2018 APDU Candidate Statements

Announcement
|

Candidate for President: Kevin McAvey, Senior Manager, Manatt Health

Bio:

Kevin advises states, healthcare providers, and payers on how to leverage public and private data to inform their most pressing policy and program goals.  Kevin relies upon public datasets – including data from Census, CMS, BLS, and BEA – on a daily basis, using it to build and implement models that predict the impact healthcare reform initiatives may have on coverage, payment, utilization, and costs.  Kevin has an M.S. in Applied Economics from Cornell University, an M.P.P from Georgetown University, and a B.A. from Colgate University.

Goals:

As APDU’s President, I will pursue three overarching goals:

1) Strengthen APDU’s brand as a national network that links users, producers, and disseminators of government statistic data;

2) Enhance APDU’s membership value by piloting new programs to connect and support member organizations; and

3) Increase APDU’s membership across the public and private sectors, bringing new voices to APDU.

Candidate for Vice President: Mary Jo Hoeksema, Director of Government Affairs, Population Association of America and Association of Population Centers

Bio:

Since January 2004, Mary Jo Hoeksema has been the Director of Government Affairs for the Population Association of America and Association of Population Centers.  In addition to representing PAA and APC, Ms. Hoeksema has co-directed The Census Project since 2008.  Prior to her position with PAA/APC, Ms. Hoeksema worked at the National Institutes of Health for approximately 10 years, as the Legislative Officer at the National Institute on Aging and as the Special Assistant to the Director of the NIH Office of Policy of Extramural Research Administration.  Ms. Hoeksema served as a Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and Legislative Correspondent for U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman.  Ms. Hoeksema has a Master of Public Administration from the George Washington University and is a former Presidential Management Fellow.

Candidate for At-Large Director: Susan Copella, Director, Pennsylvania State Data Center (PaSDC), Institute of State and Regional Affairs, Penn State Harrisburg

Bio:

Susan Copella is the Director of the Pennsylvania State Data Center (PaSDC), Institute of State and Regional Affairs at Penn State Harrisburg. She has worked at the PaSDC for over 27 years in various roles.  The last 17 years as Director.

The PaSDC was created by Executive Order in 1981 to be the official source of population and economic statistics for the commonwealth.  As such, she provides data and products and services to all sectors of the community including businesses, academia, governments, non-profits or citizens.  These services include data collection, data management, data analysis, visualization, research design, training and technology.

Susan is the Pennsylvania liaison to the Census Bureau for the State Data Center (SDC) and Business and Information Data Center (BIDC) programs as well as the Federal Cooperative on Population Estimates (FSCPE) and Projections (FSCPP) programs.  She is also a member of The Association of Public Data Users (APDU), ACS User Group and various state committees.

Some of the tasks she has accomplished in relationship with the Census Bureau include:

  • Beta tester for various data tools
  • Developed PUMA areas for Pennsylvania for both 2000 and 2010
  • Participated in Count Review for both 2000 and 2010 for Pennsylvania
  • Early participant for Count Review for 2020 for Pennsylvania
  • Currently serving on the APDU board.
  • Served on the Steering committees for the SDC, FSCPE and FSCPP
  • Continue to serve on subcommittees for both the SDC and the FSCPE
  • Review various Population Estimate files prior to release
  • Provide Census Bureau with input data used in development of the Population Estimates
  • Responsible for the developed of the Hands-on Census Training workshop. The workshop teaches students about census basics, geography, American Factfinder and other Census tools

Susan has extensive experience working with data.  She has over 35 years of experience in managing various data solution projects.  She manages projects from conception, execution and completion. This includes developing potential sponsor relationships, project leads, funding proposals and budgets.  Once projects are approved, she is involved in all project activities as well as being responsible for budget management and ensuring timely tasks completion within budget.

Prior to coming to the PaSDC, Sue worked as a Planner for both a County Planning and Regional Planning office in Pennsylvania.  During her time at those agencies she worked closely with local communities.

Goals:

  • To identify ways to increase membership in APDU. APDU is a great organization but I feel that we need to reach out to other public data users to have them join the group.
  • To use my background to help mentor new members.

Candidate for At-Large Director: Beth Jarosz, Senior Research Associate, Population Reference Bureau

Bio:

Beth is a Senior Research Associate at the Population Reference Bureau (PRB). At PRB, Beth works on a wide range of U.S. demographic topics, with a focus on subnational analysis and data visualization. Prior to joining PRB, she served as Senior Demographer at the San Diego Association of Governments and later taught sociology at Pensacola State College. Her publications are cross-disciplinary and span topics from inequality to mortality, as well as forecast and estimation methods—all have relied heavily on public data. She has been the social media content curator for the Southern Demographic Association for more than three years (growing the audience from 18 followers to more than 800). She is also active in the American Community Survey Data Users Group online community. Beth completed her master’s degree in Demographic and Social Analysis at the University of California, Irvine.

Goals:

I believe one of the challenges facing any member organization, including APDU, is engaging with members (and attracting new members) in an era of instantaneous communication. In addition to maintaining the valuable annual conference, I would work with the APDU Board and management group to brainstorm, test, and implement new communication channels and strategies to add value for existing members and (hopefully) attract new members.