Category: Candidate Bios

Dana Garbarski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Loyola University Chicago. In 2018, she started a 3-year concurrent position as the Farrell Endowed Assistant Professor in Gannon Center for Women and Leadership. In this position, Dana is in charge of developing programming for faculty at her university that aids in fostering their research and professional development, in direct alignment with the goals of MAPOR Council’s updated Mission and Vision statements. As a sociologist, Dana’s research goals are to examine and inform the valid and reliable collection of survey data on health and well-being, with an intersectional focus on dimensions of race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and sexuality. Her methodological focus is on survey methodology, as surveys are a core methodology through which social, behavioral, and medical researchers learn about the health and well-being of populations. Her work has been published in several journals in the fields of sociology, public opinion, survey research, and health. Dana has been a member of MAPOR since moving to Chicago in 2014. She has been serving on MAPOR Council since November 2015, first as a member-at-large and member of the MAPOR Conference Committee, then as Associate Conference Chair (2018) and now Conference Chair (2019). In addition, she organized the 2017 Interviewer-Respondent Interaction Working Group meeting at the MAPOR conference, and planned, organized, and moderated a panel on Women and Leadership in 2018. Dana has enjoyed working with and learning from the many wonderful volunteers on MAPOR Council and is looking forward to continuing her MAPOR service as Vice President/President-Elect.

Stephanie Chardoul is the Director of Survey Research Operations (SRO) at the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center (Institute for Social Research). She started in her current Director position February 2019, but has been with the Survey Research Center since 1990. During her tenure at SRC, she has been the Manager of the Survey Services Laboratory (telephone facility and more), a Survey Director, Director of the Project Design and Management Group (project managers and directors), and Director of Proposals (new project intake and design). Her substantive interests include cross-cultural survey methods, building survey research infrastructure, and mental health. Her presentation at MAPOR last year was on using event history calendars to improve recall and reporting rates on a survey of mental health in Nepal. Stephanie has been a member of the Data Collection Coordinating Centre for the long-running World Mental Health Survey Initiative (30+ countries, since 1999), and is the Director of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) Training Centre. As SRO Director, she leads a department of 170 full-time staff and up to 1000 interviewers across the country. Throughout her career, Stephanie has been involved with both IFDTC and AAPOR, and more recently has become active with MAPOR and AASRO and values these organizations especially for their smaller size and opportunities for learning and sharing.

Lindsey Witt-Swanson has been with the Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR) at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln for eight years. As the Associate Directors, Lindsey assists clients and researchers with their research and evaluation projects, ensures that BOSR is utilizing the most up-to-date methods and knowledgeable of changes in the field, oversees BOSR’s staff of 125 employees, and is responsible for BOSR’s financial health and growth. Lindsey currently serves as the chair of the Survey Committee for the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations (AASRO) and co-treasurer for the International Field Directors and Technologies Conference (IFD&TC). Lindsey has been a member of AAPOR and MAPOR since joining BOSR. Lindsey received her BA in Political Science at Creighton University and her MS in Survey Research and Methodology at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. 

Y. Patrick Hsieh is a research survey methodologist and digital sociologist in the Survey Research Division at the RTI International. International. His expertise includes developing mixed-method research, designing social media campaign for sample recruitment, and integrating digital technologies and technology-enabled research practices, such as crowdsourcing and citizen science, into survey methodology to improve research design and data quality. Patrick has served on the MAPOR Council as the webinar series coordinator since 2016 and is a member of MAPOR Conference Committee since 2018. He also assisted the AAPOR Education Committee’s Diversity Subcommittee to organize and host the very first SurveyFest in Chicago in 2018. Patrick earned his Ph.D. in media, technology, and society at Northwestern University’s School of Communication in 2014, prior to joining RTI International. Patrick’s dissertation has won the best student paper award of MAPOR in 2013 and he has been attending MAPOR since then. He looks forward to continuing his MAPOR service as Associate Conference Chair. 

David Sterrett is a Senior Research Scientist at NORC at the University of Chicago. He has attended and presented at the last eight MAPOR conferences, and served as the student liaison to the MAPOR executive council from 2013-2014.  David is involved in AAPOR as well, presenting regularly and is currently serving on the Education Committee. In addition, David is a past member of the AAPOR Transitions from Telephone to Mixed Mode Survey Taskforce and past chair of the Chapter Liaison Subcommittee of the Membership and Chapter Relations Committee. David’s research focuses on political attitudes, survey methodology, and the public’s news habits. His research has been published in journals including Public Opinion Quarterly, Digital Journalism, and Political Behavior. He earned his PhD. in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his B.S. in Journalism from Northwestern University.

Ed Ledek is currently the Chief Research Officer / Co-Founder at Clear Insights Group. A public opinion research firm, headquartered in Lehi, Utah. He is directly involved and oversees a variety of tasks, involving both client facing activities and internal operations and data delivery. Ed has been a professional researcher since 1980. And, even before that, he was introduced to the world of public opinion, voting and polling as young boy and into his teenage years. Over his career, he has worked with the Census Bureau, full service research firms and field service operations firms. Ed has additionally held various leadership and volunteer positions within the MRA, PAPOR, AAPOR and the SWMRA. Additionally, he has worked with NGOs teaching an “Applied Research Methods” course in developing democracies around the world. In his “non-work” time, Ed enjoys reading, sports (participating and watching) and travel. He hopes to put his Brigham Young University (1984-1989) history degree to work in a more formal capacity — teaching High School students — when “done” with his research career. Ultimately, Ed’s length and breadth of experience across the research vertical, will assist in understanding both the needs of our MAPOR members and, in a broader context, how to succeed in today’s business climate.