John Abowd is an executive senior advisor for the Research and Methodology Directorate and is the former associate director for research and methodology, and chief scientist, a position he held from June 2016 to October 2022.  The Research and Methodology Directorate leads critical work to modernize our operations and products. 

He is currently leading the agency’s efforts to create a differentially private disclosure avoidance system for the 2020 Census and future data products. His long association with the Census Bureau began in 1998 when he joined the team that helped found the longitudinal employer-household dynamics program. In 2008, he led the team that created the world’s first application of a differentially private data protection system for the program’s OnTheMap job location tool. Abowd is also the Edmund Ezra Day Professor emeritus of economics, statistics, and data science at Cornell University. He is a fellow and past president of the Society of Labor Economists. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Statistical Association, and Econometric Society, as well as an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago and A.B. in economics from the University of Notre Dame.

Janet Currie is a pioneer in the economic analysis of child development and the co-director of the Program on Families and Children at the National Bureau of Economic Research.  She has used a wide range of data in research focusing on socioeconomic differences in health and access to health care, environmental threats to health, child mental health, and the long-run impact of early life health.  Currie is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and President-Elect of the American Economic Association and has served on the NAS Committee on National Statistics. 

During her tenure, Ms. Wallman fostered improvements in the scope and quality of the Nation’s official statistics, set standards for the Federal statistical establishment, increased collaboration among the agencies of the U.S. statistical system, strengthened protections for confidential statistical information, and initiated changes that have made the products of the system more accessible to data users. Currently retired, she continues to contribute, particularly with respect to principles, policies, and priorities for federal statistical agencies.  Wallman has served as the president of the American Statistical Association (1992) and chair of the United Nations Statistical Commission (2004-2005). She is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute.