DDI member representatives voted in July 2021 to elect four members to the DDI Executive Board. This followed a call for nominations in April and discussion of the candidates at the June annual Meeting of Members.
The DDI Executive Board is composed of seven voting members: six At-Large members elected by the Designated Member Representatives and one member appointed by the Host Insitution. Members serve for a term of four years. The Executive Board is responsible for managing the operations of the Alliance, including setting overall policy and budget.
Fifteen of the 28 voting eligible DDI member representatives participated in the election. According to the Alliance Bylaws, the election is decided on the basis of those candidates getting the most votes.
The election results (number of votes are indicated in parentheses):
- Cory Chobanik (14)
- Steve McEachern (14)
- Barry Radler (13)
- Cathy Fitch (12)
I want to thank Barry, Cathy, Cory, and Steve for accepting the nominations and for their service on the Board. Barry, Cathy, and Steve are incumbent members of the Board. Cory is a new member. Their biosketches and position statements (when provided) are listed below.
I also want to sincerely thank Dana Müller, who served on the Board from 2017-2021. Dana's commitment and insights were invaluable.
Sincerely,
Jared
Jared Lyle
Executive Director, DDI Alliance
ICPSR, University of Michigan
Cory Chobanik
Biosketch
Cory Chobanik is Senior Director, Centre for Statistical and Data Standards at Statistics Canada. Cory has led significant transformational initiatives throughout his career, with experience and partnerships spanning all three levels of government, the private sector and international organizations. He has led projects with a focus on meta(data), information management and standards domains. He has represented Statistics Canada, on interdepartmental, provincial, national and international committees and working groups, in matters related to information management, meta (data) management, and standards. Also, through various international working groups, Cory has represented Canada on issues concerning standards. Internationally he is a member of the technical and statistical groups for the Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange (SDMX) and is a committee member of UNECE - High-Level Group for the Modernization of Official Statistics (HLG-MOS) - Supporting Standards.
Cathy Fitch
Biosketch
Dr. Catherine A. Fitch is associate director of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation (ISRDI), the home of the Minnesota Population Center and IPUMS data infrastructure projects, at the University of Minnesota. She is also director of the Minnesota Research Data Center (MnRDC). At MPC and ISRDI, Fitch has been involved in the creation of several of the largest social-science databases, most recently working on the IPUMS-USA collection of complete-count American census data from 1790-1940. She used her experience with social science data infrastructure to fund and build the MnRDC, a Federal Statistical Research Data Center (FSRDC) providing access to restricted and confidential data. Her own research focuses on family and historical demography in the United States. She holds a Ph.D. degree in history and an M.P.P. degree from the University of Minnesota.
Position Statement
In the last four years on the DDI Executive Committee, I have been a part of the ongoing conversation about the new strategic plan, and in the last 18 months, conversations about how to adjust plans through the pandemic. In the next four years, I would like to contribute to achieving the goals set out in the new strategic plan as well as how DDI will adjust to post-pandemic realities.
Steve McEachern
Biosketch
Dr. Steven McEachern is Director and Manager of the Australian Data Archive at the Australian National University, where he is responsible for the daily operations and technical and strategic development of the data archive. He has high-level expertise in survey methodology and data archiving, and has been actively involved in development and application of survey research methodology and technologies over 15 years in the Australian university sector. Steve holds a PhD in industrial relations from Deakin University, as well as a Graduate Diploma in Management Information Systems from Deakin University, and a Bachelor of Commerce with Honours from Monash University. He has research interests in data management and archiving, community and social attitude surveys, organisational surveys, new data collection methods including web and mobile phone survey techniques, and reproducible research methods. Steve has been involved in various professional associations in survey research and data archiving over the last 10 years, including Chair of the Executive Board of the Data Documentation Initiative, teaching with the Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Inc. (ACSPRI), and an executive role with the International Federation of Data Organisations (IFDO).
Barry Radler
Biosketch
Dr. Barry Radler is a Distinguished Researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute on Aging with a background in social science research methods. He manages many aspects of MIDUS (Midlife in the United States), a national longitudinal study of health and well-being. Barry has served as chair of the DDI Marketing and Partnerships group since 2015 and on the Executive Board since 2017.
Position Statement
For the better part of two decades I have been using DDI products to document a complex multi- disciplinary longitudinal study that has generated an ever-growing body of popular data products. As such I have a vested interest in the DDI Alliance responsibly developing, managing, and promoting the suite of DDI standards and products. I hope to advance those interests by serving on the DDI Alliance Executive Board for another term.