New ICPSR Council Members Named; Achen Appointed to Council Chair
ICPSR is pleased to welcome six new members to its Governing Council and to announce the appointment of Council member Christopher Achen to a two-year term as Council Chair.
After approval by the ICPSR Official Representatives, the following members will start their four-year terms on the Council at its meeting in March in Ann Arbor (view Council member biography page).
- Janet Box-Steffensmeier is the Vernal Riffe Professor of Political Science, Distinguished University Scholar, and professor of Sociology at Ohio State University (courtesy appointment), where she directs the Program in Statistics and Methodology (PRISM). She is one of the top political methodologists working on time-series analysis and publishing path-breaking research on error-correction models, fractional integration, and ARFIMA models.
- Robert Chen is the director of the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) and a senior research scientist. He served as CIESIN's deputy director from July 1998-April 2006 and as CIESIN's interim director from May 2006-January 2007. Chen is also the manager and co-principal investigator of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center, a data center in the NASA Earth Observing System Data and Information System.
- Philip Jefferson is Centennial Professor of Economics at Swarthmore College and a former research economist at the Federal Reserve Board. He teaches macroeconomics and econometrics. His recent research has delved into such issues as the role of education as a buffer against unemployment, the effect of business cycles on poverty rates, and the distribution of income between labor and capital.
- Chandra Muller holds the Alma Cowden Madden Centennial Professorship in Liberal Arts and is a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. She also is a faculty associate of the Population Research Center at the university. Her current research is on how family, community, education policy, and health behaviors shape education and the transition to adulthood.
- Ronald Nakao is a Data and Computational Social Science Librarian and has been a Data and Technology Specialist in the Social Sciences Data and Software division of the Stanford Libraries for over 20 years. He works extensively with faculty on their projects and assists them in addressing documentation, access, analysis, and archiving issues.
- William Vega is Provost Professor and Executive Director of the Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the University of Southern California. He holds appointments in social work, preventive medicine, psychiatry, and family medicine. Vega has conducted research projects on health, mental health, and substance abuse throughout the United States and Latin America. His specialty is multicultural epidemiologic and services research with adolescents and adults.
Christopher Achen, the new Chair, is the Roger Williams Straus Professor of Social Sciences, Professor of Politics at Princeton University. His research interest is political methodology, particularly its application to empirical democratic theory, American politics, and international relations.
The new members replace the following members, whose terms are expiring:
- Rogelio Saenz, University of Texas at San Antonio (who will serve for one more year as Past Chair)
- G. Sayeed Choudhury, Johns Hopkins University
- Paul N. Courant, University of Michigan
- Catherine A. Fitch, University of Minnesota
- Gregory N. Price, Morehouse College
- Barbara Schneider, Michigan State University
The 12-person ICPSR Governing Council acts on administrative, budgetary, and organizational issues on behalf of all ICPSR members. It meets three times each year.
Feb 11, 2014