Marjorie Connelly is a Senior Fellow with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and is experienced in managing survey research and interpreting poll findings for a general audience.

Connelly 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.

Connelly 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.

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

Connelly 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. 

David Sterrett is a Senior Research Scientist in The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Sterrett is a political scientist whose research focuses on political attitudes, survey methodology, and the public’s news habits. He has significant experience designing and managing complex multi-mode surveys and combining quantitative research findings with in-depth qualitative interviews.

Sterrett has helped lead a wide range of public affairs research projects at NORC. Since 2015, he has served as a manager for the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between the American Press Institute and The AP-NORC Center. The research has examined a range of issues related to news habits and attitudes such as what leads the public to trust news and what factors are associated with paying for news.

Sterrett helped develop and oversee the multi-mode methodology for AP VoteCast, a new approach to understanding the American electorate that combines 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 academic researchers such as the UChicago Harris/AP-NORC Poll, a study on democratic representation with researchers from Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the 2016 GenForward surveys of adults 18-30 years old that were a project of the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago.

Sterrett 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.

Jennifer Benz is a Principal Research Scientist and Deputy 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.

Trevor Tompson is senior vice president of Public Affairs and Media Research. He is also the Director of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Tompson is a political and social researcher with a specialization in research for public release. 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.

Tompson 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, Tompson 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.

Tompson 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. Tompson’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.

Tompson 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.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has combined the worldwide research capacity of NORC at the University of Chicago with the unmatched authority and communications reach of The Associated Press to provide citizens, policymakers, business leaders, and elected officials with the timely, independent, issue-based inquiry and analysis they need to make sound decisions in challenging times.

• Speed and Relevance: One of the biggest challenges social scientists and the journalists who rely on their research face is keeping up with fast-breaking political, economic and cultural issues. By deploying tools like NORC’s AmeriSpeak Omnibus, a nationally representative, probability-based sample of pre-recruited participants who have agreed to take part in regular surveys, The AP-NORC Center can design a survey, gather and analyze data, and publish reports for distribution through AP’s global media network in as little as two weeks.
• Data Visualization: One of the greatest benefits of the partnership is the way it marries rigorous data collection and analysis with multimedia production, making The AP-NORC Center uniquely adept at translating complex social science information into clear, concise visualizations, static and interactive infographics, and video.
• Media Research: Just as important as understanding Americans’ opinions and concerns—as well as those of people around the world—is understanding how those opinions are informed. Since 2014, The AP-NORC Center has collaborated with the American Press Institute on a series of studies that explore how members of different demographic groups consume news and other media.
• Data Analysis: In addition to conducting scientifically rigorous surveys and producing media-ready reports on emerging issues, The AP-NORC Center also conducts analysis of data from other sources, making those data more accessible to journalists and elected officials, policymakers, and citizens who rely on them.
• International Opinion: The global reach of The Associated Press and the country-specific subject matter expertise of NORC allow The AP-NORC Center to conduct rapid response surveys and analysis all over the world.

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