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Candidate for Vice-President / President Elect

Leah Dean, PhD

Leah Dean’s first involvement with MAPOR was in 2018, when she presented a portion of her dissertation work. Since then, Leah has earned a BA in French Language and Literature from Transylvania University, a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh, and her PhD in Political Science from the University of Cincinnati. She has been a survey scientist with RTI International’s Survey Research Division since April 2020. Her expertise is in health surveys at the national level. She served as MAPOR’s Associate Conference Chair in 2021, where she assisted in the development and execution of the hybrid conference planning. Leah currently serves as the 2022 Conference Chair. Leah looks forward to the opportunity to help MAPOR continue to grow and evolve in its engagement with professionals and students.

Candidate for Associate Conference Chair

Jenny Marlar, PhD

Jenny Marlar has worked for Gallup since 2008 and is the Director of Survey Research. Her work focuses on methods for recruiting and retaining probability-based panels, address-based sampling methodologies, emerging technologies for data collection, and surveying hard-to-reach populations. She is a member of the AAPOR Standards Committee and the AAPOR Online Panel Taskforce and is excited about the opportunity to serve MAPOR. Jenny has an MS and PhD in Survey Research and Methodology from the University of Nebraska and attended her first MAPOR conference as a student in 2008. She remembers that first experience (and every MAPOR conference since) for its strong program of papers and speakers and for being friendly and welcoming. Prior to beginning her graduate studies in 2006, Jenny was an event planner and owned an event planning and decorating business. 

Candidate for Associate Conference Chair

Rebecca Powell, PhD

Rebecca J. Powell is a Research Survey Methodologist at RTI International. Rebecca joined MAPOR 10 years ago as a graduate student from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she earned a PhD in Survey Research and Methodology. Her main research focus is on improving survey response quality through visual design principles in self-administered questionnaires, and her work has been published in the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology. Rebecca is a strong advocate of continuous education. As a certified RStudio tidyverse trainer, she has taught multiple courses on analysis of survey data in R for MAPOR and AAPOR. Rebecca joined the MAPOR Executive Council in 2021 and serves on the Online Learning Committee where she organizes opportunities for students and professionals to learn about best practices and new methods in survey research and analysis. She hopes to continue her work on the MAPOR Executive Council as Associate Conference Chair to further promote continuous education for all MAPOR members.