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NORC at the University Chicago

Kate Bachtell

Principal Research Director
Economics, Justice & Society
Kate is a principal director of large-scale, multi-mode data collection projects and an analyst trained in both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Kate directs large-scale, multi-mode research projects and leads data education using both quantitative and qualitative methods. She has guided the methodological evolution of some of the most prominent and longstanding studies in the U.S. social sciences, including the General Social Survey, Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), and National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR). She has over 20 years of experience managing questionnaire design, cognitive testing, interviewer training, participant recruitment, survey data collection, in-depth interviewing, data review, and data harmonization activities. Kate also has 16 years of experience conducting community-based, longitudinal research focused on child and family well-being. Her recent methodological research focuses on monetary incentives and adaptive survey design.

Kate leads a portfolio of longitudinal and cross-sectional studies that provide insights into financial change over time. She is currently assistant projector director for data capture, quality, & analytics for the 2025 SCF, sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The SCF data inform a wide variety of economic policy decisions across the government and research on the economic state of the American family.

Kate formerly served as project director for the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. For this study, NORC conducted more than 200,000 interviews across four waves on behalf of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and 16 state wildlife agencies. Kate was also associate project director for the Making Connections Survey, a 10-year study of low-income communities funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Following survey data collection, Kate provided technical assistance and mentoring to external users of longitudinal datasets and coordinated research awards with three cohorts of longitudinal data users.

Project Contributions

Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)

The only fully representative source of data on the financial condition of US households

Client:

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Survey of Fishing, Hunting & Wildlife-Associated Recreation

Streamlining, economizing, and increasing the reach of a venerable national survey

Client:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies

Publications

Research Library & Findings