Nancy Mathiowetz knows polls from both the practical and the academic sides. As president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAAPOR), she leads an eclectic mix of researchers from university, commercial, nonprofit, and government sectors, including some of America’s leading public pollsters. As professor and chair of the sociology department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she teaches graduate courses in survey methodology, questionnaire design, statistics, and data analysis.

AAPOR, founded after World War II, promotes sound and ethical practices in the conduct and use of public opinion research and seeks to improve public understanding of research methods and interpretation.

Dr. Mathiowetz has published a number of articles assessing the quality of survey data, focusing on health surveys. Her current research explores ways to make surveys of the elderly more accurate. She has been associate editor of two key journals in the public opinion polling field, Public Opinion Quarterly and the Journal of Official Statistics. She holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin, an M.S. in biostatistics from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan.

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