Speakers for April 15, 2009, PRB Policy Seminar
Daniel Weinberg has been assistant director for Decennial Census Programs since August 2007. Prior to that appointment, he was chief of the Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies and Chief Economist from 2005 until 2007, and was chief of the Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division from 1989 to 2004. Before joining the Census Bureau, he worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, in various positions from 1980 to 1989, and for Abt Associates Inc. from 1976 to 1980. He has held academic positions at Tufts University and Yale University. Among his honors are the Department of Commerce Bronze (1995) and Silver (2003) medals. He has also received the Census Bureau Equal Employment Opportunity Award (2000), the Roger Herriot Award for Innovation in Federal Statistics (2002), and the Service to America Social Services Medal (2002). Weinberg is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and has authored or edited several Census Bureau publications, books, and journal articles. He received his bachelor of science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mathematics and his Ph.D. from Yale University in economics. Among his recent publications are two books, Racial and Ethnic Residential Segregation: 1980-2000 and Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change, and numerous articles.
William O'Hare's work over the past 30 years has been defined by the use of statistical data to elevate the needs of disadvantaged populations such as children, the poor, and racial minorities on the public agenda. That work has also involved working closely with the media and policymakers. From 1993 to 2005, O'Hare directed the KIDS COUNT project at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in the United States. Since 2005, he has been a consultant to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, working on KIDS COUNT and related data-based projects. From 1991 to 1993, O'Hare directed the Population and Public Policy Program at the University of Louisville, where he worked closely with the Kentucky KIDS COUNT grantee. From 1978 to 1991, O'Hare worked at several nonprofit research and education organizations in Washington, D.C., including the Population Reference Bureau (where he helped put together the first KIDS COUNT data book), the Joint Center for Political Studies, and the National Social Science and Law Center. During the 1980-81 school year, he received a Fulbright scholarship to teach at the University of San Carlos in Cebu, Philippines. O'Hare served on the Census Bureau's Professional Organization Advisory Committee from 1997 to 2003 and he currently serves on the Census Advisory Committee for the 2010 Census. He has published numerous scholarly articles, working papers, and monographs over his career, and he has been quoted extensively in the press. He has served in numerous professional organizations and he was president of the Southern Demographic Association in 1992-93. He has testified in Congressional hearings and is a qualified expert witness on voting rights matters in the federal court system. From 1985 to 1995 he was a contributing editor to American Demographics magazine. He is also a founding member of the International Society for Child Indicators where he is currently on the Steering Committee.
Mary Jo Hoeksema has been the director of Government Affairs for the Population Association of America and Association of Population Centers (PAA/APC) since January 2004. PAA is an organization comprised of over 3,000 behavioral and social scientists, including economists, demographers, and sociologists, who conduct population-based research. Prior to her position with PAA/APC, Hoeksema worked at the National Institutes of Health for 10 years, as the legislative officer at the National Institute on Aging and National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and as the special assistant to the director of the NIH Office of Policy of Extramural Research Administration. She came to the NIH in 1995 as a Presidential Management Fellow. In addition to her positions at the NIH, she has served as a legislative assistant for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and legislative correspondent for Senator Jeff Bingaman. Hoeksema has a master's degree in public administration from the George Washington University.