and senior vice president of Economics, Justice, and Society (EJS), where she focuses on a broad range of topics relating to critical economic and social issues. She is responsible for many of NORC’s largest-running surveys, engaging in policy analysis and evaluation research relating to the economy and the labor force, transportation and traffic safety, and crime and law enforcement.

Blumerman brings more than 20 years of experience, with more than half as a senior leader at the U.S. Census Bureau. She has extensive experience introducing new methodologies, techniques, and data into demographic, economic, and administrative data collections and products. She has provided leadership and strategic direction to large-scale statistical programs of national importance, and is a recognized expert in communicating the value, importance, and technical merit of those programs.

Most recently, Blumerman served as the Census Bureau’s director of the Office of Survey and Census Analytics, and from 2017 to 2018 as director of the Center for Administrative Records Research and Applications. From 2014 to 2017 she was associate director of the Decennial Census Programs, where she provided executive leadership for three major programs within the Census Bureau: the 2020 Census, the American Community Survey, and the Geographic Programs. In this role, Blumerman was responsible for planning, developing, and testing the innovative design for the 2020 Census.

From 2008 to 2014, Blumerman served as director of the Governments Division, where she was responsible for the methodology, collection, processing, and dissemination of the Census of Governments and more than a dozen surveys conducted on behalf of other federal agencies. Earlier Census jobs include assistant director of Decennial Census Programs, director of the Center for Administrative Records and Research Applications, chief of the Governments Division, chief of the Customer Liaison and Marketing Services Office, and deputy chief of the American Community Survey Office.

Before joining the Census Bureau, Blumerman served as a senior research analyst for the American Public Welfare Association.

Blumerman was awarded the 2018 U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Award for Exceptional Federal Service, and in 2017 she was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of twenty-five women leading data and analytics in the U.S. government. Blumerman is a recipient of the Arthur S. Flemming Award for outstanding public service and exceptional managerial achievement. Blumerman is a recognized public speaker in the field of government statistics and has given more than 100 presentations nationally and internationally. She has also authored and co-authored journal articles, working papers, and publications for national agencies.

Roy Ahn

Vice President
Public Health
Phone: (312) 759-4068

Roy Ahn, MPH, ScD, is a Principal Research Scientist in the Health Care Department at NORC. An experienced public health specialist, he has worked for 20 years at the intersection of program leadership and research in the areas of health policy, nonprofit/civil society organization management and strategy, and public health innovation. Prior to NORC, he served as the founding Associate Director of the Division of Global Health and Human Rights in the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he designed, implemented, and evaluated health programs in nearly a dozen countries (e.g., South Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, the U.S.). Funders of this work included USAID, UK Aid, Humanity United, and others.

Ahn also served as a full-time faculty member at Harvard Medical School between 2009 and 2015, most recently as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine. Additionally, for three years, he co-led a Harvard University course in Kenya called Innovating for Health Transformation in Africa. He holds deep expertise in the field of human rights and health, having served as a planning meeting member of the Institute of Medicine’s Multi-Sectoral Group on Child Exploitation in Tourism; the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) Office on Trafficking in Persons SOAR National Technical Working Group; and the UK government-funded Humanitarian Innovation Fund Global Advisory Board on Gender-Based Violence. He previously served as a Research Fellow at the university-wide Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard, where he authored teaching cases and teaching notes on nonprofit management and strategy, global civil society organization accountability and legitimacy, and private foundation governance.

Earlier in his career, Ahn worked on federal government-funded task order contracts as well as grants on a range of public health topics at Research Triangle Institute and the Lewin Group. He also worked for the CDC’s Business Responds to AIDS/Labor Responds to AIDS (BRTA/LRTA) program, a public/private partnership designed to increase business and labor participation in the development of workplace HIV/AIDS policies and programs. Versed in qualitative as well as mixed-methods research, he is widely published in journals, such as Health Affairs, JAMA Pediatrics, Pediatrics, BJOG, BMJ Open, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. He is also editorial board member of the Essential Clinical Global Health textbook (Wiley-Blackwell) as well as lead co-editor of the Innovating for Healthy Urbanization textbook (Springer).

Roy Ahn

Vice President
Public Health
(312) 759-4068

Roy Ahn, MPH, ScD, is a Principal Research Scientist in the Health Care Department at NORC. An experienced public health specialist, he has worked for 20 years at the intersection of program leadership and research in the areas of health policy, nonprofit/civil society organization management and strategy, and public health innovation. Prior to NORC, he served as the founding Associate Director of the Division of Global Health and Human Rights in the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he designed, implemented, and evaluated health programs in nearly a dozen countries (e.g., South Sudan, Kenya, Zambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, the U.S.). Funders of this work included USAID, UK Aid, Humanity United, and others.

Ahn also served as a full-time faculty member at Harvard Medical School between 2009 and 2015, most recently as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine. Additionally, for three years, he co-led a Harvard University course in Kenya called Innovating for Health Transformation in Africa. He holds deep expertise in the field of human rights and health, having served as a planning meeting member of the Institute of Medicine’s Multi-Sectoral Group on Child Exploitation in Tourism; the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF’s) Office on Trafficking in Persons SOAR National Technical Working Group; and the UK government-funded Humanitarian Innovation Fund Global Advisory Board on Gender-Based Violence. He previously served as a Research Fellow at the university-wide Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard, where he authored teaching cases and teaching notes on nonprofit management and strategy, global civil society organization accountability and legitimacy, and private foundation governance.

