JDG completes search for COPAFS

JDG and the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics (COPAFS) is
pleased to announce the appointment of John Thompson as Executive Director.  Thompson succeeds Katherine Smith Evans, who has served as Executive Director since October 2012.  He comes to COPAFS from the U.S. Census Bureau where he served as Director until June 30, 2017.

Prior to becoming Census Bureau Director in 2013, Thompson spent five years as President and CEO of the independent research organization NORC at the University of Chicago.  From 2002 to 2008 he served as Executive Vice President at NORC.  Before joining NORC, he had a distinguished career at the Census Bureau from 1975 to 2002, culminating in his position as the Associate Director with responsibility for all aspects of the 2000 Census.

A longtime leader in the social science research community, Thompson is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association and past chair of the association’s Social Statistics Section and its Committee on Fellows.  In 2000, he received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the success of the 2000 Census.  From 2011 through 2013, Thompson served as a member of the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT) at the National Academy of Sciences. He participated in CNSTAT’s panel on the design of the 2010 Census Program of Evaluations and Experiments, and its panel to Review the 2010 Census.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in mathematics from Virginia Tech, and was recently inducted into the university’s College of Science Hall of Distinction.