Appendix D
Biographical Sketches of Panel Members and Staff
JOEL L. HOROWITZ (Chair) is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison professor of economics at Northwestern University. He has had previous positions at the University of Iowa and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. His primary area of research is in theoretical and applied econometrics, with particular concentrations in semiparametric estimation, bootstrap methods, discrete choice analysis, and estimation and inference with incomplete data. He received a B.S. in physics from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University. He is coeditor of Econometrica and the former coeditor of Econometric Theory. He is an elected fellow of the Econometric Society, a winner of the Richard Stone Prize in applied econometrics, and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Award for senior U.S. scientists.
JAMES M. LEPKOWSKI is a research professor at the Institute for Social Research and an associate professor of biostatistics, both at the University of Michigan. He is also a research professor in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology at the University of Maryland. He received a B.S. in mathematics from Illinois State University and a Ph.D. in biostatistics from the University of Michigan. He conducts survey methodology research, including the design and analysis of area probability and telephone samples, compensating for missing data, and telephone sampling methods. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and was elected to membership in the International Statistical Institute. He is a member of the National
Academies Committee to Review the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Survey Programs.
HANI MAHMASSANI is the Charles Irish senior chair in engineering and director of the Maryland Transportation Initiative, both at the University of Maryland. He specializes in transportation systems modeling and the application of advanced operations research and econometric techniques to the analysis, design, optimization, and operation of transportation systems. He received an M.S. in transportation engineering from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in transportation systems from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He chairs the Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, and he is associate editor of Transportation Science.
AMELIA REGAN is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Irvine. Her research has been in applications of information technologies and optimization techniques to freight and fleet management, transportation logistics, intermodal operations, and commercial vehicle operator and firm behavior. She received a B.S. in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, an M.S.E. in civil engineering from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in transportation systems engineering from the University of Texas.
BRUCE DAVID SPENCER is a professor in the Department of Statistics and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research, both at Northwestern University. Prior to joining the staff of Northwestern University, he was senior research statistician for the National Opinion Research Corporation of the University of Chicago. He received a B.S. degree in biometry from Cornell University, an M.S. in statistics from Florida State University, and a Ph.D. in statistics from Yale University. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association. He has participated in evaluations of major statistical programs—including population estimates by the Census Bureau, population forecasts by the Social Security Administration, test score statistics by the Department of Education—and drug abuse estimates by state and local agencies. He has also conducted research into the effects of data error on the allocations of public funding and representation.
RONALD TWEEDIE retired in 2001 from the New York State Department of Transportation, where his positions included director of the Planning Bureau and director of the Data Services Bureau. He was responsible for the development and direction of the state’s comprehensive transportation planning program and for the coordination of program activities with other state agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, the federal government, and local jurisdictions. He also directed the activities of staff providing transportation data and analysis services essential to developing capital projects, setting priorities, and allocating funds in accordance with state procedures. He chairs the National Academies’ Committee on State-wide Transportation Data and Information Systems and is a member of the Committee to Review the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ Survey Programs. He holds a B.S. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an M.P.A. from the State University of New York at Albany.
TOM PLEWES (Co-Study Director) is a senior program officer for the Committee on National Statistics. In addition to the Committee for the Review of Research and Development Statistics at the National Science Foundation, he is directing studies of international trade traffic statistics and working on National Research Council (NRC) initiatives with the U.S. General Accounting Office on key national indicators of performance. Prior to joining the NRC staff, he was associate commissioner for employment and unemployment statistics of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and was a member of the Federal Committee on Statistical Methodology. He has a B.A. degree from Hope College and an M.A. degree from the George Washington University.
MICHAEL COHEN (Co-Study Director) is a senior program officer for the Committee on National Statistics, currently also serving as study director of the Panel on Correlation Bias and Coverage Measurement in the 2010 Census and co-study director of the Panel on the Functionality and Usability of Data from the American Community Survey. He was co-study director of the Panel on Research on Future Census Methods and assisted the Panel to Review the 2000 Census. He has also served on the staff of the Panel on Operational Test Design and Evaluation of the Interim Armored Vehicle (Stryker), the Panel on Estimates of Poverty for Small Geographic Areas, and the Panel on Statistical Methods for Testing and Evaluating
Defense Systems. Formerly, he was a mathematical statistician at the Energy Information Administration, an assistant professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, and a visiting lecturer in statistics at Princeton University. His general area of research is the use of statistics in public policy, with particular interest in census undercount, model validation, and robust estimation. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association. He received a B.S. degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in statistics from Stanford University.