Earlier in his career, Ahn worked on federal government-funded task order contracts as well as grants on a range of public health topics at Research Triangle Institute and the Lewin Group. He also worked for the CDC’s Business Responds to AIDS/Labor Responds to AIDS (BRTA/LRTA) program, a public/private partnership designed to increase business and labor participation in the development of workplace HIV/AIDS policies and programs. Versed in qualitative as well as mixed-methods research, he is widely published in journals, such as Health Affairs, JAMA Pediatrics, Pediatrics, BJOG, BMJ Open, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. He is also editorial board member of the Essential Clinical Global Health textbook (Wiley-Blackwell) as well as lead co-editor of the Innovating for Healthy Urbanization textbook (Springer).

Dan Black

Senior Fellow
Economic, Labor, and Population Studies
Phone: (312) 759-4011

Dan A. Black is a Senior Fellow in NORC’s Economic, Labor, and Population Studies department and Professor and Deputy Dean at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. He currently serves as the Project Director of the NLSY program at NORC. His research focuses on labor economics and applied econometrics.

Black is on the editorial board of Journal of Labor Economics, Labour Economics, and a co-editor of Journal of Urban Economics. His 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, and held visiting appointments at the University of Chicago, Australian National University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

Dan Black

Senior Fellow
Economic, Labor, and Population Studies
(312) 759-4011

Dan A. Black is a Senior Fellow in NORC’s Economic, Labor, and Population Studies department and Professor and Deputy Dean at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. He currently serves as the Project Director of the NLSY program at NORC. His research focuses on labor economics and applied econometrics.

Black is on the editorial board of Journal of Labor Economics, Labour Economics, and a co-editor of Journal of Urban Economics. His 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, and held visiting appointments at the University of Chicago, Australian National University, and Carnegie Mellon University.

David Nirenberg

Dean
University of Chicago Divinity School
Phone: (773) 702-3423

Much of my work has focused on the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures constitute themselves by interrelating with or thinking about each other. My first book, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, studied social interaction between the three groups within the context of Spain and France in order to understand the role of violence in shaping the possibilities for coexistence. In later projects I took a less social and more hermeneutical approach, exploring the work that “Judaism,” “Christianity,” and “Islam” do as figures in each other’s thought. One product of that approach, focused on art history, was (jointly with Herb Kessler) Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to Colonialism (2011). In Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (2013), I attempted to apply the methodology to a very longue durée, studying the work done by pagan, Christian, Muslim, and secular thinking about Jews and Judaism in the historyof ideas. More recently, in Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism Medieval and Modern (2014), I brought the social into conversation with the hermeneutic, in order to show how, in multireligious societies (particularly those of medieval Spain), interactions between lived experiences and conceptual categories shape how adherents of all three religions perceive themselves and each other. My most recent book, Aesthetic Theology and Its Enemies: Judaism in Christian Painting, Poetry, and Politics (2015), focused on how thinking about Judaism shaped the ways in which Christian cultures could imagine the possibilities and limits of community and communication. I have also engaged in contemporary debates about the possibility of overcoming those limits, in essays such as “The Politics of Love and Its Enemies” and “Badiou’s Number: a Critique of Mathematics as Ontology” (the latter with Ricardo Nirenberg).

In collaboration with a mathematician (Ricardo Nirenberg), I am completing a philosophical history of the various types of sameness that underpin the claims of different forms of knowledge (from poetry and dreams, to monotheism, math, and physics), exploring both the powers and the limits of the sciences and the humanities. I am currently working on a series of lectures on the relationship between episodes of religious conversion and the emergence of racial discourses, and directing a new research initiative on the historical co-production of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

David Nirenberg

Dean
University of Chicago Divinity School
(773) 702-3423

Much of my work has focused on the ways in which Jewish, Christian, and Islamic cultures constitute themselves by interrelating with or thinking about each other. My first book, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages, studied social interaction between the three groups within the context of Spain and France in order to understand the role of violence in shaping the possibilities for coexistence. In later projects I took a less social and more hermeneutical approach, exploring the work that “Judaism,” “Christianity,” and “Islam” do as figures in each other’s thought. One product of that approach, focused on art history, was (jointly with Herb Kessler) Judaism and Christian Art: Aesthetic Anxieties from the Catacombs to Colonialism (2011). In Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition (2013), I attempted to apply the methodology to a very longue durée, studying the work done by pagan, Christian, Muslim, and secular thinking about Jews and Judaism in the historyof ideas. More recently, in Neighboring Faiths: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism Medieval and Modern (2014), I brought the social into conversation with the hermeneutic, in order to show how, in multireligious societies (particularly those of medieval Spain), interactions between lived experiences and conceptual categories shape how adherents of all three religions perceive themselves and each other. My most recent book, Aesthetic Theology and Its Enemies: Judaism in Christian Painting, Poetry, and Politics (2015), focused on how thinking about Judaism shaped the ways in which Christian cultures could imagine the possibilities and limits of community and communication. I have also engaged in contemporary debates about the possibility of overcoming those limits, in essays such as “The Politics of Love and Its Enemies” and “Badiou’s Number: a Critique of Mathematics as Ontology” (the latter with Ricardo Nirenberg).

In collaboration with a mathematician (Ricardo Nirenberg), I am completing a philosophical history of the various types of sameness that underpin the claims of different forms of knowledge (from poetry and dreams, to monotheism, math, and physics), exploring both the powers and the limits of the sciences and the humanities. I am currently working on a series of lectures on the relationship between episodes of religious conversion and the emergence of racial discourses, and directing a new research initiative on the historical co-production of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.