Felicia LeClere Honored with NORC’s Norman Bradburn Career Achievement Award
CHICAGO, December 18, 2023 — NORC at the University of Chicago has proudly named Felicia LeClere, distinguished senior fellow in Health Sciences, as the 2023 recipient of the Norman Bradburn Career Achievement Award. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to social science research and methodology throughout their career and while working for NORC.
LeClere is a nationally recognized survey methodology expert with a distinguished career of over 30 years in survey design, public health research, and data dissemination. Since joining NORC in 2010, she has been critical to the success of a broad array of projects. She also has been central to several enterprise project wins, most notably the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), for which she has been the architect of a modernization effort since NORC won the survey in 2014.
“Felicia LeClere embodies the collaborative approach that defines NORC. Like Norman Bradburn, Felicia is known for her willingness to take smart risks, question the status quo, and push the boundaries of innovation, even in challenging circumstances,” said Dan Gaylin, president and chief executive officer of NORC at the University of Chicago. “She is a true visionary whose contributions have helped shape the landscape of social science research.”
“Felicia LeClere embodies the collaborative approach that defines NORC. Like Norman Bradburn, Felicia is known for her willingness to take smart risks, question the status quo, and push the boundaries of innovation, even in challenging circumstances,”
LeClere has also been pivotal to NORC’s work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and most recently the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). She helped establish the NORC Data Governance Board, serving as its first chair for four years. She was instrumental in launching the General Social Survey (GSS) Data Explorer and then working on Version 2.0, released in 2022. She also played an important role in helping NORC land and launch the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Connect Study, for which she developed critical elements of the proposal and led key post-award activities, collaborating with senior staff at NCI who sought her expertise.
“I am truly honored to receive the Norman Bradburn Career Achievement Award,” LeClere said. “This recognition is not just a reflection of my efforts but a celebration of the collaborative spirit and support that defines NORC’s work. Norman’s legacy of excellence and dedication in research inspired me to continue pushing boundaries and make a positive, meaningful impact in the world.”
Before joining NORC, LeClere served as director of the Laboratory of Social Research at the University of Notre Dame where she collaborated on large NIH grants to study child abuse and was a co-investigator of an effort spearheaded by the University of Minnesota to harmonize and disseminate the National Health Interview Survey from 1969 through the present. In 2005, LeClere joined the research faculty of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, where she headed three data archives including those focused on demographic research, drug abuse and addiction and research data from diverse populations for the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). While at ICPSR, she led efforts to systematize access to restricted data and approaches to data governance and helped lead an effort to harmonize 50 years of data from the National Survey of Family Growth.
LeClere received her PhD from The Pennsylvania State University.
“This recognition is not just a reflection of my efforts but a celebration of the collaborative spirit and support that defines NORC’s work. Norman’s legacy of excellence and dedication in research inspired me to continue pushing boundaries and make a positive, meaningful impact in the world.”
About the Norman Bradburn Award
This highly selective award is named for Norman Bradburn, widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost social psychologists. Bradburn worked at the forefront in developing theory and practice in the field of sample survey research. Currently a distinguished senior fellow at NORC, he previously served as director of NORC and president of our Board of Trustees. He is a long-time faculty member at the University of Chicago, where he is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus. For more than five decades, his career has encompassed the highest levels of accomplishment in research and scholarship, teaching, university administration, and public service. Bradburn continues to inspire, mentor, and challenge social scientists both at NORC and throughout the field.
About NORC at the University of Chicago
NORC at the University of Chicago conducts research and analysis that decision-makers trust. As a nonpartisan research organization and a pioneer in measuring and understanding the world, we have studied almost every aspect of the human experience and every major news event for more than eight decades. Today, we partner with government, corporate, and nonprofit clients around the world to provide the objectivity and expertise necessary to inform the critical decisions facing society.
Contact: For more information, please contact Eric Young at NORC at young-eric@norc.org or (703) 217-6814 (cell).