The Board of Trustees of NORC at the University of Chicago has announced the appointment of Dan Gaylin as president and chief executive officer of the independent research organization.
“We concluded that Dan is the most capable and qualified person to lead NORC at the University of Chicago,” said Edward O. Laumann, chairman and director of the NORC Board of Trustees and the George H. Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the College at the University of Chicago. “He understands the organization, its people, the issues that motivate the work we do, and the research challenges that confront this nation and the world in times of political, economic and social change. We have great confidence in his capacity to lead NORC in the years ahead.”
Gaylin has been with NORC for nearly 13 years, most recently holding the position of Executive Vice President for Research Programs. Earlier this year, following the appointment of former President John Thompson as director of the U.S. Census Bureau, Gaylin held the role of acting president.
“It is truly an honor to be selected to lead NORC,” said Gaylin. “Providing the best possible data and analysis upon which critical decisions are made is of the utmost importance in helping inform policies that establish the direction of this nation and the world. That has been the central mission of NORC for more than 70 years. I am deeply committed to working with all of the talented staff at NORC in continuing the excellence, innovation and collegiality that are the hallmarks of all that we do, while simultaneously exploring new ways we can best fulfill our mission in these changing times.”
NORC Trustee John Mark Hansen, who chaired the search committee, said the decision to name Gaylin president and CEO followed an exhaustive national search and is effective immediately. “NORC has a tradition of excellence that began in our earliest days and will continue into the future,” said Hansen, the Charles L. Hutchinson Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science at UChicago. “Dan Gaylin has the depth of knowledge and the management skills needed to lead such a complex organization, and despite a very impressive array of candidates from research organizations, academia and government, he was simply the right person for the job.”
Established in 1941, and with a staff of more than 1,500 people, NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research analysis, program evaluations, technical assistance and data collection across a wide range of subjects, including education, early childhood, substance abuse, mental health, criminal justice, economics, population studies, public health, health care and international development.
Key funding agencies include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, USAID, the Federal Reserve Board, and many others. In the U.S., NORC conducts many of the largest and most important national surveys including the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth, the Survey of Consumer Finances, and the National Immunization Survey. It is home to the General Social Survey, a comprehensive study of the views of Americans on a wide array of social issues and the second-most cited social sciences resource in the country after the U.S. Census. In addition, NORC conducts issues-based research funded by many philanthropic foundations and other nonprofit organizations, and partners with the Associated Press via the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In addition to its headquarters in downtown Chicago, NORC has offices in Bethesda, Md.; Boston; Atlanta; San Francisco; and on the UChicago campus. NORC also has extensive domestic and international field operations, conducting research in 24 countries around the globe.
Gaylin has more than 25 years of experience spanning government, think tanks and private research organizations. He is a nationally recognized expert in health policy and program evaluation and has numerous publications in leading peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Health Affairs. Prior to joining NORC, Gaylin served as director of research and planning in the Office of Health Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Earlier he was vice president at the consulting firm The Lewin Group and a research associate and program manager at the Urban Institute.
He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MPA with focuses in health policy and quantitative analysis from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
