AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement is the Association’s lifetime achievement award and is given for an outstanding contribution to the field of public opinion research, including advances in theory, empirical research, and methods; improvements in ethical standards; and promotion of understanding among the public, media and/or policymakers.
Nora Cate Schaeffer, Emerita at UW-Madison and the previous Faculty Director at the University of Wisconsin Survey Center, is an excellent example of what AAPOR stands for—she is an enormously curious intellectual interested in meaningfully understanding varying groups of people. In doing so, she has contributed significantly to how we understand, design, and conduct interviews, and the social science community has benefited greatly from her advancements. She is also an incredible leader with a steady hand through crises, whether it be building up the now-flourishing University of Wisconsin Survey Center or leading AAPOR through 2019-2020. Many in this room remember 2020 as a time when the world stood still, and that made our work even more pressing.
Nora’s seminal work on synthesizing conversational analysis with Stanley Presser in The Science of Asking Questions fundamentally changed how questionnaire design is considered. The inconsistency with which interviews were conducted had significant effects on responses, and few have studied this interviewer/interviewee dynamic as thoroughly as she has. Standardizing this process—especially for complex, sensitive, or cross-cultural topics—enables us all to yield more meaningful responses and, ultimately, understand each other better.
Nora’s charitable service record is almost as long and important as her academic career. Not only has she mentored countless students, but she has also served on an unusually high number of government committees, panels, and boards as well as being a leader in MAPOR, AAPOR, and ASA. She also served as an editorial board member of AAPOR’s flagship journals Public Opinion Quarterly (POQ) and Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology (JSSM). No one should be surprised when Nora’s application had an overwhelming number of signatories from giants in the field—including an endorsement from the late Don Dillman, Ph.D.
Ultimately, so much of social science is an exercise in empathy. To understand people, you have to meet them where they are, and that means being kind and approaching them without judgment. New data science and statistical techniques have allowed us to learn more about each other; however, no amount of data can fix or replace a poorly designed interview. Nora dedicated so much of her career to breaking down these barriers and was extremely generous in doing so—sharing her meticulously researched findings for the community’s benefit. AAPOR is honored to have a member like Nora Cate Schaeffer among our community, and we hope this award inspires others to be as impactful as she has been to the community at large.
For all of her extraordinary contributions to public opinion and survey research, the American Association for Public Opinion Research is pleased to present the 2025 AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement to Nora Cate Schaeffer.
Congratulations, Nora Cate, from all of us at UWSC!
